Incredible Forestiere Gardens

We creaked our way to an early night after the island visit, doglet totally unimpressed with our lack of willingness to play or even talk much.. It was even an effort to shower all that sea air and Island dust off us – but boy did it make for a good sleep! And then before I could finish all my dreams, we were on the move again – this time further north to Fresno where those underground gardens are. This place had fascinated me for a good long while and over the past years I have found myself checking out the website every so often – now we had the chance to see it for real.

And we drove and drove – the traffic on this end of the continent is something else – something I could easily pass up on…. But we made it. Fortunately the GPS on my laptop worked well and told us exactly where the Forestiere Gardens are. But there was no campground and we kept driving. Nothing was showing on the map, gps or along the road and we really had no option but to keep on heading north and hope to bump into something soon. After about 15 miles there was a sign, but it let to a trailer dump and we quickly got out of there. Another 10 miles up and I re-routed us, admitting defeat and knowing that we would just not get to see this place after all. A sad moment.

The road up here was interesting – the coastal sections beautiful but not easily accessible, the traffic was such that if I could have a penny for every car passing by the campground in just one night – I know I would be much richer! Much of the way was inland, away from the coast. A light in the roof of the rv fell out, we went over a bump, the dog ducked and we noticed that all four screws had just pulled out……. They don’t make these things like they used to! At least it was only the light fitting and not something worse.. J And then we came across something I had read about but never experienced – a lady driving down the road plucking her eyebrows at the same time! I stared at her, but she did not notice at all – I could not believe it and we were rather happy when she got a goodly way ahead of us.. safer that way. Gas prices went up at high as $3.49 per gallon at one stage, so we were quite happy to fill both the Skilpads (rv and bakkie) up at $3.05 /gal.

And then there it was – a campground – yes, 35 miles north, but still totally do-able. Oh happiness happened in a heartbeat! We quickly pulled in, discovered that it is rather a smart RV and Golf Resort, yes Gordon! (note the upper case letters!) with a enormous, fancy, electronically operated gate. The rates were surprisingly reasonable so we booked for two nights and relaxed for the night.

This morning we slept late – all the way to 8am! – did some laundry, took doglet for a wander or three around the campground and then headed back south to the Gardens. I was expecting something great, but was not expecting this. The camera could in no way do this place any justice at all. At first it appeared to be kinda run down and …….odd. There was this huge board with the name of the place, a smaller board the pointed to the left and said entrance – but only a locked, crooked gate on an old rusty fence that surrounded a large piece of property that looked dry and run down, other than the fruit trees growing, greeted us. We were surprised, to say the least, but still keen to see this place. And then the gates were opened.

It’s a jewell – its amazing, awesome and something that everyone should see. What this man built is simply wonderful. You feel the gentle breeze as soon as you go inside and its about 20 degrees cooler underground than upstairs. There are tunnels everywhere, all rounded off neatly, with benches, a water well, a kitchen, two bedrooms with a winter and a summer bed in them. There is no way to describe the feeling of this place.

Baldasare Forestiere, who build this place, was the great uncle of the guy that gave the tour and it was wonderful to see the obvious enjoyment of this man while he re-told us the story.

Baldasare worked alone for 40 years during his spare time, using only hand tools, sculpting the underground complex that consists of: a network of underground rooms, niches, patios, courtyards and passageways – once covering 10 acres. Sadly, only 4 acres of it are left today. There is a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, a library, a bathroom and a fish pond; arches and stonework is designed after the ancient catacombs and also in a definite Sicicilian (sp?)style. Kate – it reminded me a lot of Yotgrot.

There is a tunnel that was designed for cars to come inside – apparently they made some money during the prohibition and hid the trucks and loads underground, keeping it all cool for the night runs. The work that it took to build that 800 foot long tunnel is amazing. There are courtyards with citrus trees growing and bearing fruit right now – it’s just too awesome. All over the place are round openings/tunnels upwards that let the light and the breeze in and give the whole place a beautiful warm glow. He even had an aquarium that he could sit underneath and watch the fish swim. This was not for casual use – he kept the fish he caught to eat, alive in there until they were to become supper!

There is a vine that grew up in an unplanned place, so he made a hole in the wall so it could keep growing up, and then he made it come back out of the wall in three different places, before directing it back up and out the top of yet another big hole open to the sky. Many of the trees and vines there are still the original ones planted by himself and still bearing fruit and we were allowed to take one of the beautiful pomegranates growing there.

I could have wandered around those gardens for hours, exploring all the little side tunnels and just breathing in the peace that lives down there. The traffic noise disappeared and there were a good few birds chirping in the trees that had a good portion of their foliage and fruit above ground too.

Just an awesome place and I am filled with questions about so many things there. Apparently he built this place and even put in a big bell in the “Chapel” section, in the hope that his lady love would marry him. She declined and he never married at all. Sad, but apparently he was not the easiest of men to live with.

Baldasare came to the USA from Sicily as a young man, bought this land believing that it was good to grow grapes and make a living. When he finally came across from New York to see the land he had blindly bought, he found it totally arid and useless for anything he had wanted to do. And it was hot so he started digging down to make store rooms for his stuff. The rooms grew and were changed and added on to as time went by and this incredible, incredible Garden was born.

It is a California Registered Historical Landmark, No. 916 and everyone should come and see it. It is way more than I imagined and I am in awe of the mind of this man that saw in his mind something, and then built it. Single handedly.

He took something that was potentially devastating and turned it into something beautiful using only his hands, hand tools and about $300 for the cement he used!

What a lesson that is. We cannot possibly build what Baldasare built, but we can build love and light and laughter in our lives – even out of, or despite being handed, the bad things in life.. These gardens have confirmed that once again for me.

So now we sit and wonder where to go from here. The temperatures are way too cold to head further north to the coast as we had planned, so it looks as if we will head through Yosemite National Park and into Utah from there and then who knows. To head south would take us too close to Joleen and I could not bear getting that close without stopping again....... The weather is cooler than we expected and its pointless sitting in the rv with it too cold to enjoy a beach walk or bike ride…… maybe even Big Bend will happen, but we are definitely going to be driving through the orange lands of Bryce, Canyonlands etc…

We just love driving there.We will probably not have email or even cell phone contact for a few days from now on – all depending on how long we take to go through Yosemite. Last time went there, the other rv got so hot that we had to stop at every stop along the way! It was lovely, but hopefully this time the ride is smoother.

The Forestiere Gardens photos are up on photobucket, but it’s a little different. I have put a bland photo there with the words : “Click on Album above this picture.” Look about 2 – 3 inches above that photo and the albums are listed there….. I think it was a better way of doing it than having all the photos jumbled up.

Today was incredible and it was good to see Frank also racking up those photographs too – he took 83 photos! I only got in just under 300. Not bad for a tour an hour long.

Love and light
Annie