In Fort Bragg I awoke at somewhere around five in the morning and it was still raining. By the time we left the sun was out and it was beautiful. We even decided to retrace our steps from the previous day. Of course, it was all just so different. The seascapes and the magnificence of this Californian coastline opened out before us.
We had wonderful weather all the way up the coast and then we got to the point were the ‘Shoreline Highway’ definitively leaves the ‘shoreline’. We had a beautiful drive through some big redwood forests and then came to the end of C1 at its junction with Highway 101 at Legget.
This was now our new road north.
Somewhere along the 101 you had the option to take ‘The Avenue of the Giants’. It is what was just the original highway, and we are all for avoiding the bypasses. This was some thirty-odd miles of the most incredible road we had ever travelled. This road had chosen to weave itself through this immense valley of gigantic trees. Twisting and turning to their will, some of them bearing the scars of an incident with someone in a hurry, perhaps before the 101 was constructed. I am pretty sure that they did cut down some pretty magnificient trees to make their way through this majestic forest, but it didn’t feel like that. As we rounded curves with giant trees almost standing in our way, it felt more like this highway had been threaded through this mighty forest, just passing the giants. Sometimes they seemed to protrude onto the the highway, making you glad that you hadn’t met someone coming the other way.
As we turned inland, the weather started to deteriorate again. The new sunshine we had started off with in Sonoma quickly vanished. The weather on our time among ‘The Redwoods’ were pretty grey. By the time we rejoined the 101 it was just like back in San Francisco. Luckily, however, the road into Crescent City wasn’t six lanes wide and I arrived here in a much happier state than I had in San Francisco.
We looked at the weather map and guess what: the weather looks like shite until just the day before we get to Seattle. This morning the rain is lashing against our motel room. We haven’t yet put our route into Google for today, so we are yet to see if it will be feasible!
On our return Scotland might not look just as bleak after all!
