After a surprisingly comfortable and warm night in the tent we headed to the sand dunes trail, not really knowing what to expect. The dunes are HUGE! Stretching for 50 miles of coast line and in some places a few miles deep, however the weather was not kind, overcast and foggy, we still scaled some of the dunes and took in the sites before packing up our camping gear.

Florence which is situated on the coast with a river running through the middle is a very nice little town. Plenty of places to eat and after sampling some Clam Chowder we can vouch for the quality of the seafood. We stopped off at a coffee shop for some Chai and free internet. At around midday we ventured back into the National Dunes area and parked our car in one of the state car-parks. We walked out to the sea which was around a 1 mile walk across the thick dunes area and when we got to the ocean we were surrounded by misty fog. It was really surreal, the sun was out and so the fog was very bright and we could only just make out the waves, in either direction the visibility was very low. We felt like we were on another planet in some sort of dream, really worth the effort.

When we left the 40 mile stretch of sand-dunes we made our way further down the Oregon coast to Gold beach which was our next destination to camp. We checked into The Indian Creek Resort costing us $18 for a camping spot. We were at the back of the RV park but had access to the facilities and had the laundrette on our list of things to do! We stopped in a foggy town and picked up a few bits for dinner. The fog cleared at one point and we could see the shipwreck on the shore. Back at the campsite we enjoyed the delights of yet another laundrette to do some clothes washing whilst also finding time to work on the blog.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We woke up to sunshine and photographed the sun rising across the lake, pretty idyllic so far! Packing up was easy as the tent is very small and quick to take up and down, so this helped us speed up somewhat before making our way to the north-westerly point of the peninsula. The weather got greyer and greyer as we made our way in the direction of Neah Bay.

As we were pretty early we made our first point of call the Native American Cape Flattery Museum as it had been mentioned in the Lonely Planet and sounded pretty interesting. Opening at 10am the museum is located just before Neah Bay and we were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it! The place is dated (as are a lot of things in the area) but it does the history of the tribal region justice, housing totem poles, whale catching boats, and all original artifacts found from Native American villages buried under mudslides. It’s worth a visit if you’re in the area.

As is Cape Flattery, the most north-western point of the lower 48 states! Fact! ha! The weather was still foggy and misty but the hike through the forest and out to the viewing places was really cool, very eerie indeed! Good misty and atmospheric views out to rocks and the wild sea, on a clear day you can see Vancouver Island, on this day we struggled to see the small island only 150 meters away!

Moving further down the peninsula we drove to another lake to camp for the night at Lake Ozette. There were only 17 sites here so we managed to pick one that was perhaps one of the largest and we were most definitely the smallest tent! Naughty! But we all pay the same! So we had some lunch and got a few maps and ideas for a hike going from the ranger station to the coast, we chose to do a 6 mile round trip hike going along the lower boardwalk. We were pretty speedy there and spent some time at the wild coast taking in the   washed up logs and rocky terrain. Its a pretty wild coast! Fortunately for us it wasn’t too wild but all the evidence displays what this place is like in the winter.

Back at the campsite we managed to do a little bit of work and cooked up yet another camp meal, to this point we were of course still excited about what our next meal would be! The Ozette campground was our favourite in the region, really beautiful and only cost $12. No shower though but the location and scenery make up for that!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We went out for a bike ride with one of the Chinese girls’ Sylvia who was staying in the dorm with us, she was friends with another of the girls working at the hostel. It was good to have her with us as she could help us to find our way by asking the locals which way to such and such a place. She wanted to go to a specific village called Xixhou which is about 20km away from Dali old town. We wanted to cycle through some of the villages closer to the lake so we could explore the farmland, the most direct way would be to cycle along the high way for the entire ride but that’s no fun, so we compromised and spent some time cycling to the villages and some time catching up and taking the highway to the furthest place.

The farmland in Dali is very lush and extremely beautiful to photography. During our stay in Dali the sky was a perfect blue and it was a very comfortable temperature indeed, only being cold in the shade. By night it dropped significantly but we had electric blankets to cope with this!

So we took in the scenery around us, some farmland, some lake and some road. It was stunning. We got to Xixhou at around 3pm and ambled through the village market before stopping for some very good value soup rice noodles. For 3 of us to eat it cost around £2.80, and the food tasted really good. The only bad thing was a local guy pestering us for left over food and drink, he wouldn’t leave us alone and eventually got what he wanted. Still the setting took us away from this. We continued out of the village and took the road to some older parts of the area. Once more fantastic views, terraces and buildings surrounded us.

We decided to make our way back at around 4pm and set off for Dali. We were going quicker than Sylvia on her lady-like bike so we waited for her every so often, plus the drivers on the road aren’t the most reliable often overtaking two cars in one go so we wanted to make sure we were all with us. When we got back Sylvia joked about how fit we were compared to her and she said she’d only ever ridden a bike once before in her life. Considering this fact she did very well indeed.

When we got back we ate at an Indian restaurant down the road from our hostel and enjoyed more chai. Back at the hostel there were a few more travelers, Helen got chatting to Jane who she’d seen at various other places around China. It’s very easy to bump into people when you use Hostelworld for recommendations on where to stay. Many people also choose to travel through South China from Vietnam as it’s a good route and the weather is pretty good in Yunnan.

So it was our last night in Dali and we really loved the town and the hostel had a nice vibe too. We decided to nip back to Bakery 88 the next morning to get some take-away sandwiches with very good cheese and meat! Yum!! We also sneaked in a few more granola slices.

The bus back took the scenic route as part of the highway was closed but this wasn’t a bad thing as it meant we got to drive through some more beautiful countryside and villages. It was quite a luxury bus with only a few of us on board, and we got back to Cloudland at around 7pm. We had some food, chatted away and got ready for our flight to Guangzhou the following day.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We came across The Hutong earlier in the month when we attended a Christmas event at The International Canadian School of Beijing. They had a stand showcasing some of their events and we picked up a schedule for the month. We’d already attended the Tai Chi class a week ago and booked ourselves onto a Chinese vegetarian cooking class too. Our teachers were Sophie from The Hutong who translated for the main chef; a lady from Inner Mongolia. The food we were taught was from the North that you wouldn’t really get in Beijing unless you were cooking it yourself.

On the menu we had:

Vegetable Kung Po with tofu.
Egg & tomatoe with green peppers,
& mushroom and celery stir fry.

We learned how to use the blocky knives that everyone cooks with over here, the head chef was pretty strict when it came to “The” way to chop carrots, tofu and the like. With the Kung Po dish everything was meant to be the same size so that the cooking time is equal. Some of us were spot on with this…whilst others perhaps a little more experimental!!

When it came to cooking there was a hell of a lot of deep frying going on- eek! Especially with the first two dishes. The tofu was cooked first and then put aside whilst the remaining ingredients were cooked, it then rejoined the dish towards the end with the seasoning. The egg and tomato dish is a classic Chinese meal and this was Dave’s chance to shine! He seasoned the dish very well with more pepper, chili and green peppers! We actually preferred this to the one that was cooked earlier on!! Helen had a go at the mushroom and celery dish, which was more like stirring the wok ingredients whilst the chef adds what’s required!

We didn’t get to do much hands on cooking however we really enjoyed the class and eating the food afterwards. There was a great rice dish which we took down the recipe for, although didn’t actually cook as it was ready to eat with the food. Sophie who works there is a lovely lady too! She had great knowledge about the foods we were cooking and info about why dark mushrooms are good for you in the winter.

After the cooking class we walked to the Drum and Bell Towers. They’re based not to far away from Nanluoguxiang and so we knew where we could go to warm up as it was foggy and bloody cold! The views across the city were limited but it always adds an atmospheric feel to the photos when it’s like that. We reached the towers in time for their drum performance, this too is impressive and a nice change from the norm. It was too cold to stay for very long but we lasted until the end of the performance before heading for some hot tea down the road.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)