Three friends had arrived from Ireland to visit Sue and I in San Francisco,so a camping trip to Yosemite was part of the deal. It was a four hour drive from San Francisco with a car full of jet lagged/hungover ladies. We had booked a camping unit, that was a shack covered in canvas with a shower curtain as a door. Rustic style!
We had a few drinks beside a beautiful campfire, smores included. Living the dream! For me it quickly became a nightmare. The animals of the great outdoors decided to grace us with their presence, starting with raccoons rummaging through our stuff. An hour into the freezing cold night (we were wearing all our clothes) a mountain lion decided to fight a raccoon right outside our shower curtain! This was followed by several visits from raccoons into our canvas hut during the night. We either cried or laughed so the latter it was! I couldn't wait for daylight!
The beauty of Yosemite came into it's full with a scenic drive to waterfalls, and to Glacier Point to a view over the whole valley. We posed for photos and returned the favour of picture taking for a young couple. To our surprise (and the girlfriends!) the man dropped to one knee and produced a sparkler. It was a lovely moment that had us five girls in tears, but that maybe due to the lack of sleep! We hiked up to the next highest point, Sentinel Dome, to witness some spectacular views.
We returned to our camp all dreading the night falling. We rented 1800 blankets, drank a lot and sat by the campfire as long as we could before hitting the hay. This night was much shorter, even if we could hear a bear roaring in the distance.
We journeyed back to San Francisco the next day, all delighted for some civilisation, found an Irish bar and laughed the night away. I'm taking a break from nature!
