Day 19


61 miles

This was intended to be a short day so we could surf at Santa Cruz. In the end we didn’t get to surf – but still had a great day.

The morning started exceptionally cold – I was wearing my winter jacket and was still cold! The sea mist here puts the temperature into single figures as well as being very wet (not raining just misty like being in cloud/fog).


We stared the day at a very slow pace – yesterday’s hills and slow pace through town alongside the very cold temperature was taking its toll. We stopped after 18 miles at a small town just inland from the coast – 2 miles inland and we got away from the sea  mist. It was lovely to sit in the sun!

By the time we had finished our coffee and danish we set off back to the coast prepared for more freezing temperatures – but the mist had cleared and better still the northerly wind had picked up – that’s right we spent the rest of the morning being pushed to Santa Cruz! We ended up ticking along at 20 miles an hour or so.

We made it to Santa Cruz (53 miles) at 2pm – ready for a surf.

Only to find the bay like a lake – with barely a ripple of swell. I was gutted!

However, the sun was out, the sea was inviting and the beach had plenty of space to sunbathe.


I went for a swim (the water is still really cold – similar to UK sea temp in May) and soon food myself being checked out by a seal (he ended up about 10’ from me). More impressive still, I was about 20’ from a group of Pelicans diving for fish. I could have swam nearer but thought better of it – I didnt fancy a Pelican mistaking me for a tasty morsel and diving at my head. A few did fly over me, checking me out but obviously thought better of dive bombing me – too much fat!

After a very pleasant few hours at he beach we made our way to our campsite – Brighton State Park, just along the coast from Santa Cruz. We spend a very pleasant evening with a guy from Oregan doing the same trip (Spencer).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting to Canada

Image
Sarah gave me a lift to the airport. It felt very strange to say goodbye to her and set off through security by myself. Dropping off the bike proved very straightforward - because it was oversized we were ushered to a special desk and escorted through in minutes About ten minutes after boarding the plane - in row 75D near the back, one of the stewards asked if I was Mr Hobson. I said I was (I’m not a great liar at the best of times and did not think it was a good time to test that particular skill). He asked me to come with him. Compliant being my middle name I jumped up and followed him - all the way to BUSINESS CLASS - oh yes all those dreams of leg room and free champagne came true! Thank you BA! The flight went brilliantly- I smiled for 10 hours straight. Jaw aches a bit.... On arrival at Vancouver put bike together in the airport baggage reclaim area then cycled into Vancouver - 15 miles Met up with Simon my cycling buddy who set off from home a few days ago. We ...
Read more

Day 14

Image
78 miles and nearly 1,000m climbed – and halfway on our journey reached! What a difference the combination of good weather and beautiful scenery in quiet roads makes! The first few miles went quickly, speeding along the101 (well we might have got to 16mph). We duly had our Eureka moment: And shortly afterwards at Fernbridge we celebrated (with our usual ridiculously large breakfast) getting to our halfway point – we are now closer to Mexico than Canada. A few miles past Fernbridge we passed through a beautiful town called Ferndale. I didn’t take a photo because we knew I wouldn’t do it justice but it was exactly as you would imagine a Victorian American town to look like. It’s the sort of place that we (foreigners) would expect all US towns to look like in the same way that all visitors to the UK would expect every English town to look like Chester. 15 miles along the road we came to a town called Rio Dell which was having its fair – an obvious highlight of which was ...
Read more

Day 22

Image
Having now formally adopted Spencer we are a party of four. We set off in the fog (this very chilly and wet) for our final 22 miles of the Big Sur. The views would probably have been impressive but we were in the mist so saw very little. By the time we stopped for breakfast after 22 miles and almost 600m of climbing we were certainly ready for a break. We stopped at Raggged Rock hotel and whilst expensive the hour we spent there gave us a chance to charge our various devices and drink our own body weight in coffee (most places here sell bottomless coffee for a few dollars – and we always consume as much as we can). Once past Ragged Rock the road evens out and the miles come much easier and we saw a groups of elephant seals - it was like looking in a mirror By lunchtime an hour and a half later we had covered 42 miles and enjoyed a very relaxing time at Cambria, where they had WiFi and we could reconnect with the world. Time slipped by and we did it leave Cambria u...
Read more