Merrybrook Lodge Boulder Creek

... before you can see the sign marking it !! not good for his blood pressure I can tell you.

Today we travelled about half of route 1 taking in more amazing clifftop scenery whilst driving a very windy road. Seals on the beaches and fog rolling in ahaed onto the mountains...It is a shame that I still haven't been able to upload photos ( what is wrong with these computers they just freeze....maybe its the quality of my picture taking ...

... cool as they’d managed to make it look like a man sitting at the table. After I’d taken this photo, a man approached me and demanded to know why I’d taken the photo and what I’d planned to do with it. Errr..... speechless!!! He wanted to know if I was planning to publish it on the internet and wanted to know what my agenda was! Errr.... still speechless!!! Turns out that it wasn’t an art display after all, it was his stuff!!! So he just wanted me to confirm that ...

... was going to creep forward. We changed the destination in Mr GPS and took the next exit up into the hills for Big Basin. Very quickly the road headed up, narrowed and turned into a crazy rendition of a twisted off road race track.

I swerved the car back and forth trying to hug the hill to my right. It was all so similar to a Mario Cart race track. I was sure my 6 year old nephew would have had no issues tackling the windy road at full speed. Mr GPS alerted ...

... incident and they were no longer welcome. After lunch, Mel finally got to do a spot of sunbathing and have a dip in the pool. Now comfortable leaving the bus after dark, we went down to the Chinese takeaway in town for dinner. They've got a few tables inside so we ate-in and got completely stuffed on their Single Meal deal. A bargain and highly recommended. Distance travelled: 0 miles Total distance travelled: 707 miles Days on road: 10 States visited: 1

... t point fingers without proof, but just after they saw Neil checking in the bus the mother suddenly announced to her kids in a rather loud and well-rehearsed way "my money has been stolen out of the car". She then called across to us and asked if we had seen anyone hanging around last night as her money had been stolen IN THE NIGHT! Somehow we don't think a robber would make two trips to two camps 20 feet apart. The plot thickened when they told Butch $1700 ...

... big sand dunes as we left Seaside (yes, a real place!) but unfortunately the camera batteries died and by the time we swapped them over the dunes were gone! After trying three State Beaches and finding them all full, we were headed for our last chance option at New Brighton State Beach when , lo and behold, the most horrific knocking noise started coming from the back of the bus. Fortunately we were still on suburban roads and not on the highway so Mel jumped ...

Eleven hours after we left home, we finally arrived at Big Basin Redwoods. Our bodies were slouched in our car seats, exhausted of any energy in our bodies. The rain was pouring outside making the roads slick, in-turn making the drive a little more stimulating. We couldn't see much of the park. It was pitch black, but we caught glimpses of the park when our headlights illuminated huge tree trunks. We counted on the rain to scare off most of the campers ...

... Cathedrale und Chinatown. Jetzt wars endlich nach 12.30 Uhr und wir konnten zurueck zum TTT laufen und nach Treasure Island fahren. Treasure Island ist eine alte US Militaer Base die mittlerweile in Wohnungen (sehr guenstig) umgebaut wurde. Nachdem wir wieder zurueck waren sind wir zum Pier 39, hamm nen Crepe und nen Cappucino getrunken und hamm nach Papas Cable Car Krawatte gesucht. Nachdem ...

... adventure. The streets have been taken over by pedestrians and paper lanterns hang across the street from balconies. It is brightly lit and alive till late at night. And for me it's a wonderful place for souvenirs and small gifts from silk covered lipstick and cell phone covers to folding beach mats to incense sticks and paper lanterns all in the $.99 to $4.99 range. Where Grant ...

... charge us twice as much, so we went back out again to find the nearest petrol station. Once back at Avis, they told Andy that he had to pay for another days hire as we were about 3hours late with the car. Well Andy was having none of that, so he complained to them and also to those in LA who we got the car from, but it didnt do any good, it was policy and we had to pay. It wasn't much, but it was the principle of the thing. Our hotel (Dakota Hotel) was just ...