Sorry I haven't blogged for a few days but my hostel was officially in the middle of nowhere. By officially I mean that the only means of communication with the outside world (short of heading to the nearest town) was a payphone. Somehow I coped for 3 days with no Internet and no cellphone. Admittedly I have no one to contact via my cellphone, but that is irrelevant.
Anyway I'm back in civilization now (San Francisco) for one night before I go back to Santa Barbara for a few days.
When I got on my bus and headed up north to a place called Arcata (pronounced Arcade-a) I hadn't actually booked anywhere to stay despite the fact that my bus was supposed to get in at 9.50pm in the evening (in actual fact it was closer to 11.15) because there are only motels in Arcata and the cheapest was $60 per night. The accommodation for my hostel up north for 3 nights cost that much! I had deliberately put off booking in the hope of finding somewhere cheaper. Luck was on my side and when I asked a girl from Arcata where the cheapest place to spend the night was she offered me a bed (or more accurately floor and sleeping bag) for the night. It was so sweet of her, this is the king of thing that just wouldn't happen in England, you don't open your house to strangers, but this 17 year old University student did. So instead of spending $60 I spent $0, bargain!
The only downside (and considering I got free accommodation I can't really complain) was that I had to leave when she did - 7.30am (classes start far too early over here). My bus didn't leave till 10.10am so I had 2 and a half hours to fill. Thankfully on the way to the bus station I found a Safeway and was able to occupy myself for a while. The actual shopping part was dull but trying to communicate with the shop assistant certainly wasn't. I realised I had no cash and so tried to get money out of an ATM but it didn't like my British card. This got me understandably scared, this was the first time I'd tried to use my card and it hadn't worked, I could well be without cash till my American bank card came through. I asked the cashier if there was another ATM near by and she told me to try the "bake", it honestly sounded like "bake" and I was wandering whether Bake sales in America had advanced so far as to give cash back. The lack of understanding on my part continued for quiet a while until I suddenly understood her, she meant "bank". She looked at her co-worker and said, "She's from England," as if it explained everything, which unfortunately it did.
After finding a "bake" and successfully retrieving money I then made my way to the bus station and sat and waited for two uneventful hours.
Finally my bus arrived and I discovered that I was the only passenger. My bus driver acted like my personal tour guide, pointing out 3 lagoons, an Elk and a section of a trunk of a tree that was felled to make way for the highway when it was 1000 years old. Eventually more passengers jumped on and it got so full that my backpack had to be placed on my lap and someone had to sit on someone else's lap. I was quite grateful when my bus dropped me off outside my hostel.
When I got inside the quaint looking hostel I was informed that I was a whole 4 hours early and would have to leave. I was allowed to leave my bags, make myself lunch and was given directions of a short hike. After crossing a dried up creek and walking half a mile north I found nothing to see so walked south down the highway to the front of the hostel where I crossed over and found possibly the most beautiful coastline I have ever seen, just in front of the hostel. The sand was grey and the surf battered the coast line and some of the rocks that were arrayed close to the shore. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I looked at the map and saw that I had to follow the coastal trail and was grateful to be able to continue looking at the sea. I had to scramble over at least a mile of rocks because I was so transfixed by the sea that I missed the trail that I was supposed to be walking on. I almost sprained my ankle too many times to count, thank God I'm young and limber because I did not see a soul for my entire rock scramble, a good hour and a half (I sat down and took in the surroundings a lot).
I eventually reached my destination - hidden beach a lovely beach hidden from any view but the sea. I watched cormorants and what I thought were seagulls (in fact Willets) for quite a while. When I tried to find the path that I should have been on I couldn't see it at all - there seemed to be no let up in the foliage that surrounds the beach. Eventually I saw what could be construed as a path and clambered over a couple of metres of driftwood (seriously, there was an awful lot of driftwood, or to be precise - drift-trees). The trail that I should have originally followed hid most of the views of the sea, which was very sad but I eventually found a bench where I could see the sea and sat down and read to use up the rest of the time before I was allowed to get into the hostel.
The evening was fairly uneventful, the hostel seemed to be mostly full of middle aged women who went to bed really early and got up really early. There were a few people to talk to - a Self-published author called Jai and a night owl called Elliot. I went to bed at what I consider to be a fairly early hour (11.30am), but the other two talked to the early hours.
The next day after being the last to wake up (9.30am - my longest lie-in in the US yet!) Jai and I headed in her car to the Redwood national park to try and see some REALLY BIG trees. Seriously, the redwood firs are huge, the tallest is about 380ft and they have been known to live 3700 years. We didn't see any that big, but they were still crane-your-neck-and-you still-can't-see-the-top-of-them big. I was disturbed to see that the visitors centre offered a nature drive - why yes you can spend a leisurely Sunday morning driving behind the rangers. Why would you want to go around in a car? You can't touch them, you can't see the top of them, you can't pose for silly photos next to them. Strange Americans.
Earlier in the day I had felt "the call of nature" in the middle of the forest, no restrooms nearby, so what can a girl do except squat? S I did this and after all was said and done realised I'd managed to pee down my leg, despite best efforts otherwise. Thankfully it dried quickly and humans couldn't smell it. Notice the word humans - dogs could, in the statutory gift shop I had a dog follow me around, wonder if the same works for men? Pee on yourself and adoring men will follow you everywhere. Don't think I'll be trying it anytime soon.
When we got back to the hostel we met a an Aussie who spent the early evening entertaining us disbelievers with magic tricks. We did not believe that his cards were unmarked (we were correct) and so found him a pack of cards from the games cabinet. Unfortunately he was still able to do the trick. He was very good at patter and was most amusing. By far his most impressive trick however was his ability to play dead, for some unknown reason he had taught himself to remain perfectly still and could hold a pose for apparently up to one and a half hours at a time, before suddenly unfreezing and shouting "Bwahh!" at us.
There were some little (but as we later discovered quite terrifying) kids staying at the hostel and he took it upon himself to amuse them (and us) with magic trick such as multiplying balls, balls moving hands, etc. He also decided to play dead and for over an hour they abused him, they pulled him off the chair, stood on his bottom and most terrifyingly pulled his legs up to 90 degrees (he was on his back) and rode them. It looked most dodgy but none of us adults could think of a way to easily stop them and anyway, we were too busy laughing. Eventually the kids went to bed and we ignored the magician, he got bored of the fact that he was no longer the centre of attention and soon reanimated. Soon after this I went to bed, and yet again lots of middle aged ladies were snoring at an early hour.
Yesterday was my last full day and I decided to go for a long (10 mile) hike by myself. I left before 9am and a thick fog was covering the ground, this is a regular occurence in California and I assumed it would clear quickly enough, unfortunately it didn't and after hiking the steep 4 miles to Klamath overlook (the view over the estuary of the second biggest river in California) I could hardly see a bloody thing. I could just make out some boats that I think may have been Native American (I was in serious Native American territory, most people I talked to informed me they were a Yurok Indian), but I couldn't tell. So I ended up walking back. I did however see lots of little snakes disappearing into grass at my approach and I heard some Sea Lions, but no, didn't see them either.
On my way back I made a detour to a roadside attraction called "Trees of Mystery" outside there was a big fibreglass lumberjack that talked and a big blue bull (that was disappointingly silent). For a mere $13.50 I could go and see their private redwoods and take a cable car ride above them, or for free I could go to their museum and gift shop, guess what I chose to do! The museum had loads of Native American artifacts but didn't explain much about them, if I was lucky they told me what they were, but not what they did. Most disappointing. The gift shop was even worse, loads of horrible ornaments and boxes made of redwood but no Religious Artifacts or something I might actually want. I walked back to the hostel most disappointed, a day with no view or tacky momento.
Throughout my time at the Redwood hostel I saw a scary number of RVs (or motor home to us English) and they are huge, all your creature comforts come along with you, no need to rough it without a hairdryer or dishwasher. Some even tow big pickup trucks (and boats!) behind them. They frequently pull over to pretty spots such as the beach in front of my hostel and sit inside the RV and take in the view, lots don't even get out unless its for a roadside attraction (there are plenty outside Trees of Mystery). Or take the necessary photo and then leave, they rarely seem to bother actually looking around properly. Its very sad, not the way to see the country at all.
This morning I left very early (7.40am), but almost did not. Magician guy and I phoned the bus company as they requested to tell them to request a pick up and then stood by the side of the highway awaiting the bus. Despite knowing that all we really needed to do was stand there I hailed it, just in case it didn't realise we wanted it. Unfortunately it didn't break and wasn't until I waved my arms madly and jumped up and down that it slammed the breaks on and came to a halt 10 meters from where we were. If we'd have missed that bus we'd have missed the greyhound, which is the only one everyday. Thankfully we were soon seated and went off, elk spotting along the way. The rest of the journey to San Francisco was uneventful, but long. I made the mistake of wearing my new shoes on the journey in an attempt to wear them in and for my troubles managed to earn two big rubs on the back of my feet, which if there was any skin left would turn into lovely big blisters. Flip flops for the next few days for me then.
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