Day 3 - 18 Sept: Ponderosa Campsite, CA to Eldorado Avenue, Oakland, CA

A pretty rough night for all as the jet lag kicked in, combined with the weirdness of the situation - being all alone in the wilderness. Expected to hear lots of rustlings - in Australia there'd be possums galore going through the bins and sniffing out scraps, and we expected more wildlife here - but not a single sound apart from the nighttime insects.

Ruth and I have been confused by the profusion of eucalypts here which, combined with the arid landscape, give the place an Australian air. They seem to do much better here, growing in lush groves whose gorgeous smell pervades their area.

We 'woke up' this morning to a heavy mist and a hint of rain, and made our way back down the treacherous Nacimiento-Ferguson Road to the coast unable to take the stunning photos we'd hoped when we didn't have time to stop the night before and anyway, the sun was in the wrong place. Concentrating on not going over the side into the eerie white chasm was enough for me. This photo was as it was clearing - there were times earlier when visibility must have been less than 10m and the edge was just whiteness.

Even with the inclement weather, the drive on up the coast towards San Francisco was still awesome. Stopped in Monterey for coffee - again managed to find a good one - and had a stroll round the Fisherman's Wharf area where we were accompanied by the sounds of more seals and many a clam chowder spruiker, and were sorely tempted by the wonderful smells of lunch...but we resisted and continued.

Caned it up Route 1 to Santa Cruz, managed to find the way to San Jose without asking anyone, then on to San Mateo, this all thanks to Ruth's magnificent navigating. And onto the crazy San Mateo-Hayward Bridge...

Crossed the bay and soon found ourselves in Oakland, where we're staying for the next two nights in an AirBNB condo. A very good friend and sound man by the name of Miller had observed, when told that we were doing this, that Oakland was "a bit rough", and when our first impressions of the city seemed to confirm this, Ruth (at least) started to wonder whether we'd done the right thing. However, although it took us a while to find the condo due to our lack of internet access (yikes!), it turned out to be in a very nice neighbourhood, a beautiful apartment, and we strolled the local main street before settling on pizza for dinner with some local pale ale (for us grown-ups). In fact, it took about 10 minutes for us to fall in love with this place and want to move here...if only we were allowed.

Now for another battle with jet lag...