Date:         Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:01:50 -0700
Reply-To:     Mark Drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Subject:      Baja Syncro Chronicles vol 117, long
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My wife and I just returned from a camping trip to Baja. We spent 12
nights on a nice beach about 700 miles south of the border and another
night each way to break up the drive. We had many good times and saw
more marine wildlife than usual. One day we were out in our boat fishing
near a remote beach and we saw dozens of sea turtles all around us. We
had seen a turtle here and there many times over the years but never
more than one or two in a day. This day we could simply not count all
the ones around us in the water at the same time. In the clear water we
saw many swimming by below us as well as the ones watching us on the
surface. Turtles on the surface are a strange sight, with their shells
mostly at or below the surface of the water. They stretch and strain
their necks to get their heads high above the surface like periscopes
when they hear or sense something near them. Later we heard that fresh
turtle egg nests had been seen on some of the beaches.

We prefer the warmer and calmer Sea of Cortez side of Baja and usually
spend 2 weeks in early fall camping, kayaking, snorkeling, fishing, etc.
The beach we always try to go to at that time is at the upper edge of
the area most affected by hurricanes and this year it showed some minor
recent storm damage. The usual dunes along the beach were largely
flattened and our favorite camp spot at the very end was washed away
enough by storm surge that I did not care to risk parking there this time.

We had arrived late in the day and were pushing to get to the beach long
enough before dark to have time to pick a good spot we could stay at for
the whole trip. With varying tides and changing winds, some spots are
fine for a night or 2 but carry the risk of being unsuitable for longer
periods. As we came over a small rise with a view of the long beach I
could see the situation clearly enough. Deep tracks in the sand where
people had been stuck, a minivan parked well back from the dunes with
the owner's tents much closer to the beach. I recognized a couple of
other camps as belonging to people we knew from prior years. Straight
ahead there was a nice empty spot between some scrub brush covered sand
dunes and I pulled the knob to lock the rear diff, gunned the motor and
aimed for it. A guy came running out from the dunes waving his arms in
warning. I stopped to talk and he said I would get stuck if I tried it
just like he and several others who had tried for that spot. With my
boat/kayak trailer, surely I would be badly stuck he thought. Thanks I
said, and gunned the motor again. When I hit the deepest sand the tires
spun a little but we kept right on going to just the place I wanted to
be. I was not sure I could get back out so easily but I would worry
about that later. We made it out with no trouble as well. During our
stay several people got stuck trying to get near the beach where we
camped. Syncros can do some impressive things and with a few mods even
more so.

The first night was warm, calm and quiet, with a billion stars and a
prominent Milky Way. Far out in the distance over the water we could see
lightning flashes by the hundreds. This distant lightning continued
every night of the trip except one. The third night the lightning came
in to shore and we had a tremendous thunderstorm with several hours of
rain.

No two days of the trip were exactly alike, typical for Baja and the Sea
of Cortez. The 9th and 10th days were windy, blowing so steady from the
north that during the night the Syncro developed a sharp lean to the
north side. The wind erodes the sand from around the nearest tires so
much that the vehicle actually sinks. I had to several times dig sand
out from under the other side tires to level the Syncro out. After the
windiest night it was so bad that I moved the Syncro over about 6 feet
to a fresh spot. The sand that blows out from under the van piles up
high behind the protected side. We had a 2 foot high dune right outside
the slider that was not there when we went to bed.

The calm returned again for the last 2 nights, along with cooler temps
that had us actually pulling a sheet over us in bed and placing a
blanket where we could use it too just before dawn. The next to the last
night was the clearest of the trip. We sat out after supper and just
stared up at the sky. In addition to many shooting stars, we spotted 10
satellites in about an hour, all but one in polar orbits.

We went fishing from our inflatable boat on about half the days we were
there. We caught nice Dorado (mahi mahi) and shared with others camped
on the beach each time. Late on our last afternoon we went dusk fishing
for a Sierra and shared the ceviche we made from it with our neighbors.
It does not get any better than this.

Mark
87 Syncro Baja Camper
87 Syncro Passenger
83 Stretched Turbo Diesel
........