Steve and Graham's Pacific Coast

it was misty for the first 40km or so, and then still misty on and off for a little while after that, this morning  The red ground cover is hottentot fig - there is absolutely masses of it here Cheeky blue jay at lunch  The spot where the blue jay was sat when I pressed to take the picture  This is what a £310 room looks like here (taken from the door). One of us will sleep on the floor as the twin bedded rooms were, er, expensive 😉 The view is good though Steve and I walked miles to town last night for a Thai meal but when we arrived they were only doing takeaway. There was an ice cream place next door that also advertised (on a small sign) pizza. The place was all plastic with gaudy colours and balloons - I wasn't optimistic. When the pizza turned up it was actually very nice, and, naturally, we had ice cream for pudding! Big Sur (or Big South, for those who are not flue...

A couple of views from this morning  A nice beach where the car park had a handy toilet (I know they like to call them washrooms over here but this was an earth closet type toilet with no washing facilities, so I'm not sure that applies) Strawberry picking just up the road from our hotel  When I signed away my life (for the umpteenth time) checking-in last night I joked to the lady that she wouldn't understand my date as I wrote it down in the normal UK order. She told me the WiFi password, instead of writing it down in the usual way.  I passed it on to Steve but he seemed to be struggling logging in. Then it dawned on me - harborview is not spelled the same over here as we would spell it at home!  Incidentally, at one of the motels we stayed in they had me sign to say we wouldn't sue if we caught Covid at the hotel 😉. I opened the window of our room last night, once the traffic had died off a bit on the hi...

The repaired bike outside Sunshine Bikes in Fairfax this morning Leafy cycleway through the suburbs  I'm not allowed to type what came to mind when I saw these very steep  steps but let’s just say it rhymes with a quacking water bird. ...or, as McEnroe would have said if he were a cyclist rather than a tennis player "you cannot be serious".  We negotiated them (and some corresponding steps back up) by taking the luggage off the bike and with the help of a group of very helpful ladies  Alcatraz, I think? Downtown San Francisco  Hurrah, we are across  We never did get any power at our AirBnB last night - it was still off when we left this morning. The water in the tap was getting tenuous because the pump from the well wasn't working. As we left I said to the guy that it wasn't the overnight I was expecting- he just shrugged and said "it happens here all of the time", which ...

Blog for Monday 12th Grey pelicans bathing and preening on a (brackish?) lagoon at Gualala - there was another big group on the sea side of the shingle - maybe 500 altogether A closer view - the black backed gull is an imposter  These pinky pampas type grasses are widespread, sometimes quite large patches of them  Not sure what this is outside our hotel but it's very nice View from our AirBnB near Point Reyes Station. You should see hazy mountains way beyond the trees and a wide channel of water- it is getting more hazy by the minute.  I went for a short walk before dinner yesterday evening. There were some starling sized birds making some weird noises - possibly related species to our starling? While I was struggling to get a picture of one of them I stumbled across a humming bird - they are really difficult to photograph unless they are on a feeder so no luck there. We had our first sign...

Great coffee spot, although the scones could do with beefing up a bit! We dropped down to and rode around the back of a lot of lovely bays like this today  Hopefully this shot gives an impression of how dry it is here - those are staw coloured meadows beyond the green foreground and in the distance in front of the trees  Despite the dry conditions these amaryllis flowers seem to be thriving - there are odd patches of them all over The breakfast place at our hotel didn't open when it should have this morning so I had to nip to the shop to get breakfast stuff first thing.  A few miles into our day we chatted to a cycle tourist from Denver who was following our route as far as San Francisco.  He seemed to be going quite well and we bumped into him again at our coffee place. Soon after him, we came across another chap who was pushing his bike. I asked him if he was OK and he said he was. He also turned up at the coffee plac...

Just after I took this picture a sharp dressed beardy bloke came out of the house (wearing cheap sunglasses) and drove off in the truck! Back at the ocean - it had been hot and sunny inland but cool and a bit misty on the coast  A grey pelican - there were an awful lot of them The general store at Westport might look a bit tatty but the people were very nice and they made great sandwiches  Well there's not a lot going on in Myers Flat (where we stayed last night) - there's a redwood you can drive through, which we didn't bother with as it costs $10, and a shop over the road from the lodge where we scraped together a respectable evening meal and breakfast. That's pretty much it - charming little place though, and nice folks! I woke with a strong urge to head back to Ferndale for another coffee and cake, but, alas, our calling was to continue south, so that's what we did! We followed the South Fork Eel River ...

 Boats at Eureka -- misty haze beyond  We think a long billed curlew. There were also some very similar birds with a straight bill Traditional kayaks hanging in our coffee shop The lovely town of Ferndale  Back in the redwoods - they call this the road the Avenue of the Giants The age at which Prince Charles takes o  his new role of King initiated a conversation with an interesting chap at breakfast - he travelled the country, part time, investigating incidents (reported as faults) for one of the huge US vehicle manufacturers. Things like pouring over the data logged by various systems within the vehicle, when an airbag triggers without reason. An interesting bloke....and two years younger than King Charles.  We have been completely forsaken by our beloved espresso shacks - we haven't seen one since we entered California. I can only guess that maybe there are differen...