California Dreaming

Huntington, Malibu, Santa Monica, Ventura, Laguna........the list of seaside towns along the Southern California coast is endless and each with it's own unique sense of Californian charm. In many way's the coast fulfills the California sun and surf cliche with rollerbladers, volleyball courts, palm tree's and endless miles of flat, sandy beaches as standard. In many ways, these towns all merge into one collective memory and as we only had a day or so at each place and the proximity to each other can be as close as 20-30 miles, it almost felt like a continual stretch of quintessential Cali experience. We shorebreaked in Malibu, watched junior surfing competition in Huntington, walked the Santa Monica pier, 'hakkie-sacked' in Ventura and breakfasted in Laguna Beach. Our bikes, as always, allowed us to venture into the streets and suburbs and take in as much of the surrounds as possible. One could easily spend a month touring this stretch of coastline but we had a rendevoux with San Diego and although there were many times when we would have opted to sink another at the beachside bar or soak in a few more hours on the beach, we kept moving South - eye's wide at the craziness of Californian beach culture.

Chris en route for daily wood foraging

Cowabunga

Santa Monica Pier

Laguna Beach Cruisers

Breakfast in Orange County

Sundowners near Pismo Beach

Volleyball in Laguna is like rugby in Pretoria

Hakkie Sack Training

The Proudest Braai Master you'll ever see.

Some state park tranquility amidst Southern Californian sprawl.

Chocolate Milk. Drink it in. It always goes down smooth.

Escape into the Mountains above Santa Monica

Marina in Southern Cali - stock standard

Chicken Flattie overlooking Malibu

Big Sur

From the opulence of Pebble Beach and Monterey, it was literally a breath of fresh air returning once again to the forests and wilds surrounding that is known as Big Sur. This former 'Hippie' enclave is a heavily wooded and mountainous area, with many Redwoods lining the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean. The town itself is a decidedly subtle and isolated commune filled with writers, artists and popular culture. The mountainous terrain and lack of property available for development seem to have kept Big Sur relatively unspoiled with the bulk of the residents comprising of the descendants of the original ranching families, artists and writers, along with some very wealthy home-owners. It truly is a beautiful area and we reveled in our campsite, right alongside the gently flowing Big Sur river. Showering was replaced with river bathing after which we literally danced into the night around a raging bonfire. The following day we meandered along the coast, passing over pristine bay's and generally soaking in the awe-inspiring natural scenery before stumbling upon the mindblowing 'Elephant Seal Beach' filled with hundreds of bizarre, barking Elephant Seals.

Monterey, Santa Cruz and the Affluent.

From San Francisco we took to the open road once again, glad to free of traffic and concrete-floored RV parks. This wasn't without incident though, as before we managed to get free of the city's outer limits, the overly wide berth of 'Harby' managed to clip the side mirror of an adjacent car as we squeezed by. After some amicable negotiation from both parties we managed to pay our way out of insurance issues and carried Southward glad to find ourselves back on the single lane 101 highway - the road on which 'Harby' and us, were more comfortable. The next few day's were spent exploring and marveling at the affluent coastal towns of Santa Cruz, with it's rich laid-back surf culture and Monterey's exquisite boardwalks, coastal flowers and authentic seafood cuisine. Our campsites ranged from carnival fairgrounds to small craft mariners and as unique as these were, we chose to spend the bulk of the day walking the fisherman wharfs sampling clam chowders and cycling along the ocean-facing promenades - with one so aptly named; 'Lovers Lane'. From Monterey we meandered along one of the most scenic drives in the world, 17 Mile drive. This famous coastal landmark runs from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach, featuring awe-inspiring vistas and beaches. After a numbingly refreshing swim at Stillwater cove, we strolled the lawns overlooking the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf club en route to Big Sur National Park. 

 

 

With Flowers in Her Hair

After successfully negotiating the Pacific Coast highway, we rolled into San Francisco late one afternoon. We wasted little time in busing it into the city to explore the busy streets and score a seafood chowder dinner down at the wharf. The following morning we caught the ferry across the bay via Alcatraz to the waterfront with our trusty bikes for a full day of inner city exploration. As we had learned, bicycles are an effective way to explore any city and the same applied to San Francisco. That said, as the hilliest city in North America, we had to dig deep a few times to summit some of the notoriously inclined streets. Nevertheless, San Francisco is a city surrounded with natural beauty and we capped off an immaculate day with another fresh seafood lunch followed by a fairly intense 3 hour bike ride back over the infamous Golden Gate Bridge around the entire San Francisco bay eventually finding our way back to our RV park.