5th August 2016 - Yosemite NP - Kms to date: 9336

Kms today: 0

Got up at 7am and went to the cafeteria at the village for breakfast. Not very inspiring but it did the job. We caught the shuttle bus for the start of the Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls trail. The bus was pretty full and most of the passengers seemed to be going on our trail.

Heading for the trail head.

The Vernal Falls were first with a 1000ft climb over a couple of miles (3.2kms). The track just kept going up and up, unrelenting. We had a rest at the bottom of some steps that went on for ever to get to the falls.

Alan on the way up to Vernal Falls.

Colin at the top of Vernal Falls.

We made it OK and the views of the falls and half-dome rock were amazing. We met a young english girl who told us of an easier way to get to the Nevada Falls. We took her advice and it was relatively easy except it also included another 1000ft climb!!! Just before we reached the Nevada Falls a lady slipped in front of us on the sand covered path and took a tumble.

Alan at the top of Nevada Falls.

Colin went to her aid with his first aid kit including betadine and mucho bandaids. Her whole family were there and by the time they all finished with her she looked like the Michelin man. They were american and their name was Walcha (german origin) which they knew was a town in NSW. Colin and I told them we had both ridden through it on our motorbikes so they were dead chuffed. There was a terrific lookout over the Nevada Falls but you wouldn’t need to suffer from vertigo as it was a sheer drop to the bottom.

The Nevada Falls a 200m drop.

We thought that having done all the climbing on the outward journey the walk home would be easy. No way!!! Because a lot of the rocks on the trail were covered in fine sand we had to pick our way carefully so we didn’t end up like the woman that came a cropper earlier. This was very tiring. As soon as we got back to the village we ordered two large pints of beer and sank them in short order. We both crashed on our beds for a nana nap before recovering for dinner. We resumed our marathon Gin Rummy game but I couldn’t make any inroads into Colin’s lead and time is getting short!