After a good nights sleep we left on a lovely sunny day and turned onto Highway 1 along the coast. There are many Eucalypt trees growing in California and we passed some beautiful trees along the way.
Eucalyptus treesOn Highway 1Onto the coastThe highway ran right beside the rocky coastA long jetty
At 12 noon, we stopped at Elephant Beach soon after passing Hearst Castle way up on the top of a nearby hill.
Hearst Castle
We walked along the track and saw a large group of elephant seals sleeping on the beach.
Elephant BeachElephant seals sleeping on the beachLooking towards a lighthouseA rental caravanView of the coast from the cliffThe highway winds round the cliffs top
The road wound its way along the coast with great views of the sea and rocky shoreline. We found ourselves in rather smoky conditions and we saw a couple of helicopters filling their buckets from the sea to use on the fires inland.
Helicopter filling its water bucket
We stopped at a lovely spot called Lucia Lodge perched on the side of the cliff for lunch. The trees around us were Red Wood trees, we were in the Big Sur area, 150 miles south of San Francisco. We had the Pacific Ocean on our left and the Santa Lucia Mountains on our right. The day had become quite warm in the sun as we continued travelling north.
As Dick was feeling rather tired, Pip drove for a while. We drove onto Carmel to Steve Fossett’s widow, Peggy’s, home on the coast amongst great tall pine trees.
It was lovely to meet Peggy, as we had known Steve for a few years through the Boy Scouts. Dick had also assisted him in Australia on a number of his adventures. I am sure many of you know, Steve had gone missing in a small plane in September 2007 and only a few days ago a hiker had found Steve’s plane wreck, his pilot’s licence and a few other personal belongings near the wreck. It was now confirmed that Steve had died, which was very sad, but gave Peggy and the rest of Steve’s family closure.
Peggy’s home was magnificent and we stayed the night in her guest quarters. Peggy took us driving out to the National Park a few kilometres up the coast and we walked out to the rocky point and saw some wild deer.
View from Lucia LodgeBridge along the cliffsView from Peggy’s homeDick standing on the point in the National ParkA wild deerThe Carmel coastA home at Mission Ranch
We had dinner in a lovely open air restaurant owned by Clint Eastwood and it was fun to see the pumpkin decorations at the door as we arrived. Halloween is a big festival in the United States at the end of October. We travelled further and saw many pumpkin displays with witches and black cats on homes, in gardens and in many shopping centres.
Dick and Peggy Fossett beside a pumpkin display
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