Day 32
Thurs 26th July
Rose early to trawl the pool with a fishing net before the punters arrived but gave up before long. Spent a lazy morning covering ourselves in mud and baking in the sun, playing at being truly ancient people.
Packed up to leave and found the black water dump site was foot sloshingly full. Back on the road after a short discussion with the manager about sewage which scored us a couple of free passes. Our destination is the Ghost Ranch in the heart of O’Keefe land. Rather than backtrack down the main road we took a short cut through a mountain pass. A looming storm broke on our mountain and sent flash floods down rivulets and streams all around us, overflowing and blocking the road behind us as we drove. We trucked on to higher ground but even at the summits water was sluicing across the road. The drive became intense as the rain fell in sheets but we came across a small village with the road ahead flooded and waited out the storm.
Slept a little and replenished or goods at an eclectic country store. We came out onto the main road to the Ghost Ranch and the landscape grew huge, plains sweeping ahead to vast surreal cliffs.
Up a dirt track to the one-time dude ranch and present-day Presbyterian retreat in glorious technicolour cowboy scenery.
Back on the main road we drove for miles between wonderfully shaped and coloured cliffs and, as the sun set, approached Heron Lake where we stopped at the lakeside for the night and scavenged a brush and driftwood fire.
