Anyhoo, so, days three and four have seen us heading further south. Where did I leave you? Oh yes, we were just north of Monterey having travelled along the "best coastline ever" - hmmm, well, leaving Monterey we travelled around a hundred or so miles further south to Sainta Margarita, believe me this most definitely was the best coastline ever! Our faith has been restored. The road winds for miles along the edge of the Pacific. Every so often there is a mail box and a house half hanging off a cliff. There are no roads that come onto route 1 for miles. It started me thinking how on earth you'd get your grocery shop in there, but I guess if you wanna live in a house like that, you probably don't care much about the need to get your groceries from Safeway or the need to socialise with other humans!
We've seen a ton of interesting places like this, not just on the edge of cliffs, but that are just in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do.....ever......but then, your outlook on life is different from a gal coming from the East coast just outside of New York City - did I just say that?!! Not that I need Prada, but I do need to know that the nearest doctor or vet is not over 50 miles away.
The highlight (in fact the saving grace as we'd been in the van for over 3 hours yesterday afternoon) was finding Elephant Seals on the beach just along the coast at one point. It was stunning. Huge colonies of them were basking in the evening sunshine.
Our campground last night was out the back of beyond in bear country (nah! still haven't seen any, but we're holding out for a possible sighting in Yosemite). After the kids crashed out in bed, Mr Beehive and I lay out under the stars for a while. I have seen some pretty amazing skies, in Africa and in the South of France, but this one really took the biscuit (or cookie!). It was so black and so full of stars. I think after glass of wine number 3, conversation took a spiritual turn and got a bit deep until there was a rustle in the bushes behind us and we decided that if we were to view bears, doing it inside the van might be a little more preferable.
Today we've crossed the San Andreas Fault line into the Kettleman Hills, across the San Joaquin valley towards Visalia. We're pretty much in "One horse town" but the view we got coming across the plain of the Sierra Nevada rearing up with it's snow capped peaks was worth every part of this trip. Unfortunately for the $34 we're spending for our "luxury" site, the view is now obscurred by the one horse town's only factory. However, there's a pool, we've arrived in light, the temp is in the 70's so we're kicking back and enjoying the afternoon.
Deep Fried Artichokes. They grow locally and this is apparently a breakfast delicacy!!
Fields and fields of artichokes next to fields and fields of ripe strawberries (in March!)
Monterey Aquarium. The Kelp Forest and lots of jellies. There were a couple of superb octopi, but as the sign reported "Please do not flash the octopus". We couldn't even see for taking pictures as we were laughing so much!
Cannery Row, of John Steinbeck fame!
See those four tiny dots in the water? Sea otters! The coastline at one point is a refuge and there are hundreds of them dotting the waves.
Just a small sample of the road, that went on and on and on and on.................
Big daddy Elephant Seal! He was a bit of a brute really, we saw him scaring the females into submission so he could take their warm spot in the sun - bully!
Younger seals.
More seals!
Getting all artistic!
Sun set over the Pacific. Pretty cool to think that only a few days ago we were on the other side of the States next to a totally different ocean.
One Horse Town! This was the only store apart from the USPS store in which on a Saturday morning at 10am "mail is not up yet!"
The road is loooooooooooong!
Such a movie scene!
1 comment:
Yeah- we can pass the caravan on to someone at last! The sun makes a lot of difference to this kind of life. Fantastic pictures. More please!
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