Monterey to Pismo Beach

Wednesday 19th August.  Guess who we meet at breakfast downstairs? Yep, Greg and Cinti his sister. Greg is good company if you meet him once a year and he is a bit loud. The other guests slink out into the other room while he and Cinti regail us with family tales of growing up in Buffalo NY. Nice enough though and an excellent breakfast - complementary. After a brief walk around the Fisherman's wharf area of Monterery, where we observe sea lions sleeping and huge swirls of bait fish, we have a coffee at Lou lous.  There are people catching fish from the pier, so we stop to look and see what all the excitement is about. Some are catching two and three fish at a time, but when they tell us the 300 mm long fish are Mackeral, well, we feel like Texans - "That ain't no Mackerel, man, where we come from they're three feet long." We head for the coast road down the Big Sur towards our next overnight at Pismo Beach. The drive is stunning as promised, with very high hills dropping sharply into the sea. Sort of like the Great Ocean Road in Victoria on steroids. A fair bit of traffic, but as we are heading south, the pullovers and scenic spots are on our side of the road, so photo opps are easy, if not busy.

 The scenery at first is parched, brown earth but when we get to Big Sur proper, a small township with accommodation houses, camping grounds etc we are surrounded by lush towering Redwoods. No sign of any water though, at least not fresh water in rivers and streams. About half way into the journey, the Bitch quits. She just turns off and won't start. Looks like we will be back to first principles for the trip into Pismo Beach. A stop for a club sandwich and a beer at Whale Beach cafe proves to be worthwhile - Lady P maintains she sees some whale splash and we enjoy a shared club sandwich.Further along the Coast road amongst the brown paddocks once more we get to see some great big Elephant Seals frolicking on the beach, as if Elephant Seals can be described as frolicking. And then we roll into San Simeon and the turn off to the famous 'not to be missed' Hearst Castle. Previous members of the Anzac tour party had reported waits of an hour upon arriving at the Hearst Castle visitors centre but no such delays for us. We walk in the door at 1.50pm and book our Cottages and Kitchen tour for 2pm! Flashy is suitably impressed and our guide further impresses with plenty of historical facts mostly relating to the many notable visitors to Hearst Castle - including David Niven who lamented the lack of alcohol served by the Hearsts and noted that the wine poured 'like glue'. We roll down the hill and head off to Pismo Beach which Lady P finds easily without the aid of devices and we settle into our room directly on the beach. Lady P finds the ice vending machine and with the aid of our little esky we chill the gin and tonic and settle in to watch the spectacular sunset - Lady P from the beach front balcony and Flashman very unromantically from the shade of the lounge room - precious! An American diner is located for dinner and we share a hamburger and chili cheesefries. Both are excellent and Californian in size, i.e. normal not gigantic. Back to our room to pull down the Murphy bed from its hiding place in the wardrobe and a comfortable night before departure in the morning for LA.