Second entry

Time is flying and so are the fecking mosquitoes. Actually they’re not too bad since they don’t carry malaria, dengue fever, zika virus etc. Yet. We’ve now racked up a whopping 3000kms in, around, up and down the States.

Our adventure took a sinking turn immediately after leaving off last time. In the attempt to fulfill a longstanding* dream to drive on the sand one of us (no names need be mentioned) got the van immediately stuck up to his oily bits. Many lessons were learnt, these will be shared via bullet points:

• Don’t drive a 2wd 2300kg house on wheels slowly into soft sand.
• Whilst the embarrassment may be more pronounced on a busy beach, it’s worthwhile suffering through this as you await a Jeep to tow you out. And then a Chevy Suburban later when you get stuck again on the way off the beach.
• Our custom bumper towing eyes, shackle and tow strap WORK. Good to know, good to know.

*3 minute standing to be accurate. The time between seeing cars on the beach and being… in the beach.

The coast continues to be haunted by a cold fog drawn in off the ocean. Why suffer mild coldness when you can chase the sunshine? So we set sail towards the deepest lake in the whole world, or maybe the USA, or perhaps just Oregon how do we remember without Wikipedia? Crater Lake, something like 1100ft deep with the water surface level around 7000ft. You google it. 

Behold! Oh, smoke. Well you can see what it’s meant to look like from our lofty 8000ft vantage point.  We hiked down to the rocky shores of what turned out to be the most perfect water. Crystal clear, a deep blue hue and not a single disturbance on the surface. After a refreshing and relaxing swim, we refilled our water bottles and headed back up making friends with Alvin on the way.

Our journey cutting back to the coast took us along a picturesque river with a short drive through smoke thicker than you’d find in a 60’s bar full of extremely stressed chain smokers who had left their chip pans unattended.

We bumbled our way down a side trail and found a camping spot right on the water with plenty of time for a swim, watching fish leap for bugs before settling down the night with the usual chorus of crickets.

Next day, another huge change in scenery as we enter redwood country in Northern California. There is no doubt about it, these trees are MASSIVE, but you don’t really realise how massive until you go back to normal trees and they seem puny. There are approximately one million hikes through the redwood forests, we did half of one.

Further down the coast we spent our first night out the van in Arcata, enjoying the company of fellow Vanagon owners whom we met in episode 1 (remember? Talk about continuity). After a great evening discussing everything Vanagon and Mexico, we concluded that we really should be learning Spanish by now. Thanks again for doing our laundry!

Bored yet?

We finally found the limits of the VW engineered brakes, cooking them on our way into a funky retreat town named Shelter Cove. Descending a gorgeous mountain road, 2000ft in 4 miles, that lovely smell started to fill the cabin. The dementor fog still clinging to coast we took some photos of the big waves and black sand and took lifesaving shelter in the town’s brewery pub. Phew, that was a close one!!

With the help of the kind local gift shop runnerer we made camp in the hills, with the hammock finally making an appearance Jenjen inadvertently practiced her kung-fu/yoga/football diving skills.

California has proven much harder to find decent free camping spots, with car park style parallel spaces near the beach costing as much as 70 dollars per night we’ve had to become quite imaginative in searching out our boondocking locations. It might be partly due to the fact that every single square inch/2.54cm²  is taken up by grapes, grapes and big posh fancypants wineries. If ever you are looking at wines and you think to yourself, ohhhh the Californian one is more expensive it must be better, you’re wrong. It’s because they need more money to build even fancier gates on their mansions.

Our toughest camping search took us two hours in this area, up dusty forest roads and into seemingly promising parks to be rudely met by an attendant at a kiosk demanding hotel money for a grassy patch to park on. It did make for a nice sunset, a dusty van and an eventual winning location off the road under some of the famous redwoods.

 

Tune in next time for more wacky adventures poorly written from the back of an old but epic vanahome. The updated map of our travels can be found below:

Updated map link as promised above

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TTT - Top Travelling Tips

• Free wifi: we have recently become a bigger fan of McDonald's in our travels and it was not the discovery of the $1.89 "Value Pick Menu". We have spent numerous times sitting in our home on wheels researching and connecting outside of such joints. Starbucks and Walmart also goodies for free connection! 
• Dollar Stores: anyone who knows me (Jenjen!) knows I have a small fetish for stores of the dollar. Can you believe more so now? Compact necessities like laundry detergent and soaps for limited home space as well as outdated bestseller novels for a single dollar. It's as though we are MAKING money on our travels!
• Living in a Westy: it's like a secret club we have entered. Everyone in fellow Volkswagen vans gives us a friendly wave on the highway. We have made "Westy Friends" resulting in anything from small chats and van discussions to being invited to homes and staying the night with amazing company. It's unbelievable.

BEHIND THE WHEEL

And now, just as with any good British Documentary, we focus on what makes this footage possible. As you read this, it should be done in the voice of Sir David Attenborough, softly, quietly and with an air of distraction as if one is deep in thought about the majesty of it all.

This van you see before you has been through some tough times, struggling to survive on the ever changing road. The vehicle is far from its original habitat in search of new adventures despite human interference.  Some rocks have proven too big, and the vulnerable sump has been scraped and bent but continues to hold oil due to some mad skilled welding by not us.

Wild silicone gasket had found its way into the very heart of the engine, the oil filter check valve, letting precious oil seep away in the night causing quite alarming knocking sounds upon start-up and worrying amounts of metal swarf accumulating in the oil. Only time will tell how long this engine will last…

But the roads have been soaked up, mountains conquered, squirrels dodged. One hopes that humanity will learn lessons from the struggles of this poor creature and his companions, whose challenges are still in their infancy.