The walking dead

The early starts and busy days are starting to take their toll on our group.

Many people this morning complained of cold like symptoms; Mr A and I both felt a bit stuffy nosed (I actually had a nosebleed too). I'm dozing on the coach too, which is something I never do, so I know I'm tired.

I'm still glad we decided to travel this way, as I'm pretty sure we would have jibbed out of seeing some things in favour of more sleep if we had been doing a self drive.

Today we drove along the Tioga Pass, up to an elevation of 9945 feet, the highest point we will visit on this trip, and higher than yesterday's below sea level stop!

We had a lovely walk through the forest (watching out for bears) and down to Tenaya Lake. This was a really pretty, peaceful place. It would be great for kayaking :-)

We dropped down the other side of the pass, into Yosemite National Park. Due to the time of year, the waterfalls are dry, which was a shame.
We saw the peaks of Half Dome & El Capitan.

Lunch was a picnic in the forest, where we were joined by squirrels and a couple of crows. There are signs saying not to feed the wildlife but it's obvious they do as the squirrels were quite confident scavenging for food.
We even saw one wait by the door of the cafe until someone went inside, then it sneaked in, grabbed some scraps off the floor and back out again the next time the door opened!

After lunch, we had a 2 hour walk around the park, where we saw more squirrels, bluejays and a praying mantis.

Tonight we are staying in Modesto; famous as the home of George Lucas. Quite a bit of the landscape we've seen has been used in the Star Wars films.

Today's blip is of Tenaya Lake; I think it's the nicest place we saw today.
I'm taking so many photos; I've brought my compact camera along too and have been experimenting with macro's and angles, just for fun.
I've got some great shots (it helps when your other half is a cameraman and can offer tips!) it's a shame I can't put them all on blip. I will put them on flickr when we are home :-)