Our great pals, Shiara, Shaun & Keanen had relocated from Pretoria, South Africa to Redwood City on the outskirts of San Francisco several months ago and we had not seen them for nearly four years. Shiara having secured a more senior position at her company, whilst Keanen looks likely to go to Berkeley University closeby. Shaun, meanwhile adapting to life as a house husband, looking for a job, likes to call himself CBW – Chief Bottle Washer nowadays, but that’s short term for sure.

Our timing could not have been more perfect to stay with them, arriving just before Thanksgiving we headed to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend together with their friends, enjoying the slopes of this wonderful winter wonderland and back in the tranquil suburbs of Redwood City we toured the region enjoying the beach, wine estates – glug, glug and the local towns in this part of Silicon Valley.

A visit down to the woods, in particular, the gigantic, soaring Red Woods in Santa Cruz we braved the challenge of The Mystery Spot. From the moment you enter through the gates your mind is being tricked with a variety of carefully constructed illusions, or so we thought.

The steep climb towards the log cabin revealed that even though we stood on a level plinth, when we swapped standing positions, lo and behold, one of us had grown, how can that be. We leaned into the hillside incline as instructed, yet the weight of our bodies was not on the balls of our feet, but the heels and if you turned around, the opposite was true, had gravity gone awry in this spooky zone. Just to prove to us that we were in a dead zone for gravity or the carbon dioxide being emitted from within the rocks.

I did see a ball roll uphill on a downsloping piece of wood. How curious and once inside the log cabin gravity, illusions and the confusion ensued with us trying to figure out what on earth was going on. The cabin had gradually slid down the hill over a number of years and come to its final resting place next to a rather large and different looking Redwood. Looking skywards, it’s possible to see that the Redwoods within the dead zone taper slightly to one side, whilst those only a few feet away soar straight upwards. It is all rather peculiar and scientists have not yet come to an agreed conclusion. I am happy to have this as a question mark and marvel at the ingenuity of people to create the environment even if not create illusions.

I am happy to have this place as a question mark and marvel at the ingenuity of people in creating the environment even if not creating true illusions, either way, go and see for yourself and tell me what you think about The Mystery Spot. Now back to some wine to cure any other illusions.

Shiara’s birthday with Tim & Julia at Pasta House, Half Moon Bay