Californian Camping Day 70 (6144 miles)

Our last week in the US was without the bike as we had delivered it to the shippers and it was on its way to Australia by air via Singapore Airways. In place of the Tenere we hired the mighty ‘Hyundai Elantra’ which turned out to be a good all terrain vehicle, although we don’t think the hire car company would agree.


We stayed at 3 campsites dotted along Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). This beautiful sunset was at Pismo Beach, a great campsite directly behind the beach and a 20 minute walk from a nice little seaside town.


The Blue Whales are migrating south this time of year so we were always on the lookout for them as we drove along the highway. Whilst at Pismo one of them had made its way into town and was happy to pose for a photo!


Even though it’s the end of September the Big Sur area was still busy at the weekends and popular with surfers and hikers. We couldn’t get a camping pitch so stayed in this Tent Cabin amongst the Redwood forest area, the extra space was a bit of luxury after our 2 man tent.


We enjoyed using the fire pits that most US campsites have, nice to sit around in the evening with a glass of wine. Certainly didn’t need the fire for heat as our last week in California the temperature was 90 degrees plus everyday. This is John creating one of the many rice surprise meals we had whilst camping.


The huge Redwoods.






Three views from the PCH, the road and scenery are stunning:


We had lunch at the ‘Old Village Grill’ in Arroyo Grande, where according to the story board in the café, Steve McQueen ate during the Poly Enduro meeting in 1964.

Surfers (not John) at Pismo Beach.




Long Beach north of LA, aptly named and very well known but not a particularly nice beach compared to many in California.

So that’s the end of our time in the US, over 6,000 miles covered and 15 states visited. Our last night we spent with Chris, a fine chap we met at the Horizon’s Unlimited Silverton event who kindly offered us a place to stay before we headed back to LA for our flight to Australia. Thanks Chris, we really appreciated your hospitality and enjoyed your company.