Framedlight

We drove up to Point Reyes South Beach for a spot of late lunch and studied the surf. There were squadrons of pelicans flying overhead and I decided that I liked pelicans as much as I like crows, my favourite bird. Looking into the sun through the spray and the mist the low cliffs were obscure. Coming back to reality we decided we should move on so we made a quick visit to a bird reserve which we did not really have time to investigate and, driving out, were lucky enough to see a bob cat crossing the road. It was too quick to photograph but we felt very privileged. The car was due back in San Francisco the next day and we had to find somewhere to sleep for the night, having not booked for this final camping evening. We drove back past Schooner Bay where backlit by the lowering sun a coyote was crossing the river and stopped to shake the water off on the other side. We watched, fascinated. We had several abortive attempts to find a campsite and partia...

After our fantastic foggy start to the day we got to the lighthouse as the mist cleared and the sun shone. Point Reyes is the windiest place on the north American coast (in the spring winds can reach up to 130mph velocity) and the second foggiest. Not surprisingly many ships were wrecked off it's shore trying to get into San Francisco harbour. The lighthouse was built in 1870, after blasting an area 300ft below the cliff to try and lower the lighthouse under the level of the normally high fog. A fog signal was built as well. On the day of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 the lighthouse moved north around 18ft. The only damage was that the lens came off it's rail and the lighthouse keeper manage to effect repairs so that it was up and working by the next day. The manned lighthouse was in operation until 1975 when an automatic light was installed. The consequence of the lighthouse being lowered is that you have to negotiate a half mile walk from the car park followed by 30...