Our camp craft improved after our first night, but the weather did not. We continued around the Olympic Peninsula, stopping for a night in the Hoh rainforest where the weather was pleasantly warm during the day but bitterly cold at night and I had my first go of driving the car which was quite scary, but I didn't crash and didn't worry Mike too much so I was quite pleased.
We crossed the border into Oregon and were greeted with a scorching 90 degree day and thought that we'd finally made it to summer. We camped at Cape Disappointment, which I thought was a rather harsh name for a beautiful little beach with a lighthouse, and cooking dinner was proving no problem now (we had bought a new stove after the first one broke on the second night - lesson #1 it's false economy to buy the cheapest campstove).
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| From USA |
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| From USA |
As we'd had such a great day we thought we'd stay another day and hang out at the beach. Wrong! We woke to a cold, grey sky and rain so we went to Astoria instead - there's nothing there. But we did get some shopping done and treated ourselves to thermorests as the nights are so cold, and foam mats are really uncomfortable; camping could easily become really miserable. We also bought a an extra blanket - we were sleeping fullly clothed, with woolly hats on. It was quite comical and certainly not what I was expecting in America in August.
We continued to Cannon Beach, further along the Oregon coast, where we walked on the beach, under grey, grey skies and ate fish and chips inside the restaurant as it was too cold to eat outside. Our next stop was just outside Newport where we found the 2 campgrounds full and we ended up in a motel. Now I wasn't complaining - a proper bed, warmth, a shower, TV... but things just weren't holding up to expectations. It was cold, grey, we had to stay in a hotel and the Pacific Coast road doesn't run along the coast very much so we had spent a lot of time looking at pine trees. We were in great spirits though, as it's all part of the adventure, and we had high hopes that now were were in Oregon, where the spectacular rugged coastline is supposed to be, that the road would start hugging the coast as promised, the weather would improve, and that we would be able to find campgrounds with vacancies further on.
A few photos of the Oregon coastline:
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| From USA |
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| From USA |
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| From USA |
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