Day 87 – 91: Vizcaino to Loreto, hotting up (Charlotte)

The leg feom Viazcaino to San Ignacio was a much more enjoyable ride after yesterdays lond dull flat, and dissapointing destination tpwn and hotel. We have agreed on a new routine and objective for our trip down the baja over dinner (and margeritas…) the previous night: keep the days to 50 miles which we can manage before lunchtime and the onset of 100°, then stay in good hotels where we can enjoy the cooling delights of luxuries such as air conditioning and swimming pools for the afternoons. A good compromise of adventure and holiday for the final bit of.our trip! Camping was just too uncomfortable in the heat, and the 70 mile days possibly a little dangerous with the lack of shade. We are very happy with our new plan!

Today was the first day of putting this new plan into action and has ended with us in the beautiful and unexpected oasis of San Ignacio, 46 miles on from Vizvaino and checked into our air conditioned room by midday!

Having been mentally prepared for another long exposed and sandy flat,  it was a nice surprise to be surrounded again by cactus and more rolling terrain, but thankfully still with great roads.

The night had seen some rainfall from the ominous grey clouds that had again gathered the previous evening, and this added a shimmer to the desert in the morning sun.  The cactus and Sierra de Francisco mountains to our left were sihueted against the bright sun rise, which sadly made for crappy photos but looked very cool!

We sped towards our first shaded break spot at 28 miles, which was a closed restaurant but a good respite.

The terrain from there suddenly became rolling hills and turned green – a big surprise after 3 days of sun bleached sand and rocks.

In the distance we started to see volcano shaped hills and then even more surprisingly – a zillion palm trees emerged on the horizon! It turns out that our destination for the day, San Ignacio, is literally an oasis in the middle of the desert!

Goregous to see, and as we turned off the road into the small town we were shaded by a corridor of tall palm trees and even an oasis springs.

It felt like we were in a different country,  more central american, and added to by the increased humidity we had felt today after the days of dry heat so far.

The other highlights of the day were meeting our firat desert wild wees (very precarious businesa in such an exposed area!)…

And encountering our first baja cyclists – and just like buses,  3 came along in 1 day after 4 days of none. The first was local Alejandro who was racing speedily along on his unloaded road bike in the opposite direction.  He turned around and came to chat, giving us sweets and exchanging selfies! He is training for an endurance ride from Ensenada.

We then found the two guys that we had been told by Juan were ahead of us, sitting in the lobby of our hotel having stopped in San Ignacio for a rest day.

We had a wander into town, which was the first we’ve seen to have a Spanish colonial feel to it, with an old 17th century Mission church overlooking the cute town square.

It also had an ice cream shop with 15 flavours. No need to say what happened next….

The town has a really welcoming feel to  it and we were ecstatic to be checked into the fantastic and quite luxurious Desert Inn hotel, for under £40. Weirdly an EXACT replica of the hotel we stayed in Catavina! Pool, air conditioning, and the Margeritas are almost as good…

After a gorgeous dusk dinner amongwt the palm trees of San Ignacio, the next day took us to Santa Rosalita, and our first view of the Sea of Cortez on the east coast of the Baja. The surroundings stayed lush and green, and it was a beautiful morning ride as we gently climbed up to 1700ft without us really noticing.  We passed vultures sitting on tops of cactus, wild horses playing amongst them. Unfortunately we also had a few more encounters with vicious looking dogs chasing us down the roads as we passed villages – really scary!

We were looking forward to inevitable the downhill reward that would take us down to sea level and weren’t prepared for the series of steep (but very exhilerating!) descents that were interupted by a number of equally steep climbs back up. The thermometer had reached 110 degrees F (43°c!!) despite it being only 10:30am and by time we’d made it over the mountain and to the sea we were feeling a bit shell shocked!

But the descent was incredible, allowing myself to get up to 42mph before wimpinh out on the breaks and it felt great to see the sea again. It was a few miles of following the sea through industrial outskirts of Santa Rosalita and the town itself before we arrived at the hotel El Morro. Air Conditioning – check l; Pool – check; Sea View – check! The place was a bit run down but was just what we needed.

We met up with the two cyclists from Catavina who stayed in the same hotel and had some beers and some 75p a bottle Mezcal. There was also an incident with a cockroach, a shoe and a foot which has left Lu scarred for life…

Day 6 of cycling in baja began at 6am as usual with a sore head and sunrise over the sea to our left as we cycled out of Santa Rosalita towards Mulege. After 2 months of Pacific sunsets and the sea to pur right it feels strange to have switched sides!

We swung inland for another lovely day of scenery this time with mountains to our right and again we had a really enjoyable morning until the heat caught up with us – 112 degrees this time before 11am! It is starting to get to us and limiting our ability to function at all between the hours of 11 and 4! I think we are now starting to understand why everyone has told us we are crazy to cycle this time of year. A shame, as it is an incredible route – probably perfect in November – February. A nice downhill took us into the cute colonial town of Mulege, situated on a river.  We stayed in town, but were both feeling a bit destroyed by the heat so apart from a 15 minute walk around town we stayed in the hotel to recover. We stayed in Las Casitas which was cute and had lots of potential but we were dissapointed with the food and service after hearing goos things. It was cockroach free though.

We were bound for Loreto for a couple of days rest, and needed to break up the 80 miles (impossible in this heat!) into two days. Luckily, the first stretch takes us back to the sea and alongside the beautiful Bahia de Concepcion, an almost lake-like bay of crystal clear waters, with deserted beaches just off the highway.

We aimed for Playa Buenaventura 28 miles from Mulege.  A short, hilly but beautiful ride and an amazing destination. We had been prepared to need to camp but the owners had a gorgeous apartment to rent two metres from the shoreline for £40 and we jumped at it.

I left my GPS on the terrace and it clocked 136 °F at 2:30pm. Very glad we weren’t cycling in that! Our 2 new friends (Brit Ben and German Christian) arrived just after having set off from Mulege at 10:30 looking worse for wear. Ben convinced me to go clam gathering, which involves dragging your feet underneath the sand around rocks feeling for shells, and after dodging several stingrays we had a fairly decent haul and steamed them up for (a very minimal!) dinner. Yum.

The final stretch to Loreto started with a ride around the rest of the Bay to a beautiful sunrise, on our 8th consecutive day on the bikes.

Lu had been feeling a little under the weather and after a slow 20 miles and a big climb was struggling and didnt think she could make it. We decided not to risk the remaining 40 miles and I hitched a lift from a passing truck with two very sweet (and thankfully not at all sleazy) guys from Santa Rosalita who threw our bikes in the back and deposited us at our hotel in Loreto. It was strange to see the roas from the viewpoint of a speeding car!

My full spanish repertoire was exhausted by the time we arrived but we had a good Spanglish chat about families and the best Discotecas in Baja, and apart from me accidently asking if they were sisters at one point, I think we managed OK!

Evan and Berto saved the day and Lu especially was very relieved to be deposited at our rather swish air conditioned hotel Santa Fe, where we’ll be having a couple of recovery days before carrying on south.

Mexican adventure begins – desert cycling attire, hurricanes and cactus (Lulu)

It was very easy to walk across the Mexican border, however once we were across we realised we had to get a visa and the border would only give them out for 7 days, so we had to traipse to the airport to get it. 

Looking on google maps the way looked easy enough so we set off on our bikes.  We took a couple of turns and then we hit a very steep dirt track that seemed to be following the fence…OK so maybe not so easy.  My phone then decided to stop working as we were out of data range so no way to google our way outta there!  So we retraced our cycling and decided to get in a taxi.  The best idea ever as the way to the airport was steep and on very busy roads with no shoulder.  The visa was easy enough to purchase and despite being chased out the airport by an over zealous security guard due to having our bikes, we were soon sat at the Tijuana bus station ready to get the bus to Catavina.  The bus and not the bikes?!?! I hear you say….

So to explain – we had heard horror stories about the North of the Baja from Tijuana down to Ensenada about heads being rolled across nightclub floors.  Not sure which of the tales were myth and which were reality but we had decided to skip this part of the trip, so we were catching the bus down to Catavina. 

We arrived at 10 pm that evening absolutely shattered the hotel was gorgeous so a rest day to get us ready for the desert was going to be great.  Awoke late and had our first Mexican breakfast.  Our rooms overlooked the pool so we just lazed around all day it was lovely but very hot.  Around sunset we had a quick venture into the desert and it felt like we’d walked onto a Disney set of what a Mexican desert should look like – so many cactus all placed in what seemed artful positions.

We then had a some tacos and margaritas…one margarita turned into three not sure how that happened!

Woke up early as we wanted to get started around sunrise.  We were OM the road just gone 6.30 as we had a 76 mile day to get us to Punta Prieta and we knew it would be HOT!!!

It was amazing scenery and the photos just don’t do it justice,  the cycling at the beginning of the day flew by.  The scenery was reminiscent of spaghetti western film set and I kept expecting for Clint Eastwood to jump out from behind a cactus.

The desert after about 30 miles we stopped for a drink at a roadside cafe and there was the cutest puppy that wouldn’t leave my show alone.  The drink was cold and much needed as the heat was starting to rise big time.

Post drink a new desert attire was donned I like to think of this as the desert chic wardrobe of the cycling trip.  Lulu’s cycling clothes range- sarted with Alaskan chiq (which included a layering look, and lots of clashing colours), the Urban City look (denim shorts, relaxed dresses with cardigans), Coastal Hills (minimal cycling attire, occasional fleece/jacket), and now the Desert Chic look below for the first glimpse as your going to see ALOT of this look – hi viz is very prominent.  Char’s fashion line has also had a bit of an up grade and it’s definitely a very striking look…

 

Once in the desert attire and the arms were covered up felt a lot safer in the sun.  The heat was intense but the scenery more than made up for it.

We stopped under an abandoned petrol station for lunch for some much needed shade.  The final 10 miles were quick to Punts Prieta where we would be staying in campsite behind a restaurant. 

We arrived v v v sweaty, dirty and hot… Restaurant Melanys had a yard by the side where we could camp and they also had showers never been so happy for a shower.  We pitched our tents and used our ground sheets for some shade and a bit of privacy from the road. 

After dinner we headed to bed pretty pronto as we had to get up early.  As I was able to pitch my tent without the flysheet I was able to see the stars from my tent which was amazing. 

Woke in the dark and had to fumble around to get ready, I decided to get dressed on my tent even though it was see through in some sections…it was dark so why the heck not!!! However just as I was getting on my top a truck with headlights full beam pulled in to the restaurant eeeeeek I quickly lay back down and hid hopefully he didn’t see me.  Post traumatic getting dressed we were on the road by 6.15 and we had 75 miles about to get to Guerrero Negro.  It was great starting this early as we just caught the sunrise absolutely stunning.

After about 25 miles there was a restaurant and shop were we stopped for a drink,  and as we were about to buy one this guy said he’d get them for us.  He was called David Noel and an expat from San Diego who’d been living in the Baja for 7plus yrs.  He was driving his friend around who was visiting from Germany.  Our road angel!!!  He told us that he’d often stop for cyclists and offer drinks for them or a place to stay if they weren’t on a schedule as he lived slightly off the main route.  A lovely guy and the drinks were much appreciated.

The next section of the route became slightly more desolate and the temperature felt even hotter and then our dreaded friend the head wind returned and it was slow slow going till we stopped for lunch.

We also picked up a drink in a local little shop run by José who was absolutely delightful.  He was watching Rocky in the background – Sylvester Stallone in Spanish ‘interesting’.

Had to get back on the bikes NOT looking forward to the next 25 miles of headwind…

The road became unbelievably straight and we could see a Mexican flag in the distance that never seemed to get any closer.  It was tough going and the clouds started to come over as soon as we crossed into Baja Sur. 

Only a couple of miles to go till Guerrero Negro,  then as if out of no where I saw Charlotte pull over as some sand whipped up in front of me, ‘what you doing?  You OK?’ I couldn’t hear her response so cycled on up to go passed as we were close to the Hotel, then was hit by a load of sand and wind couldn’t see anything and it felt like sandpaper on my face and legs almost got pushed off the bike.  We were right next to a hotel so we rushed inside absolutely crazy weather.  All the hotel staff looked pretty shocked as well this wasn’t normal according to them.  Luckily the hotel was nice so decided to stay here for the night.

Once storm had died down walked into town for water and an ice cream,  then had an early night after eating noodles.  We were both shattered, what a day!!!

Another early start but a much shorter day only 48 miles or so.  The sunrise was the most interesting part of the day and after about an hour of straight road with v desolate scenery was booooored!!! Only bit of excitement were some wild dogs that tried to run at us and we chucked water at them (a waste of a precious resource but v necessary). 

On arriving in Vizcaino we headed to a hotel which had been recommend there wasn’t much in Vizcaino so the hotel was a welcome paradise of air conditioning.  As we arrived at lunch time we were going to have  couscous that we’d made the evening before but it seems to have had some weird reaction with heat/water and was a slodgy mess urgh not going to eat that.  Instead we headed over to a taco stall and what a great idea that turned out to be.  Had a delicious fish taco so fresh with lots of condiments and the chef called Kenny who had been brought up in San Diego came round and spoke to us, explaining about what food we might expect in the Baja. 

Really would recommend the food here yummy!!!

Post lunch had a siesta as too hot to do anything else and then we had a nice chilled out meal in the hotel restaurant .

After the boring cycle of the day before did not have much hope for today – however what a difference. The road was still pretty straight to begin with but Char and I chatted as we left which meant the first 20 km seemed to go by pretty quick.  As we were cycling we saw our first cyclist although he was going in the opposite direction  and was not touring he didn’t seem as excited to see us as we were,  however about 10 main later there was an ‘hola’ from behind us  and there he was we had a brief chat with him and he gave us a sweet each and then he cycled off.  Damn in didn’t get a photo, he must have read my mind as he returned again and said he wanted a picture and so i managed to get one of him.

The road then turns slightly hillier and the desolate scenery of the day before was replaced by more cactus and greenery there were also some mountains in the distance which made the ride more interesting.  Again the photos don’t do it justice.

The miles flew by and we were soon at San Ignacio which was an oasis and full of palm trees with a lake in the middle. 

We headed to the Desert Inn as we wanted a pool on arriving we bumped into 2 other touring cyclists these guys we’d heard about from other people at various points was cool to meet some other people doing the route. 

And now for an afternoon of relaxing. 

Day 84 – 86: Cycling Baja, Catavina to Vizcaino (Charlotte)

After getting a taste of the baja desert heat on our day off where the most energy  we had to muster was to turn over whilst sunbathing, we set our alarms to set off from Catavina just after day break at 6:30. The three margeritas of the previous night sent us on our way with fuzzy heads…

but it was a stunning day of cycling – up there with my favourites. Perfectly tarmacked roads weaving through a desert full of cactus of all shapes and sizes, which cast long shadows all around in the rising sun. The terrain was perfect, with gentle climbs taking us between the plataeus of the desert, and long decents giving us some cooling breeze. Each plateau we rose onto seemed to contain a different landscape – some vast expanses of sand, others peppered with eeirie mini mountains made up of boulders that seemed to be man made but must have been deposited by some natural force millions of years ago. Just as we thought we had left the cactus behind we emerged over a final climb to see hundreds more square miles of them enclosed by mountains in the distance to both sides. Incredible, and like nothing I have ever seen before.

The roads were narrow and shoulderless, but the traffic very light and generally gave us a lot of room when passing – though they certainly didn’t slow down! We’d added rear view mirrows to our kit which have been great for seeing what is behind (though look ridiculous).

A pleasant surprise has been that we get so many friendly beeps and waves from people passing us – mostly truck and bus drivers – which has made a nice change from the usual two fingered greetings in the US!

The riding was amazing but by 10 am we were struggling with the heat. It is HOT here, and very exposed with no natural shade and man made shade only every 30 miles or so – the breeze created by cycling at 12mph actually helps but makes you forget just how long you are in the sun for. Thankfully our preperations paid off and we were carrying 10L of water each, 100 spf suncream, and covered up. Not the most attractive of looks….

…but it did the job and we managed to finish our 70 mile day unburnt and hydrated but dying for some shade! We also discoverrd that pouring water all over our clothes at any opportunity was a great way to cool down, even if we were dry again within 5 minutes!

We were using the blog of a guy who had done this route in January as our bible and it was perfect for helping us plan our days and where we would be able to get water and shade. Today it was a 34 mile stop for a cold fanta and a cute puppy

Then a 60 mile siesta in the shade of a disused petrol station. The stops are very few and far between.

Our blog bible had told us there was a small restaurant at 70 miles in Punta Prieta where we could camp. We were relieved to arrive, and after hiding inside for a few hours until the sun was bearable,  we pitched our tents for free in the yard under the desert stars. Cafe Melany was a popular stop for overnight truck drivers going the length of the penninsular who liked to leave their incredibly noisy engines running whilst they popped inside for a coffee and a natter. However, for 270 pesos – about £13, we had hot drinks, a tasty dinner, wifi,  a place to camp and 3 gallons of purified water for our next days cycling. It turned out she also even had basic outdoor showers that we could use – unexpected paradise after a sweaty salty day. Not a bad deal!

We set of even earlier the next day – on the road by 6:10am, for a beautiful sunrise ride, with perfect temperatures.

More great scenery for the first 20 miles as we rode through the rest of the Valley de los Ciros. We pulled in at the first shop of the day at 24 miles for a cold drink, and were greeted by ex pat San Diegoen David who now lives in the Baja. Amazing guy, our Baja Angel! Dave bought us two ice cold gatorades and asked us about our trip . A cyclist/adventurer himself, he told us he carries an ice box in the back of his car full of cold drinks, ready for any thristy cyclists he encounters. Trust me – this would be a vision of paradise in the middle of the desert! Definitely the highlight of the day and another great experience of baja friendliness.

The terrain then flattened out as we headed towards Guerrero Negro, a headwind found us, and the temparture soared to 99.8 degrees! It was a tough 10 miles to our next shady spot – thankfully wherecold coke and a Spanglish conversation with Juan. Juan told us there were two cyclists a day ahead of us. The race is on to catch them!

It was hard to get going again knowing the headwind was waiting, but right on cue the Rocky themetune blasted out from the TV in Juans cafe and gave us a boost! 

The last 25 mile stretch was a seemingly completely straight and flat road, hard to gauge any passing of distance even more so because of the ever present Mexican flag in the distant horizon which marked the entrance to Baja Sur.

We could see brooding grey clouds gathering ahead of us as we neared the coast at Guerrero Negro. Thankfully we had just turned off the highway for our destination when out of nowhere a sudden sandstorm hit, blasting us with sand and forcing us off the bikes. In even better look, a hotel was right next to us and we took it as a sign!

Goid choice – Hotel Terrasol had huge clean rooms for 550 pesos (about 25 quid) where we recovered from our ordeal with ramen and watched the Emmies dubbed in Spanish.

We’d crossed a time zone when we headed into Baja Sur,  which happily meant sunrise was now at a much more humane 7am rather than 6am! We were on the road by 7:10 to another goregeous sunrise – I’m loving cycling at this time!

Today was physically easy –  a completely flat 47 miles to compared to the 70 miles of the two previous. However, mentally tough as it was so dull! Another completely straight road that dissapeared into the horizon directly ahead.

The sunrise kept me entertained for the first hour, then the only excitement came from a new road danger – scary dogs running out to chase us from houses. A spray of water seems to do the trick but I’ve now added a few rocks to my handlebar bag just in case!

We sped to Vizcaino and had checked into Hotel Kadekaman by midday. Almost too hot to function but we managed to drag ourselves to the Taco Van parked across the street and had a surprising fluent english chat with the owner “Kenny” who though originally from Baja, had grown up in San Diego before moving back a few years ago. Amazing tacos and a bargain at £2 for both of us.

There was nothing to do here, and after filling our water bags at the local purification station I retired to the hammock to wait out the heat!

Day 82 – 83: Vamos a Mexio! (Charlotte)

We had 21 days to play with at the end of the trip, having completed the last part of the california coast a little quicker than expected. We’d been planning a road trip down the Baja California at the end, crossing the border at San Diego and continuing south for 1000 miles down the penninsular. However, due a mix of factors – how much we’d enjoyed cycling, the confusing insurance costs of mexican car insurance, and a desire not to get lazy and fat at the end of the trip, we decided to do the same trip but by bike.

We didn’t have time for the full 1000 mile loop,  knew the weather and terrain may be quite punishing and we’d also been warned (fairly at not) that the north of the pennisnsular had seen an increase in drug related violence in recent years and we should avoid. So, we worked our itinerary backwards from the tip, ex pat haven of San Cabo and planned to start in Catavina, giving us two weeks of cycling plus a few beach days.

We left Chula Vista with a 5am pre dawn cycle to the San Diego trolley, seen off by Heather and Keith and then we were on our way! We crossed the border just as the sun was riding – tje border in the US > Mexico direction being simply a one way turnstyle with a few stragglers heading through.

The view on the otherside was quite different! A line snaking at least a mile back from the gate – people must have been there all night

We knew we needed a tourist visa as we wete heading furthr south than Ensanada (the “free” zone) which we had been told we could get at an office at the border. The immigration official informed us otherwise, telling us.we needed to go the airport immigration post. Not a great start! But we used the last of Lu’s US signal to load a google map route and off we went.

I’d been suspicious of the google route which seemed to take us right along the border. Sure enough, after a few back road adventures in the dodgy Tijuana suburbs, the route turned into a dirt track which shot straight up and over the hills underneath the border fence we had seen from the otherside the previous day. And then our signal went – no more map!

We’d seen a taxi rank, and we back tracked and using all the words of Spanish I could muster we managed to haggle two taxis to take us and the bikes (with a bit of deconstruction and a lot of shoving) to the airport.

I chatted to Juan, my driver and he laughed when I told him “Vamos a Cabo con nosotros bicicletas”. Not sure of it was my attempts at spanish or the thought of two gringas in the desert that humoured him! Nice guy though and he wished ua luck.

Adventure #1 over. After overcoming some jobsbody at the airport who wouldn’t let us on with the bikes, we managed to get the visas and then it was a race to the bus station for our planned 8am bus. Taxi number two!

Getting taxis turned out to be a good idea – the roads were horrendous.  We just missed our bus but were very happy to have our ticket, confirmed that we were able to take the bikes on as long as we took the front wheel off, and hung out in the bus terminal until our midday bus.

We were deposited at our hotel in Catavina 10 hours later, very disorientated! I had managed to get into the luggage compartment and strapped our bikes to a bar, but we were worried about their condition. Sure enough bags and boxes were crammed right up to them but thankfully seemed generally ok with my mudgaurd being the only victim.

The hotel “Hotel Mission” was gorgeous and we were glad we had decided to spend a day off here before setting off.

The next morning we got a glimpse of the amazing surroundings that we had missed in our night time arrival. 100s of different species of cactus dotted as far as the eye could see, and Catavina in the middle of it being merely a collection of a couple of roadside cafes and a hotel.

I went for an explore and took a few pics – really gorgeous and they don’t do it justice!

We had our first Margeritas with a great dinner in the hotel bar. Then another….and another. ..

Great day off, and we couldn’t wait to get started the next day.

Being a tourist and proud…all the way to the Mexican border and the end of the trip… or is it?!?! (Lulu)

Woke up in the hostel to a rather irritating women who seemed determined to spend about 1hr in the bathroom…then when I was about to run in she said ‘i’m not finished yet’.  I then politely said ‘I’ll just be a second’ and ran in without giving her a chance to respond.  I then went for a run – yep the 3rd run of the trip I’m pretty impressed with myself.  On returning I was a bit sweaty as the heat at 8.30 was already HOT  delightful.  We had decided to be super touristy in LA so we were going to go on an open bus tour and then go to a baseball game in the evening sooooooo excited for the day to begin.

Woo hoo the Hollywood Tour begins

Starbucks and visor looking good there!!!

The tour was great and we then stopped off at pinks hotdogs which was really good they had ‘Lord of the Rings hotdog’ and a ‘Rosanne’ hot dog.

Enjoying my Polish Hot dog with pastrami and cheese and looooots of mustard.

Post hot dog gorge out we went on an afternoon tour bus of down town LA and then we made our way to the base ball.  Where we were going to watch the LA Dodgers play the Milwaukee Brewers.  On arriving we headed to the gift store and bought the inevitable touristy baseball cap.

Loving the baseball cap.

We then went in search of food and beer – well actually beer was the important thing.  The idea was to sit and drink beer and eat nachos and maybe watch a bit of baseball but that wasn’t really the main attraction.  However this idea was scuppered as on ordering beer we were asked to show our ids and they would only accept passports and not driving licenses?!?!?!?! Are you bloody kidding me!?!?!?! Apparantly not, so no beer for us.  We headed to our seats very disheartened and upset.

Even though we have our hats we are still massively upset not to have a beer.

As we had no beer we had to learn some of the baseball rules and we were helped by our neighbours, however it really didn’t seem that complicated and also the game was sloooooooow not sure that you can call a baseball player an ‘athelete’…  Char then decided to go and try our luck again at getting beers and low and behold we were successful, she use the old ‘I forgot my ID it’s back at my seat’ routine and that seemed to work (I think it might have been the English accent).

Very happy that our baseball fantasy could be fulfilled.

At the baseball LA Dodgers lost against the Milwaukee Brewers.

What a great day of being a tourist in LA.

The follwoing morning we decided to cycle through LA to get to Venice beach and then we were going to cycle to Newport where we were staying in Costa Mesa with our warmshowers host Jamie.  We got an early start as we didn’t want to hit too much traffic through the sprawl that is LA.  However the cycle was easy and we soon hit the beach, the cycling was then super easy as we were on the beach path, as it was a weekend there were lots of cyclists on the path and as we went through Manhattan beach there was a beach volleyball tournament so we stopped for a bit to peruse (there were some great beach bodies!!!)

Venice beach

As we continued along the beach post volleyball stop, Charlie a guy that I had known from travelling about 8 years ago met up with us as he was now living in Venice beach.  Really randomly I had seen on facebook that he was cycling from San Francisco to LA for Charity (2014 Fireflies West SF to LA) in September so I’d messaged him and he was now living in LA so said he’d come meet us and cycle with us for a bit of the way.

After about 10 miles we left the beach and headed in land, google decided to take us via Carson city and other such pleasant surbuban towns.  Charlie told us that Carson City is where the computer game ‘Grand Theft Auto’ is set so we felt really safe!!! Finally we got out of these ‘delightful’ towns and got back to the coast, we decided to have lunch at Long Beach before Charlie headed back to Venice Beach and we continued on to Costa Mesa.

Charlie, Char and Me all happy to have survived the Carson City experience courtesy of Google Maps

I know that Charlie was eternally grateful to have such a great new ride that he could do from Venice beach 😉 courtesy of Char and I (and google).

After parting ways we had 20 miles of flat along the coast and then one mile in land to get to Costa Mesa – by the time we made it we were pretty dead as it had been a long day of about 67 miles.  Jamie’s house was great it was set in a gated complex and she had almost a 360 degree view over LA.  We cooked some ramen and chatted with her and her sons before heading to bed as we wanted to be up early as we were cycling to Disney the next day.

Disney Day Dawned (D cubed) and we were off at 8 am so that we could arrive at 9.  What can I say I loved every second of our Disney extravaganza and reverted to being a 6 year old and getting high on sugar and rides.

About to set off at 8 am

Arriving in Disney the excitement is starting…

Disney Castle!!!

On a roller coaster (pretty tame)

Eating the standard American diet a corn dawg!!!

NASHVILLE I luuuuurve my country music.

About to head into the fairytale castle.

The end of a great Disney Day.

Post Disney we just had 2 days till we got to San Diego – as we had a pretty short day  in which to cycle to Carlsbad I decided to try and even up the tan lines by cycling with a strapless top on as my lines were pretty awful.  We went through all the famous beaches, Newport, Laguna…

Cycling by Newport

Laguna Baby! I didn’t spot Lauren.

After the beaches we headed in land slightly to Camp Pendleton where we had to go through a check point it was a bit surreal and we saw a lot of military and heard bombs going off it was also alot hotter than it had been on the coast as there was no breeze.  As we were leaving it was lunch time so we stopped at our first McDonalds day time (i’m not counting the one we had at 5 in the morning in Vancouver as that had a breakfast menu urgh!!!).  Then the final miles to Carlsbad which were back on the coast.

Looking as though I’m not wearing clothes but I am.

We arrived at Carlsbad in good time although my tan lines were as bad as before, we were staying in a cheap motel as no campsites in the vicinity.  So we chilled out and had our favourite meal which was…ramen (I think everyone could have guessed this).

Next day was a late start as Keith – a family friend who lived in Chula Vista just outside San Diego was coming to meet us to cycle in with us. We all managed to meet up with ease which was good and we set off along the coast.  A great midday cycle which was pretty hot and one big hill called Torrey Pines to get us to San Diego.  It was great having Keith to help us negotiate the way into the city 🙂 as he knew all the back routes and where was best to cycle.  We stopped at Sea Port village for some lunch time tacos.

Keith enjoying some Tacos

We then were getting on the trolley to get back to Chula vista which seemed easy enough, however we decided to play a game of musical trolleys and this is definately not as fun as it sounds!?!?!  On rushing to the station we quickly boarded a trolley as it looked like it was about to depart.  Boarding the trolley consisted in 2 people (one in front and one behind) dragging the bikes up 3/4 very steep steps which the fully loade bikes only just fit through the gap.  We just got on the trolley and we were all feeling inordinately proud of ourselves for achieving this so speedily when we realised that we were on the wrong trolley…QUICK disembark now.  We all piled off  as quickly as possible phew just in time as the trolley departed.  Then we went to get on the trolley in the correct direction and the doors closed before Charlotte could get on.  So Keith and I said ‘we’ll see you at the next station’.  Keith and I then had to get off at the next station another mad dash of oil getting all over the legs and bikes getting bumped.  Then as the next trolley pulled in we saw Char on it so we went to get on, but before I could get everything up those steep stairs it closed so I was left stranded at the station!!!

Stranded on my own at the trolley station.

Keith then called me and said ‘let’s just meet at the end stop’ great idea except Char wasn’t with me and she didn’t know where to get off.  So Keith said he’d leave his bike on the train at the next stop and run to the next carriage that Char was on to tell here were to stop.  By this point the next trolley was approaching so I looked on with apprehension as I realised I’d have to get on with no help.  I pushed the bike but was massively struggling so a kind lady sitting on the train came to my rescue and helped drag my bike up.  As the trolley pulled away with me and all my bags on I was so relieved, however as I came to the next stop there was Charlotte on the platform I quickly signalled to her to get on, then called Keith that we were all on our way to meet him.

Finally we arrived in Palomer there stop not the easiest of trips pretty ridiculous – I don’t like those trolleys that’s for sure!!!

Then we climbed up a quick hill to Heather and Keith’s house and had a lovely evening meal with some beers so great that we’d made it despite the red trolley stress!!!

Me, Keith and Char in Chula Vista

Had a great nights sleep and we headed off with Keith to the Mexican border it was a very quick 10 miles and then we were there.  The most south westerly point in the US.

We did it Alaska to the Mexican border!!!

Border heading into the sea

Rather an ominous sign…

Hellooooo Mexico!!!

 

 

After the border we headed back up to San Diego and took the ferry over to Coronado where we met up with Heather and had an icecream/coffee at Cow-a-bunga.

Cow-a-bunga

We then cycled back via the salt flats and some cycling road art.

Cycling Road Art

Excited to be sitting on the baby cycle.

Cycling back to Chula Vista via the Salt Flats

Then we finished the day with some planning and a great meal with Heather and Keith.

Our final day of preparation before we hit Mexico and we had a couple of last minute purchases to make so we did these early doors.  Then we headed to the beach for the afternoon.  Char and Keith went surfing while Heather and I improved our minds on the beach by reading language books (trying to prep for Mexico a little too late I think).

Surfing!!!

Keith modelling Heather’s jumper.

Post surfing we returned to pack via the taco truck (yum yum).

We had an early night as we were getting up super early to make our way across the border in the morning.

Woke at 4.15 am argh so early and we cycled down to the trolley stop with Keith – managed to get wet by sprinklers on the way!!! Heather then met us with our stop at the trolley and we then we commenced operation get on the trolley without someone or something being left behind. We managed it and we were off to the border, on arriving in San ysidro it was an easy walk to cross the border from the trolley stop.

We were in Mexico!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Day 77 to 81 – The “final”week on the bikes. LA to Mexico! (Charlotte)

We spent a couple of nights in the USA Hostel in LA which was great if pricey, and had an absolute blast being full on tourists for the next 24 hours! We….

…did a tour of downtown and hollywood from the top tier of a tourist hop on hop off bus. NEVER done one of these before but LOVED it!

…spied the Hollywood sign and all the faded movie nostalgia of the yonder years

…had “world famous” hot dogs at Pinks (they were pretty awesome)

…went to see the Dodgers baseball (primarily to drink a lot of beer) and epically failed by not taking our passports to buy the booze…

…but managed to finally get our hands on one in the 7th inning – hurrah!

We did actually watch some of the game and learnt the rules from a lovely elderly couple next to us who were there with their grown up grandsons.

I wasn’t expecting much from LA but actually really liked it. Some great architecture downtown, and lots of rock & roll and movie history down every street. I would go back.

We ended up cyling back to the coast at the point we’d left it, feeling more equipped with some knowledge of the city and so more confident to cycle. The 7am start helped and the roads were clear. Last on our LA bucket list was a trip to Disneyland – the original one that started it all – further south in LA. We had a long,  varied and HOT day with some more great riding on the beach, some sketchy detours through gangland LA courtesy of google maps, and a nice unexpected ride with Charlie, a friend of Lu’s who lives in LA.

We were staying with a warmshowers host for a couple of days who was in riding distance of Disney! Things are really starting to heat up and it was well over 30 degrees most of the day.

We had a lovely relaxing evening with Jamie and her sons, I made use of the pool and we got all her Disney tips – a veteran of twice yearly visits thanks to an Auntie who gets them free tickets.

We cycled the 15 miles to the park in the morning in an attempt to offset some of the inevitable consumption ahead! Starting with a corndog and a milkshake for breakfast. Obviously.

The park was actually quite small and the rides very tame, so we thought we’d be ready to leave by 4. But at 7:30pm and almost 11 hours we were moaning that we had to leave already to get the last bus! We had such a fun day and I got fully into the Disney spirit. The excitement on the Buzz Lightyear ride almost got a little too much as you can see…

We got back to Jamies as exhausted as two kids and slept well before our final couple of days to San Diego!

The journey to SD, and to our next and final round of lovely hosts was broken up by a stopover in a Motel 6 in Carlsbad. The days ride was very hot, with some busy stretches around Laguna Beach (how the other half live!), some nice long flats along the old disuesed highway 101, and a 10 mile ride through Camp Pendleton military base which was the size of a small town. The latter even had its own retail park full of McDonalds and Home Depots. We had a rest in Maccies, which was full of soldiers, and soldiers girlfriends using the wifi to speak to their other halfs posted overseas. Some awkward conversations overheard, including one young girl asking her boyfriend “how many people have you killed so far?”. Bizzare.

Having by this point pretty much decided that we’ll be continuing our ride down into Baja California, we spent the evening planning with a bottle of gin and our favourite dinner of 99c ramen.

Keith, (one half of Keith and Heather who would be looking after us in San Diego), caught the train out to meet us the next morning and be our guide into San Diego and through to their house in Chula Vista – just 7 miles from the Mexican border! It was great to ride with Keith, and we got a brief tour of the bay and some Mexican food and beers on the way through.

The pair had been reading our blog and knew what made us happy!! We spent an absolutely lovely 3 nights with Keith and Heather, getting a guided 40 mile tour from Keith of San Diego and the border the next day, going on a supply run for Mexico, and great meals and conversation (probably including ua leaving their kitchen cupboards looking as though locusts had been through!). We even managed to squeeze in some beach time and an attempt at surfing. Their house was temporarily turned into Baja HQ and will continue to be so whilst we are down there!

On Wednesday 20th August, we made it to the Mexican border, seperated from the USA by a mere few feet and a double iron fence that stretched along the hills.  It had taken us 81 days, 3000 miles of cycling and a few trains and boats helping us along the way. A great sense of acheivement and lots of photos taken! We’d be back there again a couple of days later at dawn, crossing the border with our fully loaded bikes. To be continued!

Day 73 to 76: Santa Barbara to LA (Charlotte)

We spent a rest day in Santa Barbara spent making the most of the local happy hour margeritas and the ridiculously calorific californian special – ice cream sandwhich made with freshly made cookies and luxurious local ice cream. Influenced by the previously mentioned margeritas, I went for a triple chocolate and rasberry sorbet filling, encased in a  macaroon and a chocolate chip cookie.  Just a small snack then…

We are definitely starting to worry about our eating habits once we stop burning 3000 calories a day. In fact, for the first time we started to seriously discuss continuing on once we get to the Mexican border – all spurred on by our need to keep our two-scoops-a-day ice cream habit going without obesity! Possibly fuelled by the sugar and booze we defferee the decision to be though t about on the bikes – but we were both pretty set on the idea!

We are now only 100 miles from LA and only 5 days of cycling left, and we’re not ready for it to end! There are now lot’s of “last times” coming up. The day after Santa Barbara was to be our final night of camping of the cycling trip, with the remaining nights in LA and San Diego booked in hostels, motels or with warm showers hosts as the majority of the final stint is through various degrees of urban sprawl.

The lucky campsite to get our final stay was Leo Carillo campground, 48 flat  miles south of Santa Barbara and on the edge of Malibu county. We were pleasantly surprised that that the first chunk was along bike paths next to the sea, then some fairly dull but flat and well sign posted miles around a huge naval and air force base.

Despite the extetme drout in California at the moment (meaning shower availability at campsites is hit or miss!) we road through farm fields growing lucious green turf, with sprinklers every few feet. No doubt bound for some of the mansions we’ll be seeing in the next few days!

By the end of the day we were in the Santa Monica “mountains” (really just bumps) and more lovely coastline.

We comemorated our final camp night with an fire, toasted marshmallows, a bottle of wine, and a lot of melancholy and nostalgia about it being our final night under the stars 11 weeks after our first up in Alaska.

We were also thankful we didnt get hooked on the marshmallows earlier in the trip after demolishing a whole bag!

We were a little nervous about the ride into LA, and the prospect of city communiting traffic. Greater LA is huge, and actually what people think of as Los Angeles is.a collection of 40 something cities,  and covering aboutba 100 miles of coastline drom Malibu to Laguna Beach. The first 10 miles of Malibu mansions were fine, but then the traffic got heavier, the number of lanes increased along with the speed limits. We had a sketchy 20 mile stretch of highway on our left,  parked cars pulling in and out on our right, and then to top things off a shoulder strewn with dustbins waiting for collection and rubbish trucks ducking in and out to get them.

But adreneline is good for speed and it wasn’t long before we arrived at an unexpexted bike path which meandered through the beach for the last 8 miles or so to Santa Monica pier.

We decided not to risk the unknown of the inner city roads and got a bus to the hostel in Hollywood. The bikes were loaded easily on to the racks that all the buses seem to have over here. A lesson for the UK!

Near death experience, smoke dried cycling shorts and reaching LA (Lulu)

Left Morro Bay in the fog which was standard for the costal weather and we had a loooooooong cycle today of 70+ miles.

The morning was nice and flat although we needed to do a bit of navigating to get out of the Bay.

Foggy and flat view from Morro Bay.

After doing about 30 miles we saw an amazing sight at the roadside an American Diner it was just what was needed.  So we stopped and went for a 2nd breakfast which was HUGE!!!

Very over excited about our diner experience.

Pancakes, Bacon, maple syrup and eggs mmmmm amazing.

Post diner extravaganza had a great 25 quick miles that went by in a flash some of my favourite cycling, we had a tail wind and there was the smell of fresh fruit wafting off the fields just great.

 

Rushing past the very flat farm land with a tail wind!!!

The strawberry fields thought it looked like snow (trying to be a bit arty but failing)

As we continued to cycle we stopped at a seller on the side of the road called Pete and he gave us loads of strawberries for only 3 dollars as he was shutting up shop. They were amazing tasting as though sugar already been added to them.

Pete at ‘Little Pete’s Strawberries’

Post the strawberry indulgence we had a big hill to climb and it was boiling so was not looking forward to that.  As we began the long climb we passed rasberry plantations which reminded me slightly of a X-Files episode.

Aliens have landed. Oh no they’re just raspberries.

After struggling up the hill ( I think I’d eaten too many strawberries) there was a great view and we had the long down hill to our final destination which was Lompoc.

View post hill (just about worth the climb)

Very excited to be going down hill.

As we entered into Lompoc we cycled past over 100 fast food, chain shops (I kid you not) it was just mall after mall after mall.  You tell me a type of fast food you want and it would have it.  We were both tired and very dirty and we had a massive fail on finding the campsite – although I think we both weren’t that keen.  So after a few half hearted attempts to locate it we decided to stay in a cheap motel.  GREAT idea  – so we spent the evening doing Laundry, visiting Walmart and eating ramen ( I know glamours right!?! But I just love Walmart 🙂 )

Next day was an easier day with few climbs and we were heading to Carpinteria Beach which was just south of Santa Barbara.  The cycle out of Lompoc I really enjoyed it was sunny and not too hilly and felt really great about cycling – although a slight headwind as we started a bit of a climb put a bit of a damper on my mood.

The terrain as we cycled out of Lompoc.

 

The sign to warn us that we were about to enter into a vacuum. Not sure it did justice to the amount of wind.

The Vacuum funnel that we cycled down post hill out of Lompoc.

Post being through a hoover we headed along the highway 101 and we had a train track on our right the whole way it was really cool how the track was right on the coast.

Hit the coast post Lompoc on our way to Santa Barbara

The train track that we cycled by the whole route.

The way was pretty flat now so we managed to get to Santa Barabara in good time and had an icecream on the pier.  I couldn’t believe that we had made it this far!!!

Santa Barbara Pier Baby!!!

Giles and Doris chilling out on the Pier.

After our icecream we still had anouth 14 miles to go to get to Carpinteria Beach.  We took our time and were cycling in a leisurely fashion when just above my head there was this HUGE explosion and the power lines broke and came down on me and Charlotte.  The lines were snaking around as though they were alive.  We ducked to the other side of the road and despite being in a bit of shock we were unhurt.  Although I managed to pick up a couple of holes in my glove were some of the sparks had hit.   Wowzers couldn’t believe it had missed us – horrible experience.

 

After a hit of sugar we made it to to campsite at Carpinteria Beach which was very beautiful.

Carpinteria Beach

As we were getting ready for bed, a man with a bin bag arrived at the Hike and bike site and started putting up his tent.  It was dark and he was shuffling about in a wierd fashion.  I said to Charlotte ‘That’s a tramp and I bet he hasn’t paid’ Charlotte’s response was ‘stop being so judgemental he’s just arrived late’.  Well I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’ but in the middle of the night we were both woken to someone loudly swearing and talking to himself – this went on for about an hour and was a bit hairy.  Just as we were about to try and get back to sleep Charlotte called out ‘The raccoons are eating our food’ arghhhhhh!!! So we rushed out and quickly stowed it away.  Hopefully now we can get some sleep.

 

The next day I headed into Santa Barbara for a walk around and then Char met me for dinner in the evening.  We had great mexican food and then OD’d on icecream.

Charlotte eating an icecream sandwich. This was an epiphany moment.

While eating our icecream we had a moment of epiphany… we didn’t want to stop cycling.  So we decided that we would definitely continue, logistics to be talked about the next day when wine was not involved.

Next morning we had a chilled day as we had a slightly shorter day and we were heading to our final camping night state side Leo Carillo.  I’d bought some trainers as I wanted to do some running and Char had said she bet I wouldn’t go for a run… so to prove I point I had to get up early and go (she obviously knew I would do this so she’s playing me at my own game!!!).

The cycling was pretty flat and we were by the coast for the beginning of the ride and the weather was… yep you’ve guessed it foggy (not a surprise really).

A bike path woo hoo no traffic.

Crossing the railway (nothing else of interest!!!)

We then headed through some pretty grim towns Oxnard being one that was ‘interesting’ and I have to say I wouldn’t want to live around here…

My face reflects my feelings of the town.

However once we passed Oxnard the surroundings improved and we were cycling through huge flat lands that were full of strawberries and grass… yes I did not make a mistake GRASS!!! they had fields of grass which were being irrigated!!! And here I thought that California had a drought.  Obviously grass is very important to the local economy so must be watered and grown.

Miles of grass aka turf

As we headed to the end of the day we got back on the coast and the ride was beautiful.

Cycling as we approached the Leo Carrillo Campsite

The campsite was also great and we had a nice site to ourselves where we decided to make a fire and cook marshmallows on it as it was our last night of camping state side.   This was a great success I actually managed to get the fire going, although it did nearly fail and Charlotte had to rescue it – I’m going to say that it was a joint attempt.  And then we proceeded to get very high on sugary goodness.

Marshmallows 🙂

Sugar high!!!

As the evening wore on we decided to dry our cycling shorts on the fire.  This seemed to be a brilliant idea and it worked great, you could feel the steam coming off the shorts.

Smoked dried cycling shorts

However after about 10 minutes Char said I think they’re burning,  me being smug ‘oh mine haven’t burnt’ but then too my horror I looked at the shorts and I’d managed to burn them right across the pad whoops not such a good idea after all.

The burn on the cycling shorts sad times!!!

The day dawned and I went for another run (not sure how long I can keep this up for).

Shocked by the fact that i’d managed to go for a morning run!!!

This was the final day until we hit LA Baby.

The morning before we hit LA

As we began the cycle through Malibu to Santa Monica we realised that it was bin day.

View of Malibu coastline

Now this doesn’t sound too bad but it was.  The ‘cycle lane’ if you could call it that had parked cars on it and then it also had bins on it.  So we had to contend with worrying about a door being opened and slammed into us or running into a bin to our right and then speeding cars to our left…

We sped through the miles as quickly as possible to get off the road and we were finally on the beach and the path was soooo cool it winded its way through the sand we were almost there.

Cycle path through the sand on the way to LA

Woo hooo we’ve made it!!!

We were a bit apprehensive about cycling through LA so once we got to Santa Monica we decided to get a bus to take us to Hollywood which was were our hostel was.  This seemed like a sensible idea at the time but after we had to wait for 30 min for the bus which then had a bike on so we couldn’t board it we then had to wait another 1hour for the next bus we could have cycled the journey!!! Oh well we got to the hostel and after showering we headed out to downtown LA on the metro to meet an old friend of mine Claire.

Claire and I on the metro – been 8 yrs since we’ve seen each other!!!

Day 34 – 38: A Tale of 3 Cities: From Vancouver to Seattle & Portland (Charlotte)

July 3rd – July 8th

After a few days of fun in Vancouver, we were to get back in the saddle in Portland, Oregon, and make our way to the coast to join up with the Pacific Coast Cycle Route from there.  In between Vacouver and Portland was a stopover in Seattle. After a false start and an unplanned extra afternoon in Vancouver after a mix up with train tickets (apparently there are 2 Vancouvers, obviously we booked from the wrong one!) we arrived in Kirkland, across Lake Washington, to stay with ex-brit Steve and his wife Alma.

The train ride was a great 4 hours of relaxing, and the rail-tracks skirted the coast most of the way giving us a glimpse of the Washington coastal scenery.

Day 1 in Seattle was spent exploring a few of the 150+ wine tasting venues scatted in the few square miles of Woodinville on the North East of the lake (who knew Washington was such a wine mecca!?) with Steve and the bikes. After staying strong and passing by all the British Colombian vineyards on our way through Vancouver Island, this was a long awaited pilgrimage! My first accident of the trip happens en route to the wine tastings as I gracefully slip off the pedals as I was crossing the road, and scrape a chunk of skin off the back of my calf. And this was Pre-booze!  A lovely bruise developed slowly over the next few days and would stick around for about a month!

We spent a lovely sunny day ziping bwtween wineries on the bikes and sampling 14 different wines and 7 beers. Needless to say I had a good nights sleep after that!

Day 2 was a far too brief visit into the city, which for me was a bit of another  pilgrimage of sorts to the home of Nirvana et al and the music that transitioned me from the Spice Girls! After hitting the tourist sights (first Starbucks in the world which tuned out to be the wrong one, Pike Place Market, the famous Seattle Needle)….

….I squeezed in a trip to the Experience Music Project museum, to see an exhibition on Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses. This ended up being heaven for me as was more about the pre Nirvana punk and hardcore scene in the US with tonnes of history on how the scene evolved, and was a really great exhibition

Loved seeing little kids with headphones on bopping along to Fugazi!

I spent hours there before a trip to the local record store “Singles Going Steady” , and cycled back around the lake for dinner with a pannier bag full of vinyl.

I got completely lost on the 25 mile eide back across the lake and was intercepted by the rescue party being sent out for me! A great dinner of steak and good conversation ended our fab stay with Steve and Alma.

From Seattle we headed to Portland for a couple of days, and spent our day there on a free (i.e. just tip the guide) walking tour of the city called “Secrets of Portlandia”, which I’d highly recommend.

Portland is famous for being hipster capital of the world and of course the Portlandia TV show, but I saw a surprising lack of fixie bikes and mustaches!  We did however spend a great afternoon hopping between some of the hundreds of micro-breweries and food carts the city is also renowned for.

We finished the day at Voodoo Donuts which used to spike its donuts with drugs of all kinds before getting shut down by the FDA.  Nowadays it sticks to jam, custard and shapes fit for a Carry On film to keep a bit of kitsch, and has queues around the block.  We were lucky to sneak in without a queue and got our high just from the sugar.

Really liked Portland, and it probably tops the list of places I would move to on the trip so far!

Day 67 – 72 : Cycling Central California (Charlotte)

August 7th – August 12th

We planned a couple of relatively short days to ease us back into life on the road together after both of us had been off the bikes for a couple of weeks. From Monterrey we would be heading down the Big Sur coastline – land of Jack Kerouac novels, bad Thrills songs and also a rugged and undeveloped coastline that attracts roadtripping tourists (including myself 7 years ago!). I had only vague memories of my first trip, but did remember it being beautiful so this has been a part I have been looking forward to.

Before our 2 week siesta from the trip, we had gotten our morning routine down to a fine art:

– My alarm goes off at 7:30. Lu would have been up for half an hour or so
– Pack up all the innards of my tent and down a litre of water to wake myself up and be able to hold a conversation
– Crawl out of tent at 7:45 to be greeted by Lulu with a cup of coffee and porridge ready for me (yay!)
– Become human by drinking said coffee and talk agree plan for the day
– Post porridge, pack up outside of tent.
– Pack bags, load bike
– Teeth, suncream and, umm…anti chaffing substances (!) at 8:50. A very important step!
– Agree a meeting place 15 miles or so ahead
– On the road by 9!

After a couple of weeks off, our routine was a little rusty and we limped out of the campsite, had a long stopoff at a supermarket (big supermarkets have a way of sucking you in when all you really want is porridge!) and were eventually on the road and heading for the big sur somewhere around midday! The roads out of town were some of the least bike friendly we’d ridden, with no shoulder and lots of traffic. I reminded myself that these are what the majority of roads are like in England! After 10 miles or so the road narrowed into the single lane Route 1 which would hug the coast for the next 100 miles or so, and most of the traffic dissapated to leave mostly tourists and locals, with the trucks and long diatancers taking the inland freeway. We’d been scared by stories of busy traffic and no shoulders along this stretch,  peppered with sheer drop offs to the ocean without and crash barriers. But thankfully, it really wasn’t too busy and the drivers generally decent about giving us room. Again, something that probably wouldn’t be the case in England! The scenery felt similar to Oregon with rocky coasts and bays, and waves crashing against the cliffs, and true to form the fog stuck around until mid afternoon adding to the gloomy feel. Similar, but with way more tourists, with people pulling into lay-bys to take photos before moving onto the next.

The fog was clearing as we arrived at what I think was the best campsite we’ve stayed at so far. Pfieffer-Jones State Park, fully equipped with trails into the hills, a store, a river running through, hot water a plenty, and a beautiful hiker biker area all for the usual princley sum $5. This would be a great place to spend a few days, with a 20 mile hike up to some hot springs starting at the site. I was tempted to suggest staying for a couple of days but we were only 1 day on the bikes…next time! We found a great little bar up the road with a great beer selection,  and put off camp cooking for one more night by having some amazing food there whilst planning out the final leg of the trip. We knew that that post big sur, the state parks and campsites would be getting thinner on the ground as we moved towards LA and had a bucket list of things we wanted to book in before the end of thr trip. Conjuring up all our Accenture/type A organisational skills,  by the end of the evening we had booked tickets for Dodgers baseball match , a trip to Disneyland, a guilt free fast food/motel binge in a sh*thole town along the way, booked in hostels and warm showers hosts for LA, and worked out that we would have 3 weeks for our Mexican baja trip at the end. We both felt good for having a plan sorted, and it did a great job of getting us back into the trip after the time apart.

Lubricated by a few local beers, we had an interesting 2 mile roll back down to the campsite in absolute darkness. Thank god the journey there had been uphill!

Over the next day and the following morning, we made our way along the rest of the Big Sur, and the scenery got more impressive as we did. We set off early to beat the traffic and being on the road without cars was worth the 6am alarm. An impromtu sunset cycle to a grocery store also gave us the opportunity to see the coast with the sun setting over it and almost traffic free.

Having lost my spork in Yosemite I fashioned a new one out of a spoon liberated from the grocery store. Slight risk of serious injury when eating and it looks like a weapon an inmate might make to escape prison, but it did the job!

The final stretch of Big Sur was two big hills, followed by a great long descent into some completely different scenery as the road levelled out into long undulating stretch through coastal farmland via a noisy and cute but ugly pack of elephant seals.

It was a varied day, as the landscape turned into parched grasslands and farmlamds before swinging back to the coast at Morrro Bay. Another great example of a state park with a campground on the edge of town right on the bay, and within a mile of the tourist centre which was busy with saturday night diners. We had a dinner of Mac n Cheese – a new addition to the camp kitchen, and had a wander in town before an early night.

Since our fail at the supermarket pre Big Sur, we’d been low on supplies so breakfast was a couple of cookies purchased from a late night bakery before setting off on an early start for a ling 76 mile day to Lompoc. My bad maths was to blame for the long day after google maps revealed the true fugure vs my planned 60 miles the night before!  It was an incredibley varied day starting with the standard foggy ride out of Morro Bay, then turning inland for some long straight miles.

On our bucket list had been a visit to a proper American diner, so after 30 speedy miles by 11am, we knew there was only one thing to be done when we came across this place on the roadside!

Our original plan to stop for a quick drink obviously turned into a full breakfast part deux, (with a side of hash browns of course).

By midday, slightly comatosed after the feast we were back on the road and heading inland.  As we got further from the coast the temparature increased and the landscape got drier until it felt like we were in a completely different country. The names of towns became spanish, passing through Guadalupe which was full of Taquerias and mexican shops. The temparature soared and shade dissapeared, and the miles flew by as I took in the changing landscape and finally a short but sweet tailwind!! Strawberry fields started to surround us and it was only right to stop and get some from one of the roadside shacks. We made friends with the farmer who loaded us with all the free strawberries we could eat and carry. They tasted amazing.

A big hill and a sail down hill to Lompoc was the end of the day. After trying in vain to find the campsite we settled on a cheap motel with a pool (to be fair, we didn’t need much convincing at £32!). The evening was spent in Walmart, our first visit of the trip, which was like a black hole of time and ridiculously cheap. I came away with 2kg of trail mix and an intention that it would last the rest of the trip. Needless to say most of it has already been devoured 2 days later! A terrible Russel Brand film, a dinner of ramen and a good nights sleep in a bed made the most of Lompoc, which seemed to be on the map just to keep fast food chains and motels in business!

We are now in Santa Barbara, and it finally feels like California! After a climb and descent back to the coast through what felt like a wind tunnel, we joined up with the busy 101 highway, leaving the last of the California hills behind us.

Riding the busy highway isn’t great, but there are wide 8ft shoulders for bikes and well sign posted routes on and off especially for bikes.

On the plus side the miles fly by on the flat, and palm trees, blue skies and sandy beaches started to appear. The OC theme tune at last felt like the right song to be singing!

Off the highway we followed great bike paths for 15 miles into Santa Barbara, taking us right down the main street to the pier for the standard celebratory ice cream! Really lovely town with a spanish feel – a massive contrast to Lompoc!

Our campsite was 12 miles along the coast at Carpenteria. Again, great cycle paths took us there. Slightly eventful trip as one mile from our destination an electricity pylon above the cycle lane exploded after a collision a few hundred metres ahead knocked into a pylon. It all happened very quickly, and as the transformer exploded above the bike lane we were incredibly lucky to avoid the two live cables which fell down right in our path, sparking and jumping around. Somehow we both managed to swerve out of the way but it was a very near miss and a bit of a life-flashing-before-eyes moment! The only close call we’ve had on the trip and one we would never have predicted!!

After a brief stop to consider the meaning of life and all that good stuff, we headed onto the campsite, positioned right on a goregous beach. A lovely sunset and a well earned bottle of wine to calm our nerves ended the day…

..until an army of raccoons woke us up at 4am! I still think of the Raccoons as the loveable creatures from my childhood saturday morning TV. These ones appear at night and ransack any food left out! After hearing rustling I opened my tent to see 4 huge shadows around our foodbag. Thankfully it seems they are quite fussy and they left my sacred trail mix be in favour of the cheese and broccili freze dried pasta. Lesson learnt and tonight the food is locked away from the racoons and the armies of ants that are crawling all over my tent! Gotta love camping 🙂