by Liz

Day’s mileage : 29

Running total : 820

I’m writing this in warm evening sunshine on the balcony of a hotel room on a stretch of coastline in Gold Beach, Oregon. It’s a cheap and cheerful room with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. There are six turkey vultures wheeling around hunting and we just watched one carry off some prey. Lines of pelicans occasionally cruise past above the water. We’re trying to decide if we can see heads of seals or dorsal fins of whales through the binoculars. According to the hotel manager, they could be either. 

Today started with a different weather game: rain vs Taylors. Waterproofs on = rain stops. Waterproofs off = rain starts. Having unpacked them and put them on, it stopped by the time we got to the gate on our way out. But we felt like we’d won because as long as we kept them on it hardly rained at all.

We had a shorter ride for our last full day in Oregon, cycling just under 30 miles. The sky was steely grey and the sea moody all morning but this afternoon the sun came out and blue was restored. We ate lunch beside a deserted beach, watching the pounding waves for signs of life.

The flora is more advanced in Oregon, trilliums are going over, and wild iris, lupins and foxgloves are in flower. There are many graceful ferns and elegant seeding grasses, as well as numerous shrubs and smaller plants I don’t recognise, abounding in waysides and forest margins. If I was 19th-century plant collector David Douglas, who explored the Pacific Northwest, I’d have sent them all home – except the yellow skunk plant which I dislike (even in the Long Ponds at Wisley) and grows prolifically here. 

Towards the end of today’s ride our route took us off the 101 and through quiet, mature forest. I loved that stretch, cool and peaceful. Then past pale blue weatherboarded cliff top homes and across the Rogue River with another bridge angel who hung back and stopped the traffic overtaking until we reached the other side.

All through Oregon we’ve had people come and talk to us, especially outside grocery stores. It’s as though supermarkets are a chat up place. Gold Beach was no exception and it was a pleasure to talk to a lady who basically just wanted inspiration to get out on her e-bike. I gave her plenty of encouragement. 

Tomorrow we reach the California coastline, which promises to be as stunning as any we’ve seen so far. Off the Washington coast the water is too glacial to swim in safely, and it’s much too rough off the Oregon coast, but maybe our swimming kit will get some use as we head further south.