Smelly Ellie and Stink Boy Dodd!

After an amazing couple of days in San Fran we headed inland to our first American National Park, the famous Yosemite. I don´t think I mentioned but our last campsite didn´t have any showers (you´ve calculated correctly, that´s three nights so far without a shower) and California in July is a pretty hot place so by the time we arrived in Yosemite we were pretty riffy and things were definately about to get worse.

We decided to spend our first night in the Valley to cut down on travelling time the next day. When the bloke at the information hut told us that the valley tends to be slightly warmer at night than the other sites in the park, we took this as a positive meaning that we wouldn´t get chilly, unfortunately though this isn´t what he meant. We arrived at our camp site at about 7pm and it was still roasting. Putting the tent up brought us both out in a sweat and then we had to build and light a fire in order to cook our dinner! To put it mildly it wasn´t the coolest of evenings and to make things worse - there were no showers!

Yosemite was definately worth getting pretty riffy for though. The combination of the huge granite rock faces next to the green forest was just stunning and we enjoyed driving to various scenic spots to take photos and generally enjoy the views (it was way to hot to hike!). A dip in the river seemed like the obvious way to cool down (and get slightly cleaner!) so we hired a rubber dingy and set off down the crystal clear river to find a few quiet spots to relax and swim in.

Although we were getting pretty grimy and we probably smelt a bit we were really starting to enjoy the simple life. Camping in beautiful locations and having nothing else to do with our evenings than cook on a fire and gaze at the stars was starting to feel like the perfect way to unwind and relax. Although having to store all of our food and toiletries in a metal bear proof box at all times did counteract this relaxation somewhat!