Just past the old wooden jetty, Harbour Seals are asleep on rocks, right by the path. One particularly plump one on his back, snoring!
"17 mile drive" State park has very little traffic and takes us around a wonderful rocky headland, where Sea-lions bark like dogs on offshore rock outcrops. Then comes Pebble Beach Championship golf course and large expensive houses, all in big plots, protected by security gates. They favour faux-Chateau or Hispanic "style", and red Ferraris! In the equally prosperous small town of Carmel we only spot it's famous ex-mayor (Clint Eastwood) on a film festival poster. The hotels are all "bijou" and the shops full of luxury goods. We admire the faultless white sand beach and carry on to a coast-hugging road of stunning bridges and views. Our home for the night is a camp spot amongst the trees of Pffeifer Big Sur State Park. At dusk a "pesky" raccoon has a sniff round our camp table, but we know better, and have not left him any encouraging morsels.
The steep road out of Big Sur is surrounded by red mountains as the low covering bushes take on a warm autumn colour. Then, spectacularly, the road emerges on the mountain side, high above the sea and then continues for another 50miles, all the while clinging to the cliff edge. At one point we are looking from bright sunlight down through mist to the waves.
The road is the star today, as we don't dive down into valleys but instead cross high bridges. There are roadworks where a new bridge is being built with a roof over to shelter the traffic from rock falls. The surface is pitted from boulders in lots of places and a few recent falls litter the tarmac. The traffic is light and there are lots of places to pull over and gawp. Sea-lions can be heard barking in most coves.
10 miles from San Simeon we can see the famous disneyish Hearst "Castle", high on the hillside, but we are more interested in the beach. Here a colony of enormous Elephant Seals are lying on the sand, the bigger black males standing upright on the surf, posturing.
These seals were all but wiped out by hunters, and only returned in the 1990s, with the colony now 1000s strong. They don't seem to mind humans watching them from only feet away.
Tour miles to date: 2,126
Location:Monterey to San Simeon
