So leaving Olancha and Death Valley behind we headed towards the Sequoia National Forest. On the way we called in at a little place called Kern Valley which has its own airfield. As we sat and had lunch a small 4 seater airplane that we had seen flying over the lake came in to land and the pilot and his passengers came over and started chatting. They certainly were characters and when asked how much would they charge to take Mike and myself for a flight over the lake? The answer, ‘ Just a burger’ and they were serious although on further questioning it was raised to ‘Just pay for the fuel’ and I wish we had taken them up on the offer but they all left to get pizza and we had to make tracks as the clouds were gathering and it was getting late. It was at Kern Valley that we saw the humming birds and I managed to get a couple of shots of them which I’ll post in the Gallery later. Evidently they migrate this way every year and the Cafe owner puts out a sugar water feeder for them. Anyway back in the car and off to see the sequoias. We parked up at the trail head for the ‘one hundred giants’ and walked amongst these massive living things and filmed chipmunks dashing in and out of the fallen trunks on the forest floor. It was at this point we felt the first spots of rain and the ominous rumble of distant thunder. We just made it back to the car when the heavens opened, driving through the storm was pretty scary as the windscreen wipers were only just coping and there was always the danger of flash flooding even though we were high up at around 4000 ft the rain was bouncing off the rocks creating mist as it hit and running down the road in torrents. It was pretty hairy and awesome at the same time and we decided to push on rather than stop and wait it out. The climb ended around 8000 ft and the rain had eased as we descended the most winding road I have ever experienced. There was never a moment where you had 50 yards of straight in front of you as it was always a bend and ones that were almost 360!! Overall this continued for the best part of half an hour and by the time we reached the bottom driver Mike was in need of a stiff drink and I had to have my fingernails prised from the dashboard!! Hairy doesn’t begin to describe it!! So onto Hanford, a sleepy little town on the way to SF that has a bar called Huggy’s where we may have had a few drinks. More details to follow 😋😋