Anthony Chabot Camping

Had to move to a different site within the camp on Friday (long story) so decided that seeing as we were having to unhook everything and pack up – may as well go for a drive somewhere.

We took a trip down to the Lake Chabot Marina – a seemingly simple task made immensely hair-raising and difficult by the misinformation created by both of our GPS’s; first, we turned right too soon, only to be stuck on a narrow winding road that Mum first attempted to reverse down, which led to us briefly getting stuck in boggy grass; THEN, upon re-entering the directions, it took us to the wrong carpark, which we were inherently NOT supposed to be in (as made abundantly clear by the parking attendant who I had asked for help). All of that aside, at least the parking lot itself (once we eventually found it) was relatively easy to manoeuvre around, which made parking and reversing a lot less stressful than our previous outing. We then took a walk around the lake itself, which we supposed was scenic enough (though neither of us are huge into walking – our short attention spans guarantee rapid boredom), spotting a stray hummingbird and a pair of squirrels along the way, among other things.

Were very surprised to find that the area is full of Eucalyptus trees – we feel like we are back in Oz. Have subsequently found out that they were introduced here from Australia in the 1850s during the Gold Rush. Clearly one of the reasons California is plagued by bushfires like Australia!

However, we’re both feeling (justifiably) proud of ourselves, as we’ve navigated and driven an RV in a foreign country. Within hours we’ve figured out how to hook everything up, how to work pretty much everything and within 2 days have been through a full arrival set up as well as a full pack up to move on.