Route 1 (or Pacific Coast Highway as it is otherwise known) snakes its way down the western coast of the US. We had joined it just north of San Francisco and planned to drive all the way down to San Diego, the southernmost city on the west coast. Route 1 passes through some of the most dramatic and undeveloped coastal scenery the western states has to offer as well as plenty of coastal towns and cities. It was the perfect route to make the most of our rented convertible!
Our first stop was Monterey, a pleasant little town with a friendly 'sea-side' air to it. The local specialty is clam-chowder, and the local restaurateurs hand out free samples as you walk along the main pier, so we got to try about ten different varieties, my favourite being spiced with cognac - yum! Monterey has a big scuba community, and also one of the biggest underwater-photography specialist shops in the states, so Sam had plenty to occupy him for an afternoon! It is also famous for its aquarium, which is one of the most impressive I’ve seen – my favourites were the sea otters that float upside-down and eat food off their tummies!
We were keen to try out the new camping gear so booked three nights in the town park where camping is permitted. Camping in America is a very different experience to camping in the UK. You can have a camp fire for starters - which Sam thought was just brilliant! There is also a lot more wildlife - we saw Raccoons rummaging through our trash, a bob-cat, a coyote and hundreds of funny gopher-things.
After Monterey we carried on down the coast through what is known as '17 mile drive', a piece of road so posh you have to pay nearly $10 to drive down it. It was actually worth the money as it passed through fantastic coastline with beautiful pristine beaches and lined by huge gated mansions that were infuriatingly just out of sight behind their manicured lawns and carefully placed trees. We decided that this was the place for us when we make our millions!
On the other side of 17 mile drive was 'Carmel', another well-to-do town with a reputation for snootiness. The locals aren't even allowed to have mail boxes at the end of their drives for fear it brings down the look of the neighbourhood, neither do any of the houses have numbers – they’re all named.
Next stop was 'Big Sur' (meaning The Big South) a stretch of the coast with amazing scenery, much of it just recovering from the big California forest fires a few years ago. The landscape is beautiful but harsh meaning there is very little development - just what we liked! We stayed at a few campsites along the way, amongst the red woods and overlooking the sea. We had a slight altercation at one site where we mistakenly set up camp on a reserved site. The camp host (whose fault it was) was a burned-out hippie living in a trailer who didn't really seem to be able to cope with the situation, and didn’t take kindly to us disturbing his equilibrium. When we asked him to return the fees we had already deposited into his ‘payment tube’ at the entrance to the park, he spoke the now legendary words "I don't open the tube every ten minutes maaaaaan."
We took a break from Camping in Cambria where we found a great bargain hotel with a lovely suite and pool for just $60 a night. We ended up staying 3 nights and spent most of our days lounging by the pool doing not much at all. It was nice to be off the road for while and we decided to try and take things a little more slowly from now on.
We had been making the most of our trunk full of wine as we made our way down the coast and were running low after a few days so decided to stop off at Paso Robles another renowned wine making region - we found another few tasty delights and I discovered a taste for Port!
We set up camp that night in Montana del Oro state park, a remote area with great hikes and coastal walks. We got talking to a really nice guy called Ken who joined us for a drink after dinner. We managed to make our way through our remaining reserves as well as a whole bottle of port…it was a great evening, but the morning after wasn't so much fun. Suffice it to say that was the end of our wine tasting for the next few days.
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