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Published: September 21st 2006
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Damn pacific fog!!! The Californian tourist board have pulled a blinder in keeping this one a secret. Not a mention of it in our Lonely Planet Route 1 guide. Yet it plagued us for most of our journey down through California's Route 1. Some serious back handers going on here.
Having said that we had an "freaking awesome" time. We managed 10 nights camping in a tent that was less than adequate for that purpose (cost 20 quid though!.....in fact we fully kitted ourselves out for 70 quid in total). We braved bears, racoons, mountain lions, lyme disease baring ticks, and killer ants. Admittedly we never saw any of these things but the threat was there all the same.
California's route 1 starts at Leggett in the north and continue's all the way down to Dana Point in the south. We gave ourselves 13 days to complete the route which according to our book gave us ample opportunity to explore the sites. The contrast of the north of the state which is sparcely populated, pre-dominately industrial in nature with the south which is heavily populated, full of hype, and of course those amazing beaches, is huge.
Having camped
The StanSport Deluxe
Our home for the trip. The embarrassment of the camp site. You'd find better quality wendy houses in Woolworths. just outside of San Fran on the first night we spent our first day of the trip getting to the beginning of Route 1. This was an excellent start to the trip as is involved stopping in the Sonoma town of Healdsburg for wine tasting and deli visits!!! Of course we stocked up on a few of our favourites! Fellow chicks from Rosie's hen night wine tasting would be suitably impressed by Vicki's swirling and sniffing!
Having started Route 1 the next day, Caspar Beach was our first stop of note. It was a pleasant surprise to stumble on this private campsite set behind a small beach and the sun even came out for a bit. We'd had a couple of sleepless nights thanks to our rubbish tent and the fact we'd been in quite remote spots and the threat of bears (real or not) meant that we were listening for every russle in the surrounding woods. We set up camp and got some pasta on the go, contemplating a nice cold beer and then an early night. We needn't have got too comfy though as some rather suspicious people arrived and despite the fact that the whole campsite
The beast
Turned down a convertable Cadillac and Harley to drive this baby down route 1. was virtually empty they set up right next to us. Not sure how to describe them really - trailer trash?! Needless to say they had a couple of unruly dogs and even some cats to top things off. The good thing about having a rubbish tent though is that it is very basic in design so after a quick 'discussion' we decided to relocate. We simply picked up the corners of the tent and carried it to another spot to comments such as "look there's a walking tent". We quickly re-established ourselves and had an excellent nights sleep with the sound of crashing waves and 'barking' seals in the background.
We headed south, trying to chase some sunshine, passing through rainy/chilly spots such as Manchester (this one has a beach!), Bodega Bay, Stinton Beach and Santa Cruz. Rather worringly we criss-crossed backwards and forwards over the San Andreas fault and at one point drove directly next to it filled with water! Finally, we found sun in Monterey and decided to ditch the tent and get a couple of nights proper sleep in the hostel. While in Monterey we visited the aquarium which was brilliant. Not sure we really needed
to though as during a wander round the bay we saw sea otters, seals, sea lions, ray, jelly fish and star fish! Fisherman's Wharf was really quaint with plenty of tasty spots for ice cream or clam chowder. We felt quite at home in Monterey and were sad to leave ... which we nearly couldn't thanks to a nail in our tyre!
We then drove through Carmel (Monterey's even nicer, even posher sister) and Big Sur (a huge state park taking up over a day of our trip) to reach the outskirts of L.A. The sun really kicked in as we approached Malibu beach which is an idealic spot, apart from the freeway running behind. Here we were able to pitch our tent on the edge of a cliff with an amazing view and even have a hot tub all to ourselves! We did a hike around the Malibu hills, back drop to many films / series, and imagined Airwolf or the A Team appearing on the horizon at any moment.
We went back to hostel living for our one night in L.A. which was fairly uneventful. We did all the must does - walk of fame, Hollywood
sign, Rodeo Drive.
The penultimate day and we had made in to Dana Point - literally the end of the road! We celebrated in style, booking ourselves into the beach side Laguna Beach Hotel and supping plenty of Raspberry Beer in the Laguna Beach Brewery.
This left us the final day for beach loafing before heading to San Diego to meet up with friends.
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john lewis
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keep going !!
May you live in interesting places, as the Chinese curse nearly goes. Your sis is off to China saturday (as I expect you know) so I'll have two of these stories on the go now.