I had chosen this campground not least because it was near to the Butchart Gardens, an amazing place which had been a quarry, and had been gradually turned into beautiful botanic gardens. I had read about and seen pictures of the place a long time before, and so I had made sure that my itinerary included the place. It was one of the sights I was most looking forward to seeing. After another brief visit to the beach next to the campground, I headed off to drive a quarter of an hour to the gardens, to get there for the 9am opening.

There was a lot of parking, including a separate RV parking lot which I was directed to. There was plenty of space at that time on a Tuesday morning. I went in, and – well I had high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed. Coming in, there were lovely arrangements even by the visitor centre, and mixed plantings that had been done very tastefully. It was clear that a lot of work and maintenance went into the gardens, and there were quite a few people working on it as I walked around.

The gardens were large, with a number of sub-gardens with different styles. I headed to the sunken garden, which looked as though it had probably been the original quarry. There was a lookout at the top before you descended into it. The sun was too low to be shining directly on it yet, but the huge drifts of plantings of colourful flowers were amazing to see, including variegated impatiens growing out in the sun and looking healthy. I wished I could get them to grow like that!

There was a lookout in the middle, a raised stone formation, almost like an island sticking up towards the level of the surrounding ground, from the sunken part. At the far side of this garden was an amazing fountain that kept changing, with a lot of different jets that would move around, sometimes spurting way up, and other times waving around in interesting patterns.

I walked around to see some of the other gardens, including the roses, and the Japanese garden, which had a bit of a rainforest look to it, like the ones on the Olympic Peninsula. The gardens weren’t crowded, though there were quite a few people around. The gardens touch onto the sea, and from one spot you can look out onto a bay. There’s a jetty there but it was closed and I couldn’t go down there. I guess sometimes boats come in there, maybe tour boats.

The Italian garden was very manicured and organised, with an ice-cream shop in it with a lot of flavours, so I enjoyed one while I was there. I had toured pretty much all of the garden, and still had a bit of time left. I had budgeted for about three and three quarter hours there. So I visited the sunken garden again, seeing it with the sun shining on it this time. The Lord had blessed me with a perfect sunny day for seeing the gardens.

From there I drove about half an hour to the ferry terminal at the northern end of Victoria Island, which was to go through to Vancouver on the mainland. I had booked the van in on the ferry as 18’, but now I had been upgraded to a 20’ van. They charged me a few dollars extra apologetically. I had rung ahead to make sure that there would be no issues with a longer vehicle, but was glad everything went smoothly. I made some lunch while parked waiting for the ferry.

The hour and a half ferry trip was an adventure in itself, winding through quite a lot of different islands as it went across to the mainland. Sometimes the ferry sounded the horn as it went through some narrow strait, presumably to avoid running into something coming the other way! The views were beautiful, of the wooded islands and mountains in the distance. After a while we got out into the open and headed for Vancouver. I was on the outdoor deck as usual, and people were on the lookout for whales I think. Someone had pointed out something, and people went to look, but it seemed to be a false alarm.

My aunt Heather had suggested that I could meet with a couple who were friends of hers, who lived there. Hannah had visited our family in Adelaide some years back, and had gone to Heather’s church for a while I think, and had married Andrew, a pastor. They had lived in Calgary, and had recently moved to Vancouver, where he was pastoring a church in the suburbs.

They were really nice, and Hannah found a place I could park the van in the suburbs, where there was free parking on the road near a park, and it seemed a safe place. I had suggested some places I was interested in seeing, and she had compiled a bit of an itinerary of what she thought might fit in the time available. They hadn't had a chance to do a lot of sightseeing in Vancouver either, so many of the sights were new to them too.

The ferry arrived around 3.30, then I headed to the rendezvous place, plagued a bit by heavy traffic in places. It was around 4.30 by the time I got there, then we met and headed into Vancouver to see a bit of the city. We all chatted as they drove. The centre of the city didn’t seem to have much traffic, which surprised me, on a weekday at 5pm. We had a hunt for a car park, and I spotted one on the street near where we were going.

They showed me the famous steam clock, about the size of a grandfather clock, but run on steam, apparently very old. Then they went off to buy some dinner, while I went up the Vancouver Tower, where you could go up in one of the high buildings and get views around the city. For a tourist trap it wasn’t very expensive. We had a bit of a job finding it, as it was within a kind of shopping mall. Once we found the way up, I went up and spent around half an hour looking around the 360 degree view over the city, hills and harbour. It was a good way to see the city.

From there we headed to Stanley Park, a headland right next to the CBD, which juts out into the sea, and is all parkland. We stopped at Prospect Point lookout, which offered a great view over the sea and a bridge across an arm of the sea that separated most of the city from a smaller set of suburbs to the north. Lighthouse Park had been recommended online, and we drove there, and there were some views, but a lot of it was blocked out by trees. I wanted to see Howe Sound, and Hannah had found a marina a bit of a way along, where we could get a view of it. It was around sunset by then, and it was very beautiful, with the sea and layers of mountains in the distance.

We were finishing up with a visit to Cypress Lookout, on our way back from the marina. We’d figured that with the limited time, that was something we could do after dark, and see the lights of the city. It was just on dark when we got there, around 8.30, and it was very pretty. It was then I mentioned to them that I needed to get to Edgewater Bar campground where I was booked in, by 10pm, because it closed then. I had no idea how far away from it we were, until they looked a bit worried! They Googled how long it would take to get back to where I was parked, then for me to drive to the campground (which was a bit out of town), and it said I would get there at exactly 10pm! The Lord provided a backup plan though. They said if I didn’t make it, Andrew’s church was in a suburb only about 20 minutes from there, and I could park the van in the car park there.

So we set back as fast as we could, and said quick goodbyes and I drove to the campground. I found a campground that was not far from where Google said it would be (the actual spot Google had marked didn’t have much of anything). I arrived at about 10.01pm! The campground had a different name, and was firmly locked with no one there, and a sign saying it closed at 8. This was very confusing. I drove around a bit to see if there was another campground nearby, but there wasn’t anything to be found. Anyway that was all I could do at that stage. So I let Andrew and Hannah know, and headed to the church parking lot.

They gave me the address, and I found what I thought was the church, but the gates were locked. I spoke to them again, and after a while we worked out that I was at the church next door, there were two next to each other. I got settled in the car park, and finally got to bed, maybe 11.30 or so. It was a big day!

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I had booked a ferry from Port Angeles over to Victoria Island in Canada, leaving at 8.30am, and I had to be there by 7.20. So I aimed to leave by about 6.30, which entailed getting up very early! I just got ready and left, and then made breakfast when I got to the ferry terminal parking – one of the handy things about having everything onboard! It was still fairly misty and cool.

The trip was pleasant, and took about an hour and a half. I spent most of it on the open deck rather than inside, enjoying the lovely views. I had a nice chat with a few people, who were interested in my trip. It started to get more sunny as we went across.

I was one of the first cars off the ferry, perhaps because I had got there early, and so there wasn’t much of a line up to go through customs, which was great. We just waited in line to drive through one of the booths. The attendant didn’t ask anything about the food I had – there were just questions about cannabis, firearms, tobacco and things like that. I was glad to be able to get all my food supplies through. This was the first time I had been in the country of my birth in nearly 40 years, and it was a nice feeling to be there.

I was planning on driving a loop around some coastal areas of the island, prior to visiting the famous Butchart Gardens the following day. I could have visited them on the Monday, but it was still a long weekend, at least in the US, and I think Canada too, and I thought they might be more crowded. Once out of the ferry I was into the town of Victoria, and about the second intersection I got to I needed to turn left, and I got a flashing green arrow. I had no idea what a flashing green arrow was – I was used to flashing yellow arrows by then, saying you could turn but had to give way to traffic, and I wondered if I had to give way to someone.

A car behind me tooted me as I hesitated, so I figured I had right of way! I found out later that it meant that there might be pedestrians crossing, but I had right of way so car as cars were concerned. There were also flashing green lights, which apparently meant that a pedestrian might push the button to cross and cause them to turn red. Very strange! I got the impression they were unique to that province, or maybe one other province. In Canada, unlike the US, there seemed to be different variations of what some things meant in traffic lights!

All the speed limits were in km/h, and the speedo on the van did have a ring of km/h markings in smaller print below the mph ones. But for setting cruise control, it told me what the speed was set to in mph, and I had to convert that to make sure it was ok. I drove along the south side of the island, along the strait next to the US, directly opposite the road I had driven along a couple of days before.

As I went into the first provincial park (like the state parks in the US), I was looking to see how to pay, but all provincial parks in British Columbia were free to enter. Many of the beaches seemed to have stones instead of sand, but like the other side, there was forest growing to the edge in a lot of places. One beach, Mystic Beach, had a bit of a hike to get there, and had actual sand. There was a small waterfall running down a cliff right onto the beach, and unlike the California one, you could stand right under it if you wanted.

I headed towards Port Renfrew, which is where the road turned and went inland again. The road to Port Renfrew was pretty awful. Though it was paved, there were horrible unavoidable holes which you’d see only when you were almost on them, and had to slam on the brakes, to avoid damaging the suspension as you went over them. This happened quite a number of times. There were some good lookouts over the sea at some places. When I got to the town, I wanted to have a look at the water, and was trying to find out where to park. There was a little road with a parking lot next to the town hotel, and the jetty just beyond it. I don’t know if that was parking just for the hotel, but there didn't seem to be anything saying so, so I parked there.

Port Renfrew was pretty, and I stopped on the town jetty for a while taking in the views of the lovely colours of the water, with mountains behind. There was an old post sticking out of the water, and someone swam to it, and tried to climb it, then jump off. He had a job getting up there, but he eventually did it. When I got back, I found someone had parked right next to me, quite close, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get out with the van. After about a 10-point turn, I did finally squeeze out, but it was a close thing!

From there I drove up over the middle of the island, through hilly territory, on what turned out to be a narrow logging road. I was afraid it was going to turn into a dirt road, but it was at least paved all the way thankfully. It went through the little town of Lake Cowichan, which was next to a large lake, but time was getting on, and I kept on though to the main highway, then along to Mahalat Summit, a lookout with great views over the strait nearby, more of Victoria Island, and further away to parts of Washington I think. It was on the opposite side of the highway to me, and I had to drive on for a few km, to a spot where I could do a U-turn, then drive back again. There were even signs telling me where to do the U-turn if I wanted to go to the lookout.

After having a look around, I had to do the same process again to find another U-turn place further on, and head back on the highway again. I made it to the Oceanside RV Park a bit before 7. It was on the eastern side of the island, and there was an inlet going up part of the middle, so I had to drive down to the bottom of the inlet and around.

Unlike many of the campgrounds I’d been staying in recently, this was a commercial RV park. The reception was closed when I got there, but there was a self check-in station. The park was clean, with nice facilities. I had a look around to see what could be seen from the campground. There was a pretty looking inlet on one side of the park, with a small road outside the park boundary, but there were signs along the road suggesting you couldn’t go on it, because it was in an Indian reservation. I did find a track along the end of the campground that came to a lovely quiet beach after a few minutes, looking out across the strait that divided Canada and the US, which was also to the east of this area, as well as to the south.

I was meeting friends the next day, so I went off to find the showers. It turned out that they took Canadian coins, and I didn’t have any. In fact I didn’t have any Canadian cash at all, for most if not all of that pass through Canada. The other option was buying a card, which apparently you could then use in other places that supported it too, as well as for washers and dryers. The card was something like $5, and you had to put at least $5 on it after that, so it was an expensive shower!

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I had been thinking of visiting Hurricane Ridge, which was near Port Angeles, and had great views apparently, but there were very limited amounts of cars allowed up due to the amenities having burnt down, and probably would have required leaving to get there very early in the morning. After a big week, I relished a bit of a sleep in on the day of rest instead.

I left for a church in Port Angeles, which I had thought of as a small town, but was actually quite a decent sized city, with suburbs. The church was towards the other side of the city from where I was. The people were variously dressed, but many were casual. The pastor was in a suit, complete with watch chain though. He preached a good sermon, which was on giving if I remember rightly. After the service, they were having a lunch to finish up left overs from a camp they had just had, and they invited me to eat with them, and food was served in a large room adjacent to the church.

Afterwards, I headed back to Crescent Lake. I hadn’t had time to give it much of a look on the way to the campground the previous night, and it looked like a beautiful place. I drove around the side of the lake opposite to where the highway went, and stopped at a couple of places to admire the view. It was a cloudy and misty day by that time.

There was an easy hike, mostly flat, along the edge of the lake, starting from part way around the lake. The first part of the walk led to a pool next to the lake called Devil’s Punchbowl, which looked to be quite deep. There were a few people swimming in it, and one or two people climbing onto a rock that jutted out right next to the pool, quite high above it, then leaping off. It was interesting to watch!

There were quite a number of people on the trail there, but I followed the trail a fair bit further around the lake, and the people thinned out very quickly after the pool, and I had the trail pretty much to myself for a lot of the time, which was nice. There was a part of the track that went through a big tunnel, and another one that went around the tunnel. The tunnel was for people who couldn’t do the less accessible one that went by the lake’s edge, and also probably for cyclists. I tried both. There was no lighting in the tunnel, and it had a bend in it, but there was just enough light from either end to see. It was a pretty walk along the lake, with the mist, and hills with clouds on them.

When I got back to the campground, the host had a better spot for me, because there were less people there on the Sunday night. I started the usual Bible Study Facebook call at 5.30pm, finishing up before dark. It was drizzling a little bit. I could have cooked outside without getting more than damp, but I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try out the canopy that I had rented, which was meant to fit over the back doors of the van when they were open, so you had some shelter while cooking or making meals. Cooking inside was liable to lead to death by carbon monoxide poisoning according to the warning on the little stove.

I thought it would be better to get to know how to use the canopy this time, rather than when it was pouring with rain. Amazingly, I never did need to use it again – the Lord provided such good weather! It was a bit of a job to work out how it was supposed to go, it had magnets on it, and I had to try it in a couple of different orientations before I worked out what went where.

I was due to go across the border to Canada the next day, and I wasn’t sure what the rules were about food, and what they would let through. Looking on the website suggested there would be some restrictions, and perhaps not everything would pass. I made a detailed list of all the food I had on board – what tins, and all the other things I had, so I’d be prepared if they wanted to know.

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The Lord provided another lovely sunny day, and next on my list was further up the west coast, Rialto Beach. This had a hike to a place called Hole in the Wall, a huge rock just on the water’s edge with a large hole through it – the hole itself was probably 30 feet high.

It was the long weekend proper now, and parking was a bit scarce everywhere, but I was able to get a spot each place I went to thank the Lord. There were plenty of people around, but it wasn’t quite as crowded as I had feared. There were places later on in the trip which were more crowded, even though school was back in, and it was a weekday.

It took 40 minutes or so to do a fairly leisurely walk along the beach to the rock. There were a lot of other people doing the same thing, but everyone was spread out along the walk, so it was far from crowded. The Hole in the Wall was one of several interesting rock formations in the sea, and as usual the beach was always fringed with forest right up to the edge.

The hole itself was impressive. So many people were stopping to get their photos taken, and I was trying to get a photo without people in it. After a while I did get an opportunity with only people in the far distance. It was a busy spot!

After walking back I went to La Push, which was on the coast just the other side of a river running through, but required a bit of a drive back inland along the river to a bridge, then back to the sea again on the other side. It was in an Indian reservation – there were a number on the peninsula. I had lunch at the first of three La Push beaches, which was in the actual small town, and was fairly quiet. There was a log I could sit on while I ate the lunch I’d made. Some work was being done a little distance away in what looked like a channel with a breakwater next to it. There were no logs along this beach, I guess because it was next to the town.

Off I went to the second beach after lunch, which was, in contrast, very popular. There was a parking lot and also overflow parking, where I got a spot. I started off to see it in thongs, but realised then that there was a 1.3km walk each way to get there, through the ubiquitous forest, so I had to go back and change into more appropriate footwear. The walk was pretty, and the beach had more vegetation-topped large rocky mounds, a pretty spot. It wasn’t too crowded – the walk kept the numbers down I guess.

After this I thought I would have a look at the top of the peninsula, the northernmost part. I headed back inland, through Forks again, and up to Clallam Bay, stopping briefly at a car park there by the beach. There was some kind of river flowing right next to the beach, with the beach beyond. Apparently there was a bridge over it, though I’m not sure I remember seeing it. It didn’t look terribly exciting anyway, so I moved on to get a nice view of the marina at Sekiu, then followed the road for some time as it wound through forest, with some nice views of the sea, and the Canadian coast clearly visible – a place I was heading very shortly! It was a fairly slow drive as the road was fairly windy, and the speed limit for the last part was only 35mph.

I was planning to go to the far tip or as near to it as I could, but towards the last town, Neah Bay, there was a sign saying I was entering an Indian reservation, and they wanted US$20 to visit the area. This bought a year’s access, but I had only a short amount of time to have a quick look, and didn’t think it was worth $20 to spend a few minutes there, especially since I’d already spent money on a National Park pass and also a State Park pass for Washington! Time was getting on, and I still wanted to visit another rainforest, so headed back to the Sol Duc falls, another very popular attraction.

It was about two hours to get there, but it was more or less on the way to Port Angeles where I was to stay for the next two nights. I hoped that it might not be so crowded as I got there about 5.45pm. Parking was again a problem, but thank the Lord I found a spot where someone was just pulling out, and was able to snag it! It was about 20 minutes walk to the waterfall, which was a beautiful spot, again surrounded by lush rainforest.

It was after six by now, and I wanted to get to my campsite before dark. This was one I had arranged on HipCamp, and I had been in contact with the host, to make sure it was ok to get there lateish – a practice I had adopted fairly regularly after the episode of getting to the Phoenix RV park with no code for the gate. Heading back towards Port Angeles I came on Crescent Lake, which was large, and beautiful especially in the evening light with the hills beyond. The road wound around the edge of it for quite a while, and I got out and took a few quick photos around 7pm at one spot.

I arrived at my destination, High Hopes Farm, a few km west of Port Angeles out in the country, I think a bit before 8pm. The lady was friendly, and we chatted for a while. There were quite a few people staying there, and she pointed me to a spot up a hill which was nice, except very sloping. (Sloping spots were a bit of a bane, there were a few others at different campsites that weren’t very level, which made it not so pleasant to sleep in, if your head ended up lower than your feet!)

She then suggested a couple of other places, one up another hill, but it was just driving up a grassy, fairly steep slope, and the van couldn’t make it up there, and the other one would have been nice and snug under a big tree, but the van was too tall to get in! So I just ended up parking next to the tree out in the open in a fairly level spot. It was fairly private anyway, the nearest other person wasn’t very close, and though I could see the road, it was a fair distance away. There was a rustic but nicely decorated toilet nearby. It was getting dark, so I made some dinner and went to bed.

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It was sunny again, and I set out for three days on the Olympic Peninsula, a place of beaches, mountains and rainforests, though I didn’t get a chance to get up into the mountains. It was coming into the Labor Day long weekend, which seemed to be celebrated as the last fling people would have going on holidays before the cooler weather, and school, set in, though school was already in session for some people. I had struggled to find campsites for these nights, even booking months in advance, and I was anticipating it might be pretty busy. The Friday wasn’t too bad though.

The first stop was Quinalt Rainforest. The rainforests on the peninsula looked as though there was a lot of rain: everything was very lush, and the trees had a lot of moss hanging from the branches. The trees were spruces I think, almost as tall as the redwoods, and very impressive. I went for a short hike, and admired the beautiful lake next to the forest.

The road had gone inland for quite a while, and now joined the coast again at Kalaloch, which had four beaches to its name. What struck me about beaches on the peninsula were huge tree trunks lying down lining lining the foreshore, sometimes piled up on top of each other. There was thick, lush forest growing right to the edge of the sand, then these huge logs piled up, in front of some beach without logs, and then the sea.

I met a man who had been coming for something like 40 years, who pointed out how much erosion had happened in that time. It was quite surprising, the cliffs had eroded maybe 20 or 30 meters / yards in that time. It seems that during storms the sea washed the soil from under the closest trees, which then fell into the water, and eventually were washed back up onto the beach again.

After lunch I visited Ruby Beach, which was quite popular, with a good many people around, and more of those large rocky islands in the sea, including one large one with trees and vegetation growing lushly on the top and even the sides. I continued my way up the peninsula towards the town of Forks where I was staying, and came to the Hoh Rainforest.

This was a very popular spot, and I think I had figured that it might be better to try it on the Friday, than the weekend proper. It was busy enough for all that, at around 4pm. There was quite a wait to get through the park ranger’s station where they were checking we had passes, and get into the park. There were a number of car parks, but they all looked full, but thank the Lord I found one spot that was free, and went on a bit of a hike through the forest.

The walk was near a river, and I found a track that cut through to the banks. It was a beautiful spot. There was a warning notice about a cougar having been seen along the hiking trail. The trail went for a long way, I think into increasingly remote areas, and solo hiking through there was not advised. I hiked fairly briskly, and the blisters I’d got from the Half Dome hike flared up again, after over a week.

Forks is a town in the centre of the north-western part of the peninsula, probably servicing the tourists as much as anything. The RV park I had booked, the Olympic Adventure Campground, was a little out of town, heading north again. It was fairly open, with some tall trees throughout, with powered sites, and water. Some campsites where I stayed had water, or power, or both and some didn’t. Having water was handy because I could fill up my water bottles without going to the toilet block. Power meant I could charge my devices without needing to do it while the van was going. Neither were essential, just convenient.

I struck up a conversation with a man with a caravan next door who was having trouble with a leaking water hose. There was a little track behind my campsite to the facilities, where there was a shower available, but it was meant to be paid for beforehand, and the office had closed. I think they used the honesty system. So I skipped it for the night.

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It had been sunny the last few days, but after the accumulation of clouds the previous evening, I was greeted by a cool, misty day in the morning, which became quite rainy after a while, though thankfully it was just misty while I was outside cooking breakfast. The cloudy and wet day gave a different view of the coastal scenery, with a lot of low clouds sitting on hills. It was interesting to see the coast from another perspective.

I was going to start with a visit to a place called Devil’s Punchbowl not far from the campground, but it seems like I ended up a little further along at Otter Crest. It was supposed to have a great view, but it was completely fogged in. I asked the Lord if it could clear, and I did get some good views after a while. There was still cloud around, but I could see quite a bit of the vista. I had a quick look at Otter Creek a short way further along, then drove a while through some rainy weather to Pacific City, skipping the planned viewpoints in between, because the weather was very uninviting!

Pacific City was an interesting place. I found a parking lot with beach access, and climbed quite a tall sandhill to get over to the beach. From the top of the sandhill there was a good view of the town, which had a sizeable river running through it, with people fishing on the sides, and cloud-covered mountains behind. It was still quite cool and misty.

I followed a scenic route that went by McPhillips Beach, then a short distance further on I found Sitka Sedge, which I think they also called a slough. We might call it a wetland I guess. It was very pretty, with estuaries coming in, and fingers of land with a lot of grasses on them. It reminded me of pictures I had seen of what was perhaps a similar area in Denmark which someone I know really loves, and I could see why, after being there. It was quite colourful, probably because the autumn colours had started in, which made for many different shades of green and yellow.

A little further along the scenic route was Cape Lookout. I didn’t do the hike to the edge of the cape – it was fairly long, and the weather wasn’t conducive to views. Instead I visited the beach at the bottom of the cape, which was pretty, with forest and vegetation clinging to rocks steeply sloping to the beach, and hills behind covered in mist. I had a chat with a nice couple who were walking there.

A short drive from there brought me to the scenic town of Oceanside, which had a pretty beach with houses perched above up a steep hillside, no doubt with excellent views. I stopped to have lunch while enjoying the views and had a look at the beach there. The rain had stopped, and it was starting the get less misty. The road ran along up a little peninsula, with Cape Meares near the top, a high headland with some rugged cliffs and inlets, and good views. A path led down a little way to a lighthouse at the edge of the headland.

From here the road wound around the other side of the headland and back to the main highway at Tillamook. I still had a lot of driving to do, so I headed north to the Washington border. The road wound up into the hills again for a while, before getting back to the coast. It was quite built up in places toward the Washington border, and I travelled through a number of large towns or almost cities.

There was a lot of water at the border, with the highway going along a long causeway, then into the town of Astoria, and across an enormous bridge that went over into Washington. The road goes up in a circle to gain height to get onto the high bridge, which I discovered later was over 6km long. It definitely did seem to go on for a long time! The bridge was quite impressive looking, and I wanted to find a spot on the Washington side to get a photo of it, but didn’t find anywhere to stop where I could see it.

The first stop I made on the Washington side was Fort Columbia, which was interesting to see. It was much more modern looking than the Russian Fort Ross, and was set up to protect the mouth of the Columbia River, active in three wars, ending in WW II, and was eventually decommissioned.

There was some pretty scenery further along, and the start of some autumn colour in the leaves. I was noticing more deciduous trees as I went north. At South Bend, the road went along one side of a narrow estuary, then around through a town, and back around the other side. I stopped and took some photos at a place where there were some RVs parked.

I chatted briefly with the owners of one of the RVs there, who commented unfavourably about the weather, though it had cleared up a lot by then. There were some pretty views and reflections on the quiet water where boats were harboured. I think I took a wrong turn here, and headed off on the main highway instead of the road leading to my campground, and had to double back.

Grayland Beach campground was where I was to spend the night. There was a walk to the beach again, and I had a look. Well, it was an enormous, and very flat beach. It took something like 15 minutes to walk from where the vegetation ended at the dunes to where the water actually was. It was cool and I had shoes on, and it was tricky to find a way through where I wasn’t stepping in water. I did make it to where the actual water started, pretty much. Looking back, it was a long way to the edge of the beach.

I could see how people could get disoriented in a place like that, if it was misty, and not know which way to go to get back to the land. The beach stretched a long distance each side too, a massive expanse of sand. It was a fair walk back to the campground, first to the edge of the dunes, then it was still a bit of a way to the campground itself.

I guess I didn’t notice when I was choosing the site, or maybe there weren’t many free when I booked, I can’t remember, but my site backed onto one of the roads going through the campground, so it wasn’t very private at all. Thankfully the road was maybe 20 metres away, but it was still pretty public! It was just as well I was only spending the night there. There were a lot of trees and bushes through the campground, and I think most of the sites were quite private.

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First thing in the morning, after breakfast, I did the short walk from my campsite to climb to the lookout, with great views of the surrounding coastline, with many little rocky outcrops sticking out of the water near the coast.

Starting only a few minutes drive from the campground was the Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor, a stretch of highway with some beautiful scenery – more cliffs and even larger chunks or rock in the sea, some of them were almost like hills, even with trees growing on top, but jagged. There were inlets and corridors through the rocks in places, which made for an impressive landscape.

I wanted to hike to a beach called “Secret Beach”. I had found a trail on AllTrails that went down there. It turned out to be quite secret indeed. There were no signs mentioning it, but with the help of AllTrails I found the start of the trail, which was fairly high above the beach, and wound down through forest to the beach. I ended up on a very steep, almost vertical section right at the end, with a rope to hang onto to get up and down. It was a scramble to get to the beach. I wasn’t sure if this was Secret Beach, but there was a lady there flying a drone, and she confirmed that this was indeed it. Thankfully I found an easier way up, on the other side of the beach, which also afforded great views of the beach from above.

A little further along was Cape Sebastien, a pretty beach that was almost deserted. Another 50 minutes or so took me Sisters Rock, an impressive tall bluff with bare rock at the bottom, and some vegetation on top. I didn’t see anyone down there either. I just took some photos and moved on.

About an hour later I came to Bandon Beach a bit after 1pm, which also had a parking lot well above the beach, with views of large rocky chunks in the water. It was a sunny day, and I ate my sandwich at a picnic area while looking at the view, then went down to the beach itself afterwards. There were quite a few people around, though not many on the beach itself. Some of these rocky “hills” were immense, with people looking tiny next to them.

I set off again. The drive along the Oregon coast was a leisurely one, with the maximum speed limit along highway 101 being 55mph (88km/h) through the nearly two days of driving through there.

From here onwards there were a number of very large estuaries, with bridges spanning parts of them. You could look out from the bridge and see a long way out along the estuary, towards the sea. About an hour after lunch, I took a turn off from the main highway to see Cape Arago, on a raised headland. There was quite a large seal colony there, and I met a very friendly man at one of the lookouts who talked about the colony, and lent me his binoculars to see them better. The headland had some pretty views of forested coastline. Everything was very green and lush in Oregon.

By then it was approaching 4pm and I still had a fair bit of driving left in the day's journey, so I didn’t do a lot of sightseeing from there to the campground. I think this was a section of the drive that felt a bit more built-up than the coastal drive I’d done so far. After passing through a number of towns and over more estuaries and rivers, I stopped briefly at Heceta Head a couple of hours later, a pretty spot with an interesting bridge taking the highway over another river going into the sea. It had a lighthouse, which I got a look at from a distance as I was approaching. When I got to the beach next to the lighthouse, the lighthouse itself was closed. The area was considered part of a state park, and they wanted money for parking. I didn’t have time to spend long, so I moved on.

Then after a quick look at nearby Cape Perpetua with a narrow, forested inlet which was pretty in the late afternoon sun, I drove the hour or so remaining to the campground. Quite a bit of the road through that area was quite hilly and windy again, which made for some good views, though it wasn’t always easy to find a place to stop.

Like Harris Beach, the Beverly Beach campground was also right near a beach, with easy walking access from my campsite, which backed onto thick vegetation, and apparently a creek in there somewhere. The campground was quite forested, with very tall conifers – I think some kind of spruce – though you could still see some other sites around. Although it was on the other side of the highway from the beach, the highway went over a bridge, and there was a walking track under the bridge to the beach. This was a bit more populated than Harris Beach was, but it was a long, wide beach, so there was plenty of room for everyone.

It was starting to get more cloudy towards sunset, and I got some nice colours as the sun went down, with reflections on the wet sand. It was a pretty scene with people dotted here and there, and a lighthouse starting to shine in the distance. I think it was Yaquina Head lighthouse. Sunset was near 8pm while I was making my way up the west coast.

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In the morning I drove to the beach next to the camp. It was a pretty beach, with a stream going into it, and a large bridge spanning it, from the highway well above, which made for some good photos.

Seaside Creek Beach not far along the route had more huge chunks or rock in the water, and a house perched on a rocky cliff jutting into the water. It would be an interesting place to live, with amazing views, though I did wonder how long it would stay there!

Westport-Union Beach, a little further along, had a quiet campground, and I stopped and had a little walk around the cliffs next to the coast. The cliffs weren’t very tall, but here were great views in both directions. There was a fair bit to see that day, and I didn’t go down to the beach itself.

It was clear there had been a good deal of erosion of the cliffs over time. There was a road that at one stage had perhaps gone around the coast side of the campground, which was now not in use, part of it sticking out over the cliff!

From here the road went up away from the coast into the hills for quite a while. At this point Highway 1 disappeared, merging with Highway 101 for the rest of the trip up the coast. It was still just one lane each way mostly though. The part of coast the highway goes around is called the Lost Coast, a more wilderness-like section of coast, though there is a minor sealed road going through it. I didn’t have time to make that journey though, and stuck to the main highway.

Driving up into the hills, the road started getting into majestic redwood forest again. Near a town called Leggett is the famous Drive-Thru Tree or Chandelier Tree, a redwood that at one time had a hole cut in the trunk, big enough for cars to drive through. The trunk is so large that there is enough left for the tree to keep living. I visited there to have a look. My van was too large to go through, but I saw cars driving through it, and had a look at the forest around it. There was a souvenir shop there, where I got a reminder of the place.

A bit further along was Richardson Grove State Park, another large redwood forest. I read about how this area became popular in the 1910s and 1920s as first a railroad was established that went nearby, then Highway 101 was built, which I had used to get there. There was a historic lodge which I think may have been a museum now. I made some lunch there and ate it at a picnic area near a stream, then did a little bit of hiking.

Not far after this was the Avenue of the Giants, a road that came off the main highway and again wound through forests of these huge trees. The road went roughly parallel to the main highway, a slower scenic route. There was a road closure blocking off the start of this, but it connected with the main highway at a few points, and I followed a section of it, to get the feel of it. The Avenue is about 50km long, but time was getting on, so I just drove along part of it.

After a couple of hours the road returned to the coast, and went by a place called Trinidad, home to Trinidad Head, a high hill or bluff jutting into the ocean, with a good beach next to it. As with a lot of the coast along California and Oregon, it wasn’t particularly crowded – there were quite a few people around, but there was plenty of space for everyone. It was a lovely day, and I got my feet wet at the beach, then climbed the head. The views were lovely from the top, looking over forested bays and hills in the distance.

The road left the beach again for about 20km, for the famous Redwood National Park which I got to around five. I got some more close-up views of these amazing trees, and parked along the road near the entrance of one of the trails. The van looked tiny next to the trees. I went for a short hike along one of the trails, visiting the so-called Big Tree, which was 286 feet high, and estimated to be about 1,500 years old! Further along was a place called Trees of Mystery, apparently some kind of theme park. You had to pay to get in, and it sounded as though it was a place where you would spend the day, rather than having a quick look in, so I gave it a miss.

Toward the end of the day I entered Oregon, with my destination, Harris Beach State Park not far over the border, just out of the town of Brookings. I got there about 7pm. It had been another day of demanding winding roads, with a strong headwind, and sometimes also side winds pushing against the van. The campground was right next to the beach, with a rough trail down to it, and also to a lookout above it. There were a lot of trees and bushes through the campground, and the site I’d picked backed onto a good stand of trees again, giving some privacy. And the next few nights I had the convenience of powered sites, for the first time in a while.

It was while backing into this campsite I think that I noticed something dripping from the van as it had backed. I wondered if it was coolant, but there didn’t seem to be any way to see the level without opening the tank, which couldn’t be done while it was hot. I thought it was probably condensation from the air conditioner, since it had been pretty warm. But in retrospect, events that happened later suggested it quite likely was coolant leaking!

I walked down to the beach just on sunset, about five minutes from my campsite. Getting down required a bit of scrambling over rocks. A couple was sitting part way down enjoying the view, and I think eating dinner too. The beach had the usual large rocky outcrops in the sea, and I was blessed with seeing the sun and large rocks reflecting on the wet beach as the sun sank below the horizon. It was a lovely evening, and there weren’t a lot of people around. I made dinner in the last of the light.

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I headed off on my journey all the way up the US coast on Highway 1. This is the scenic route. If you wanted to get up north quickly you would take the inland interstate I-5, a four-lane highway. This was just one lane each way mostly, but right by the sea a lot of the time, and a beautiful drive.

I got off to an early start, trying to beat the traffic to some degree at least, and make it to my first destination, Muir Woods National Monument, a redwood forest where you had to book parking in advance, down to what time you would get there. I needed to be there about 8.30. Because I had a longer than normal vehicle, I actually had only an hour and three quarters allowed there (which was a strange amount of time!).

I would have liked to go across the Golden Gate Bridge, but it would have taken two hours to go through the city that way, and only an hour and 20 minutes going around the city, so I did that.

I took I-580, which went along the mainland east of the peninsula that central San Francisco was on, spending quite a while along the coast, and passing through the western part of Berkeley. For a while I-80 also went along the same route, so I was driving on the easternmost part of the same very long highway I would use to cross the midwest later in the trip. I crossed over the San Francisco Bay on the northernmost of the long bridges that spanned it, the Richmond Bridge, which I think was about 3km long.

Once I was on the other side I stopped near the forest, on the road, to make breakfast. The road was sloping upwards a bit, which made cooking and getting things out a bit tricky. I made a wrong turn not far from the forest, and ended up trying to do a U-turn, which I was a bit paranoid about after the episode near Yosemite! There were only small streets around, and I went down one to try and turn around. There was supposed to be a U-turn spot on that street, and I asked a man who was outside his house, who pointed me to where it was. It wasn’t particularly big, but I did make it around and back though thankfully!

I got to the forest, and there weren’t a lot of people parked there which was good. It was a beautiful place, with huge towering trees. Walking was still pretty difficult with the blisters so I didn’t go as far as I would have otherwise. Maybe it was the Lord’s way of slowing me down! They were doing some kind of works along a stream that ran through the park, with noisy machinery and pumps and things, which spoilt the effect a bit, but after getting into the forest more the noise died down.

There was one area called the Cathedral, and it was really lovely with the huge trees, and nice and quiet like a church. The sun was filtering through the trees, making sun rays in the rather misty air. There weren’t a lot of people around at that time of morning on a Monday, which made it more enjoyable. I was there a bit over an hour.

I drove back to Highway 1 which I’d turned off, and followed it as it went along the coast, then inland for a while before going back towards the coast and reaching Bodega Bay about an hour and a half later. I drove into a parking lot next to the sea, and there were a couple of seals on a pier there, making quite a bit of noise. It was just coming up to lunchtime, there was a place there that offered clam chowder, which seemed like a bit of an iconic dish in America, so I thought I would try it.

Out the front of the cafe was a kiosk where you could order without waiting in line inside. There were a couple of people ahead of me, and when I got there I found that you left your mobile phone number and they messaged you when your meal was ready. I wasn’t sure that this would work, since I had an Australian number, so I went inside. There wasn’t much of a line-up, and they served the chowder straight away. I took the option of having it in a bowl made out of bread, so you ate the whole thing!

It was a peaceful spot, and I had a chat with a couple who were also eating there. It was sunny, though with mist covering some of the nearby hills. The chowder was tasty, but didn’t have a lot of liquid in it, and I wished I’d got a drink as well. Driving out of the parking lot onto the road, I made the mistake of looking the wrong way while turning left and a car which I hadn't seen whizzed by me when I was about to go – thank you Lord, I certainly needed His protection!

The road along the coast was surprisingly windy and hilly, due to there being hills right by the sea. There were also strong gusty winds, so I had to concentrate to keep the van on the road, and was hanging on to the steering wheel grimly with both hands, which earned me a migraine later on. Along the California stretch of Highway 1 there were also many roadwork sites, with only one lane open and traffic lights. Unfortunately the places I had to stop and wait weren’t usually scenic spots!

I had Sonoma Coast State Park on my list to see, but somehow I seemed to have missed it. I saw a turn-off to Fort Ross which was further along, and headed in there to have a look. This was a Russian fort that was occupied in the 1800s, as the Russians created a settlement. I think it was a commercial rather than military operation, but I suppose they needed the fort against attacks in the area. It was eventually sold off, and they moved out. It was interesting to see the buildings and fort walls, all made of wood. Some of the buildings were open, and set up the way it would have been back then. There was a beach just below it which I walked down to.

Next stop was Salt Creek State Park. My America the Beautiful pass got me into all national parks, but there are also state parks, which aren’t covered. I bought a pass for the day, which also worked for the campground I was staying at. (Camping fees didn’t cover the actual access to the park, you still needed to pay for that as well. In some states, if you camped at a state park, the camping fee covered the entrance fee as well, and in some states, like California, it didn’t.) The rocks and sea were a bit like what we have in South Australia. Most of the coastline along the stretch I drove that day wouldn’t have been out of place here.

My final stop before the campground was Point Arena, which had a lighthouse on it. But it was after 5 and the lighthouse and road to it was closed. I got a view of it from the cliffs a little distance away. There was a portable toilet just sitting in a field next to the road, which turned out to be handy, but I was surprised to see it just in the middle of nowhere like that.

Van Damme State Park was where I was to camp. After the bustle of the Yosemite campground it seemed very quiet and almost lonely. There didn’t seem to be too many people camping there. I think school had gone back for many students. (I gather that each district sets its own date for when school goes back, but it seemed that a lot of them were back by then. After Labor Day basically everyone is back.) The park wasn’t right by the sea, it was on the other side of the road, a little drive away, so I didn’t try to walk to the beach that evening. Unlike many of the campgrounds I had been to, this one had the innovation of hot water and showers, which was welcome!

There was a big open area, with a lot of campsites either side of it. When it was busy, probably people also camped in the open area. There was forest on one side, and my campsite backed onto the forest, which made for a nice private setting.

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I slept in a little after such a big day. Walking was rather painful with the blisters. I was supposed to check into the campground belatedly before I left. The place to check in was a bit of a walk from my campsite, so I drove to the entrance kiosk meaning to either sort it out with them on the way out, or park nearby and walk. I couldn’t talk to the attendant while I was driving out, and once out, there was no parking, and a line up to get back in!

I ended up parking close by at a dumping station. I think you weren’t meant to park there unless you were using the station, but there was no other parking, and there was another person also parking there not using the station, who said he'd let me know if anyone wanted to come and use the dumping station where I’d parked. There was a line on foot and a line of cars waiting to go through the check in station, and I waited about 20 minutes but eventually checked in, as I was checking out! They thanked me for taking the time to do that.

I was to stay with my friend Ron again for the weekend, and wanted to see the redwood forest not far from there at Mariposa Grove. I drove there expecting to just take a quick look, but found it was necessary to take a shuttle bus to get in there. I was there anyway so I took the bus in, and did a hobble around some of the shorter trails. The trees were truly amazing, such a size! There were quite a lot of people around. I took the bus back, and tried to get Google Maps directions to his place, but there was almost no signal, so it was really struggling.

I don't know what happened, but Google started directing me into some tiny town, into roads that were getting smaller and smaller, which definitely didn't seem right. I tried to do a U-turn on a small side street, and as I was backing, heard a clunk and felt a bump, and wasn't able to go forward again. I got out and found that one of the back wheels had fallen off the edge of the road. Many of the roads there are raised from the ground, and this had something like a 9 inch drop off from the road, and the wheel was at the bottom, unable to get back up again.

I'm not sure if I could have backed and taken a bit of a run up to get up again. It probably wouldn't have been great for the van. But the Lord was looking after me – almost right away, even before I had prayed about it, along came a ranger. I was still in the national park apparently, and she saw my predicament and got out and asked me if I was stuck, and offered to tow me out!

Once out, she directed me to a big place called Fresno, telling me how to get there, after which I should have phone service to get the rest of the way. It turned out to be a bit out of my way, but was probably the easiest to direct me to. While on the drive, I encountered something I hadn't seen before - traffic lights at intersections right out in the country. This turned out to be relatively common in quite a few places throughout the US, in rural areas.

Something that surprised me was the sheer scale of what I encountered. I'd see a town on the map, and think of a place with a road going through a main street, and it turned out to be a highway with several exits going into a city! I took one of the exits into Fresno and found a 7-11 or some such place, and got some lunch there and ate it in the parking lot before going on.

It was in the high 30s as I drove through the California hills on various highways and smaller roads. The countryside didn't look too different from some parts of South Australia, with vineyards and rolling hills of yellow grass. I made it to Ron's in good time in the end, probably around 4.30 or so. I hadn't had a shower for a week - I don't think any of the campgrounds had had showers. So I was glad for a shower. I was especially grimy after sweating so much on the hike the day before.

Ron's son was staying with him, and for dinner we went to a place called In n Out Burgers, which was nice. Apparently they have other burgers that aren't on the menu, but if you know what they are you can order them!

I topped up on supplies at a local supermarket, and I had decided that while camping, getting up in the middle of the night when I needed to go, and finding my way to the toilet block wherever it was, was not for me, so I got a bottle to serve that purpose, which worked very well for the rest of the trip.

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