Today was the long day tour to Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Navada's. Picture is of me against a giant Sequoias tree - the highest trees in the world growing up to 100 metres

Our hotel.pickup was at 6.20 and it then took a while to gather the rest from various SFO hotels. We had about 40 on the bus which was to be the cause of frustration for the very beginning. We were finally on our way over the Bay Bridge past Oakland and in to the fertile valley which provides much of the food for the region. Our first stop was supposed to be a special place where we could buy fruit and snacks for our hiking to see the giant Sequoias. It was a roadside fruit stall and we believe that the driver must have an arrangement as the quality of fruit was quite poor. Fellow tourist were already tardy in getting back on the bus in the designated time Twenty minutes down the road after most had spent money on this poor quality fruit we stopped at another small town which had a fully stocked super market and far superior quality of fruit. Second stop, and the same group,of people were about 15 minutes late. There was a pattern developing.

Inwards to Yosemite and after restroom breaks we arrived at the Sequoias Grove. We were told it was a 1 mile walk down to the grove and should take about 20 minutes and a 40 minute walk back up. We were cautioned to be aware to the difficulty of the return walk and to be aware of the time. Down hill was easy and the sequoias were beautiful. There had been a recent fire