Arid

Last night I spent the night in a tiny wooden lodge near Kern River, it felt like the sort of place which not many Europeans go to when visiting the U.S. It was a peaceful place and the sunset from the verandah was very calming, there were blue jay and woodpeckers making lots of noise an an incredibly green bird whose identity remians a mystery really caught my eye. Ate at a local brewery where the food was delicious but hot and I was so tired I managed to burn my mouth! Ooopps. I'm still not relaxing after all that study and my mind is racing with all sorts of things when I am alert, it is odd, dreamlike, like part of me is somewhere else altogether. . .

On the short walk back to the lodge last night I spotted what appeared to be a tarantula on the gravel walkway, not great when wearing open toed sandals. I've been trying to identify if it was maybe something else and found a website on Californian spiders but I haven't come up with a better explanation. The lodge was in a lovely position but the air conditioning and fan were amazingly loud (no exaggeration) and I needed to resort to ear plugs for the first time in my life. During the night the phone in the room kept ringing, approximately every hour or so from midnight onwards. I didn't answer it and it's wasn't too annoying as I had earplugs in but it was super weird and if I hadn't been so exhausted it would have been a little scary.

Saw a proper eagle (white head, stern looking like the serious one off the muppets and with bright yellow legs too) fly over the car today, that was a first that I loved. Drove along the backroads for about 5 hours through miles of orange groves, really interesting to see what the workers were getting up to and how happy or not they looked, it seems to be a place where the working conditions vary lots. They seem to put a foil down under the trees when they are working on them, not sure why that is.

Had lunch/ dinner combination at Bass Lake which is just outside Yosemite and caught the sun on my arms a bit too much. Now settled at the B&B where the other guests are from Germany. Hoping for a day of walking tomorrow and fresh air. This relaxation stuff really needs to kick in soon please.

There is a major drought here at the moment and it is super hot so not sure how much that will affect things tomorrow. . .

This picture is to show the arid conditions in Sequoia National Forest. Parts of the forset had been extensively damaged by fires and there is concern that they are in extreme danger of experiencing more over the summer. I found the landscape shapes here interesting.