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June 21st 2004

Over the Blue Ride Mountains and down to Mallard Duck campsite near Vesuvius. Lovely hills, certainly blue, and hot and sweaty to cycle over. Saw the famous TransAmerican trail 'cookie lady' - but only very briefly - just 'hello'. She was gardening at the time. We'd just been chased by three dogs so I was not entirely cool and collected. The 'dog dazer' works - ultrasound device that deters dogs. It's great - they chase, then just give up, looking puzzled. The Blue Ridge Parkway was hilly - you are either going up or down, but just about never flat. 27 miles were rather slowly done. While walking near one of the 'overlooks' I (Steve) saw a large badger like creature with a very long bushy tail hiding in a cleft in the rock. Some kind of rock badger perhaps? It squeezed itself away into the darkness of the cleft. We sped down from the Parkway and rushed down a valley to the Mallard Duck campground. We actually slept in a sort of hostel at the campground. Not clean, plenty of mosquitos, and with the sound of bulldozers rearranging nature down near the river. But it was cheap and we had no problems sleeping. Guy went to buy provisions a few miles down the road and came back with the local interpretation of 'wine' - Jewish liturgical wine which tasted like ribena mixed with cheap plonk. I think it probably killed mosquitos, though,when they bit into you.

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