As we stayed an extra night in Rockaway Beach, we cancelled a night that I had booked in between Rockaway and Bandon, so we had quite a way to go, including sightseeing on the way. Before we left Rockaway Beach the pirate festival was in full swing with loads of people in Grumpy’s Diner, where I had pancakes, eggs and sausage, and driving out of the town we even spotted a couple of people in pirate costume walking about! I’m sure it would have been a great weekend, and the weather was predicted to be very good all weekend, unlike the predicted weather in Bandon and further down the coast, where we were heading! The first bit of our drive was good, with the weather holding up, but soon we were driving in heavy fog, drifting in from the sea and it was considerably cooler than what we got used to the few days before. We stopped in Garibaldi, Depoe Bay and all along the coast for pictures. It is a lovely stretch of coast, with some incredible beaches and the Oregon coast as a whole is very impressive. There are also hiking trails everywhere and the US101 along the coast seems to be a massive draw for cyclists, judging by the amount of them we passed by! There are actually signs everywhere reminding you to ‘share the road’ with bicyclists as they call them here (usually the Americans like removing letters from words, not adding them!). On the way to Bandon we tried our best to spot the sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area but weren’t particularly successful, though we did manage to get a few pictures towards the end of the day, when we went walking for a bit with some mad quad bikers racing all around us!
Our room for the night was at The Inn at Old Town, and when we got there we found there was a Jacuzzi in the actual bedroom – strange but true! Bandon has a quaint Old Town but it is rather small, and was pretty dead, even though it was Friday night. We did our usual inspection of the town’s sights (not many) and then had a drink at xxx, before getting dinner at Foley’s Irish Pub on our landlord’s recommendation. I had a Patty Melt Brian had a burger and both were very tasty (or course helped along with some more beer!).
Most interesting experience of the day: Jacuzzi in the bedroom and a TV that switched itself off every time you tried to change the channel!
Biltong and Burger 