Pleasant Valley Sunday...Day 8: Garberville to Mendocino

So we're away and at it again...come on you hills, waddya got? Well, some perfectly fine weather albeit a little chilly in the shade, pretty decent surfaces and traffic that seems to harbour no grudges. All things considered, that's good enough!

One 'A' too many or not, it still gave me a chuckle.

Howay!

Shadowing the Eel River for ages, it was a case of up and down and repeat. Pretty sparse landscape too: no mobile signal for 6 hours, even on the coast for a while...and not many places to stop at.

Fair's fair: I hate Soaps, but 'Dallas' was a corker! Been to SF, y'know...

Cool in the shade, lovely in the sun.

After about 20 lumpy miles, I found a place that was open for coffee and supplies. There were seats outside and a couple of Aussie hitch-hikers (they had a sign ready)  were there yacking-away.

Anyway, great coffee etc., which I was glad of as breakfast was taken on the bike...banana and ropey cereal bars is do-able but not great.

We're sat outside and this bloke walks across and I do a double-take and realise that it's Sean Penn*: the Aussie bloke kicks his mate at the same moment and we all do the 'recognition look'.

"Loved you in 'Mystic River', man." "I'm Wesley Snipes. And start pedalling, you berk!" (*possibly not SP.)

Well, well...onwards to more nonsense in the form of a tree that you can drive/cycle through...the poor bloke that I asked to take my photo was French, and bless him he was enthusiastic and loved my Del-Boy Franglais, hah-hah!

"Ready Grandad?" "Ready, Del-Boy!"

That's where the real biz started: a proper climb into the pines with hairpins and switchbacks...okay, I may not be at 100% but this is where the fun is!

Tap, tap, tap...

Saw quite a few two-wheelers out, but none as radical as this pair!

Genuinely, it was almost as great as an Alpine climb...great surfaces in the main and patient drivers.

Here's a thing: have you ever heard maybe 10 or 20 Harley Ds rumbling along? Well, you can hear them from a mile away, easy...just gets louder and louder especially in the valley, until you can see them pass and to which Chapter/ Group to which they belong.

I kid you not- the bloke in last place was playing 'Tragedy' on his stereo. Well, at least it was The Bee Gees original, so that's okay!

Aww man, good to see you again.

The last descent dumps you down beside The Pacific, and wow, what a sight!

So many bays & beaches uncrowded...

 It certainly isn't flat, as we know by now but you would have to work pretty hard not to smile at this...

And this is where a ton of the climbing comes from: all these beautiful inlets.

"Like a bird on a wire..."

Merely terrific.

"Watcha takin' about..."

Mendocino was my destination tonight and is a small community with galleries, eateries and all that blah. Thankfully it also attracted...

Razor sharp. Wow!

Bet it sounds like nothing else. Excellent!

Guess what? Yeah, you know what...the usual polite plea is coming-up: if you can spare a couple of Shekels for two great causes then please click HERE!

Strava-nonces please alight HERE!

Do you know what? Even after all these years, this still sounds brilliant!

Okay then, time for zeds...cheers!