Yosemite

Today we boarded a tour, leaving at 6.15 am.  Our bus, which included Singaporeans, a Korean and a Syrian couple living in Saudi Arabia among its passengers, passed through San Francisco, crossed the Bay Bridge to Oakland, and travelled through many districts.  One  area had many small rolling hills.  Another had a wind farm with 5,000 turbines.  

We  stopped briefly at 9.40 at Merced.  Around this area, there were many almond groves.  As we proceeded on, we saw strawberries, corn fields, and more almonds.  This area was very flat...like Holland.  Later, we could see the Sierra-Nevada Mountain Range approaching.  

Eventually, the flatness was replaced again by small rolling hills, heralding the approach of the mountains.  The hills became larger, and soon it was clear we were in the Sierra-Nevada.  The scenery started to become better, and we followed a little river.  At last, we entered the Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is within the said mountain range, and it is a part of the Stanislaus National Forest.

Jean and I had a pre-arranged lunch at a hotel within Yosemite called the Ahwahnee, one of those grand alpine lodges that includes logs and large blocks of stone in its construction, a hotel which costs around $400 a night and where the Queen also once dined.  The Korean also had a booked lunch, and he ate with us.

Our bus driver and guide, Bobby and Kimberley, were great and showed us several things in the park.  We were also allowed a few hours to do our own thing, catching the park's shuttle between various points.  We took the shuttle to the visitors centre, and later to the lower point of the Yosemite Falls.  At this time of year, the falls are nearly dried up.  While walking along a trail on the forest floor, we studied the cedar trees, the sequoias and redwoods.  The latter two are of the same family, and are the two oldest living things on the planet.  These trees can live for a few thousand years.

As we walked along the cool, quiet, shaded trail, suddenly I was aware that a deer approached from the left.  It crossed the path less than two metres in front of us, his nose on the ground sniffing for food.  We halted, took photos and video.  It was a really magic moment, and it made my day.  We saw a deer!

But oh dear, sadly, today of all days, my iPad stopped saving photos and video.  All I took today with the iPad is lost.  No footage of the deer, none from Inspiration Point, nothing.  And one photo which was particularly pretty is gone.  I realised this at lunch, and ditched a lot of old images in the iPad.  I then madly went out into the heat and tried to take as many pictures as I could.  These failed too.  We will go to an Apple Shop tomorrow.  Meantime, the photos below were taken using my phone.  Maybe these look OK on a big screen, but the ones lost were so much better.

We arrived back at our hotel at 8.40 pm, a 14 and a half hour day for us.