Point Reyes National Seashore

24th November

I booked two nights at the secluded HI hostel located inside Point Reyes National Park.  The wild landscapes, stunning vistas and lagoons attract a lot of visitors, including many day trippers from the Bay area and San Francisco, but the area is large enough and wild enough to accommodate almost everybody.  There are no stores anywhere in the park so stocking up before you go is essential.  Meals aren't provided.  A couple of young-uns from Canada turned up without any food and ended up rummaging through the free food and left over shelf for their supper.  So Kraft Mac and Cheese it was for them! Mmm, mmm.  This is relatively tasty if you eat one piece.  I can't imagine throwing a plateful down though.  They didn't seem to mind it so much.

The hostel itself is a wi-fi free zone to encourage people to switch off for a while.   No phone signal out here either so many people come to escape the constant messages.  I have no such problem there.  My dorm was shared with a variety of people including a young french man who seemed to suffer from night terrors. "Noooo, noooo, nooooo, nooooo," woke me up some time during the night.  I considered waking him the second time it happened but it stopped just as suddenly as it had begun.

The Canadian guy, who was motorcycling from Edmonton all the way down to Argentina (brave fecker), thought it was me for some reason.  I've been told I talk in my sleep but not so often and not like this, yet.  I'd heard of night terrors but never encountered it before.  He was gone early the next morning so there wasn't a chance to ask about it.

One of the other guests was a man, around sixty five years old, who came to this same hostel for 14 nights in a row once a year.  He used to stay for longer, but recent regulations prevent a/ anyone staying for more than 14 days at any one hostel per year, and b/ no-one who lives in the same region as the hostel can stay.  The poor old homeless chaps turn up to the hostels in cities and towns from time to time and I witnessed one being turned away.  I understand why they do it of course.  It's trouble. That's a sad fact of life here.  Not sure what else to say about it.  It sucks.  There are no solutions.  It's utterly ruthless.  I wonder over how easily it could happen, but no doubt, it can happen a lot easier here.

I visited the nearby area of Limantour spit and beach a number of times in my time there.  This Jackal was walking unperturbed along the edge of the road on one such occasion.  This was the only time I saw this species during my time in the US. Perhaps they'll be more on view when I return in the Spring.

Check out the elk keeping a careful eye on the predator in the topper-most photo.

Point Reyes National Seashore is a great place to camp and walk and generally enjoy the natural world.  There are camp sites a mile or so hike from the road at the hostel which I'd like to do if I lived in the region.

The other aspect of the reserve is the Point Reyes lighthouse which is crowded with day trippers and the like.  The views looking North along Point Reyes beach are spectacular and it's possible to see Blue Whales out to sea here. Although I didn't see any, the Canadian Motorcyclist did by chance.

There are numerous opportunities for out of the way hikes and camping in this area.  It's exactly the sort of place I want to get kitted out to spend a few nights.  But thats' not happening this time.  I'm too chicken to go it alone, and I have accommodation booked in San Francisco after here, and for Yosemite after that.

Point Reyes Beach looking North

It was whilst staying here that I received the bad news from back home.  My frame of mind shifted at some point and it took a while to bring it back.  A good man taken to soon (mod thirties) by cancer, leaving behind a wife and three young children.  Travelling around feels more self centred than usual during times like that.  We live in a self imposed bubble.   It can be the only way to cope with reality.  So many family members have succumbed to cancer and I never know what to say or do.  Nature will do as it pleases.  The world is a random place and the sense we make of it is all that we have.  It's a sick joke that some people can still believe in a god despite the painfully obvious absence of such a thing.