Redwoods... and red faces
Frank Barrett discovers fantastic forests, wonderful wine and some very risqué hobbies in California
CALIFORNIA’S Silicon Valley isn’t a valley, and nor is there any silicon to be found there. The silicon refers to the manufacture of semi-conductors, a staple of the computer industry. Until Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard got together in a Palo Alto garage in 1938 and helped start the computer revolution, people in this area made a living from growing fruit. The man from Delmonte still has his headquarters here.
But while high-tech has replaced agriculture in San Francisco’s South Bay area, in the less-visited country north of the Golden Gate, most communities still earn a rich living from the land.
We began our week-long California stay in Guerneville, a small town on the Russian River and about 90 minutes from Oakland Airport.
The town is almost lost in a vast sea of steepling 300ft redwood trees. Our lovely rental property was situated right in the forest, permanently bathed in a glorious scent of fresh wood.
In the 19th Century, Guerneville was at the centre of the lumber industry (it was originally called Stumptown!). But eventually the daughter of one of the biggest wood traders helped mount a campaign to preserve the giant trees.
By the end of the 19th Century, it was estimated that about 85% of the redgrapes woods had been felled. As each tree can live up to 700 years, the destruction of the forests was ecovandalism on a vast scale.
Guerneville is a microcosm of the extraordinary social changes of Californian life. In the 1960s, the town was popular with San Francisco’s flower-power children. The hippies were soon displaced by Hells Angels, who in turn were replaced by gay San Franciscans in the 1980s.
Until recently, farmers grew apples and plums. Now every available acre is a vineyard: are colonising the Russian River area.
Surprisingly, the Californian coast north of San Francisco is almost entirely undeveloped. Cold sea currents do little to encourage sea-bathing but there are lovely beaches here, even if the scenery is a little bleak.
East of Russian River is the Sonoma Valley, which has an even greater proliferation of wineries. We had a fine lunch and a tasting at Jordan’s, a lavish estate built in the French style. There are some lovely towns in this area too, including Healdsburg and Sebastopol. Until recently in Sebastopol, the rail track used to come down the middle of the main street. I was surprised to see that the railway is making a comeback in Sonoma County: earlier this month, a new 72km link opened between Sonoma County Airport and San Rafael, from where commuters can catch the ferry for the 30-minute crossing to downtown San Francisco.
The ferry takes you so close to San Quentin prison that you can see prisoners in the exercise yard.
While in San Francisco, I tried UberPool for the first time – you share a ride with others using the taxi app and therefore pay far less each.
For some reason the act of sharing a taxi with strangers can produce quite a nice getting-to-know-you experience: where are you from, any good suggestions about places to see?
But on this occasion, the conversation took a rather bizarre turn. One traveller enquired: ‘Are you in town for the S&M parade?’ ‘You mean…? ‘Yeah, sado-masochism – lot of people in leather thongs, lot of people not even wearing that. It’s naked Saturday on Folsom Street.’
I had to explain that I would not be attending, that S&M parades were out of my comfort zone.
Airbnb has made a lot of headlines this year due to protests in cities such as Barcelona and Venice, with critics arguing the holiday property website is forcing up the cost of social housing. The
flip side of this coin is that Airbnb has allowed lots of ordinary people make an income on the side – and not just owners.
The big new thing on Airbnb is an ‘experience’: in a selection of cities around the world, guests can book tours organised by local ‘micro-entrepreneurs’. During our stay near the Russian River, our first experience was a trip with six others around a selection of wineries in – appropriately – a chartreuse 1960s VW microbus. Our second experience was a 10km walk from Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge. Before the bridge opened in 1937, Sausalito was the ferry port for those travelling to and from San Francisco in the south. Sausalito had a reputation as a lively place – local brothel-owner Sally Stanford was famously elected mayor. There is a still a passenger ferry link to the city, much used at weekends. For our final three nights, we stayed in a smartly furnished Airbnb apartment in Oakland, where hummingbirds flitted around the garden.
A few minutes away was Regent Street, which had been the home of Jessica Mitford, one of the famous Mitford sisters.
Car-obsessed Californians are beginning to realise that transport has to change. Work has started on a high-speed rail link between San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will cut journey times to under three hours. The line is due to be completed in 2029.
But before that, California will be in the forefront of the driverless car revolution. We went to the Museum of Computer History in Silicon Valley to sit in a Google driverless car (it’s actually extremely comfortable).
Also on display was the Osborne computer: the first computer I owned, bought in 1983 for €2,200.
I felt suddenly like a museum piece myself…