The Heat of the Moment

We arrived this morning (Thursday 9th August) just before 2am in the end.  It was a killer journey and last hour was very slow with windy roads. As a result, I was the co pilot barking out the 'left hand corner followed by right hand u bend' advice while Emily drove the course. It was so difficult to keep eyes open as I was so tired from driving most of the journey having not been able to sleep when Em had taken over.  Em was much better than me thankfully.

Once we'd arrived I realised this is where I stayed with mum, dad and the girls years ago! It certainly took a while to find our tent in the dark. I say tent, but this here is more what Emily calls 'glamping' as we have a real bed.  We're expecting Joey Essex (aka Chris T) to turn up in his orange UGG boots any minute, with his smart car.  

Once we did find our 'tent', we had to separate all food and toiletries and put them in the 'bear proof' or seemingly 'Emily proof' locker outside our tent. Even water has to go in there.  We trudged down to the toilet block and did our teeth etc too.

We got to bed by 3am and fell into a deep sleep.

- - - - - -

This morning we got breakfast just before 10am which was a large buffet. Good selection including fresh fruit and we ate quite a bit. Then we stopped by the on site grocery store to get supplies for the walk.

The walk - well, our plan was to walk the Valley Floor Loop which is a 13mile round trip.  It soon became clear after one hour that due to the heat and the amount of water we'd need (we only had 1.5litres) we might not be able make it all the way. It was over 100 Fahrenheit and that made it tough going.  However, the scenery is breathtaking, and we were even walking through a kind of meadow at one point - beautiful.  

After four miles we reached the 'El Capitan Bridge', named as such because you can see El Capitan from there.  We were knackered and had now consumed enough water (despite drinking quite a bit before leaving) to signal we should be turning round.  We rested there in the slightly more bearable shade for about fifteen minutes. There were a lot of people who'd rather sensibly decided not to walk today and were enjoying the river, paddling and sunbathing on the shores (I'd never associated Yosemite with the beach, but whatever floats your boat I guess).

Suddenly there were shrieks and a hum drum of excitement. It turns out that a black bear was swimming down river towards us. Very exciting. People were being quite crazy and shouting with excitement. Plus, rather than following the general advice for black bears, people seemed to be getting in closer and almost surrounding it.  Anyway, the bear (which looked more like a cub than a fully grown bear; it was about the size of a big dog) got out the water and buggered off into the woods. No small children were eaten and the excitement died down.

We left after this and headed back for the camp. It took a while to get back in the heat, and when we did we were knackered. We flopped into the cafe and got some icy slush puppy type drinks, topped up on water and drank copious amounts, and ate the lunch we'd brought for the hike.  After some time, we then had a look around the Ansel Adams gallery (famous landscape photographer, particularly famous for his work on Yosemite and the other national parks). One of the prints was $30k!

We headed back to our tent and then hit the showers - much needed refreshment.

- - - - - -

We're now sitting waiting for our laundry to finish washing. Then we're going to get some much needed dinner and perhaps a cocktail.  I'm sure we'll fall into a deep sleep tonight!