Day 26 - Elephants On The Beach?
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
28
172
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Big Sur,
California,
United States
Friday, June 13, 2008
When we eventually found a branch of Washington Mutual bank, we had the longest traveller's cheque cashing ordeal to date. Even the teller found it monotonous writing driving licence AND passport numbers on EVERY cheque, after having to look up our cheques on American Express's web site! It did give us the opportunity to get to know Todd quite well though and we seemed to share the same beliefs and ideals
Highway 101, Santa Maria to San Luis Obispo
. He practically begged us to "come back and cash some more cheques with us". We think ours was probably the most interesting transaction he had done in some time. Just as we were leaving San Luis Obispo, we received a call from our friend Musty (Martin to everyone else), and were amazed to hear that he has a cousin in S.L.O. Spooky!
A little further up the coast we arrived at our lunch stop, a very misty Morro Bay. Its main feature is the huge rock that rises 578ft out of the ocean in the entrance to the bay, where fishing and oyster farming are the main concerns. Unfortunately it was shrouded in mist. Also supposedly spectacular are the 85ft high sand dunes which stretch along 5 miles of beach beneath the rock and attract all manner of bird and plant life, but alas, we couldn't see these at all!
Back out on PCH and back into the sunshine! Just north of Cambria at Piedras Blancas we came across Elephant Seals on the beach. These amazing creatures swim all the way to Alaska and back twice a year! At the moment they are resting up on the beaches while they molt. They lose an entire layer of skin and all of their hair as they rest on the beach for four to six weeks
Misty Morro Bay
. The weather has been weird today, one minute cold and foggy, the next hot and sunny. We have been told that this grey weather is usual for this coast in June; in fact it's known as the "June Gloom" and is caused by a depression which comes in off the Pacific Ocean. They don't seem to mention it in the holiday brochures or travel guides!
After leaving the Elephant Seals behind the weather turned grey and very foggy in front of us as the coastline became Amalfi Coast meets Woodhead Pass, but super-sized! After passing over some scary looking bridges constructed in the 1930's (!!) the landscape and the weather changed again as we entered the Redwood forests of Big Sur.
We eventually managed to get into one of the State Parks to camp overnight in their "en-route" section. Basically a car park and nothing else. And because it is used during the daytime, you can only stay between 5pm and 9am. All for the bargain price of fully equipped camping (explain that one to us). We shouldn't sound too ungrateful, we were actually glad to get in as most of the other Parks we had passed had been full (Friday night in summer on the Californian coast)
The Rock Of Morro Bay
. The Redwood trees are very beautiful and very, very tall. And the peace and stillness out here is amazing. The only things Mel isn't too keen on are the Gofers, similar to squirrels but with not quite so bushy a tail and they live underground. Too much like rats for Mel's liking! Oh and then there's the poison oak, which can swell you up to the size of a hot air balloon just by brushing against it. The rule to follow is "leaves of three, let it be!" Oh and have we mentioned the rattlesnakes and Black Widow spiders?
Distance travelled: 152 miles
Total distance travelled: 591 miles
Days on road: 6
States visited: 1
P.S. We've just realised that it's "Friday the 13th" and quite bizarrely it's the first day of our travels not to have involved a repair of some description!
