Big Sur: Our Last Hurrah (part 2)

We rode most of this stretch with Mark and Chip, who wrote a much more detailed blog than us. You can find it here.

Our sudden jump back into cycling during the previous 3 days had left us knackered and slightly behind where we thought we would be by this stage. Whilst not yet really worried about our progress we were aware that things had to keep moving, but also not really knowing exactly how far we still had to go, what hills lay ahead, and when push came to shove, what exact day we were flying back to NZ.

Perhaps we had be a bit too relaxed with our planning...no map, no idea how much further we had to cycle, not even sure what day we were flying home, and hazy memories about what today's date was. Especially as we were internet-less and had no way of finding out. Oh well.

Scenic Monterey in the morning, just before starting the 17 Mile Drive.
We saw otters in the harbour!

So it was a bit comforting when the biking section of the campground began to fill up with other cyclists that we knew left Santa Cruz the same day as us: clearly today had been tougher than expected for everyone. Mark and Chip turned up in the evening having spent the afternoon at the famous aquarium in town and we swapped notes on the miserable headwind section into town and our plans for tomorrow. We decided to start the day with a 10 mile detour through downtown Monterey, along the famous "17 mile drive" past the coastal mansions and a series of very well maintained golf courses, including the famous Pebble Beach Course. The weather was calm but cool and the road mostly flat so it made for pleasant riding, with a couple of large groups on cycling tours of the neighbourhood. It was embarrassing when one of the groups (comprised mostly of middle aged women) began to overtake us on one of the hills. We were also struck down by another rim puncture in this detour, which took much longer than anticipated. By the time we stopped for a coffee break in wealthy Carmel (who counts Clint Eastwood as resident and one-time mayor) it was almost 11am and we had really only advanced about 1 mile south. Time to get moving!

An embarrassing puncture on 17 Mile Drive.
There was a 50:50 spilt between cold stares and friendly chat from the locals.

Pebble Beach Golf Course, as seen from peeking through the hedge.

Starting along the Big Sur coast.

Lucky for us a strong tail wind was building and progress was swift as we entered Big Sur, a famously scenic stretch of coast south of Carmel. We lunched at the spectacular Brixley Bridge and stopped every 5 minutes for photos for the rest of the afternoon.

The scenery was sensational all day. We were so glad that we were on our bikes and could pretty much stop wherever we wanted. There were large numbers of tourists in cars, pulling into the scenic lookouts was traffic carnage.

Lunch.
If only the quality of our sandwiches had matched the quality of the view.

The highlight of the day.

The fog pulling back over the ocean.

Chip and Ben in a map conference.

Riding into camp.

Camping in baby Redwoods.

Later in the day we caught up with Chip and Mark, who hadn't taken the long route that morning and we rode together into the township of Pheiffer Big Sur. Chips' knee was giving him some trouble and with a state park nestled amongst a redwood forest just down the road we decided to call it a day. The campsite was amazing with our tent surrounded by forest on all sides and it quickly filled up with a variety of hikers and cyclists coming from both directions. Mark and Chip had brought enough chicken to feed an army and kindly offered to share in what became a camping pot-luck dinner. With some donated firewood we got the campfire going and had a great night talking to a German couple who had cycled from Europe to India and then up through Central America for over a year, and an American couple who had walked here from the Mexican border - hard core! There were also two French girls cycling down the coast who were doing much to prove cycle touring could be very civilised and glamorous, plus us four. Anyone looking would have described it as a bona-fide party, abet one that finished at 11pm as everyone was very sleepy from all their super-exercising.

The worst way to start the day - uphill, cold.

Sometimes the fog lifted long enough to see the view.

A waterfall that falls straight onto the beach!

Another bridge.

We stopped here for a drink, until we saw this sign.
Does the dog have a gun?

Another great view from the road.

The fog was thick and cold the next morning as we set off straight uphill from the campground entrance. Hardly an ideal warmup, we ground up and up for the best part of half an hour before we reached the coast again and things leveled out. The views were probably great but the fog was so thick we couldn't see anything. After a couple of hours we ran into Chip and Mark again, followed by the two French girls from camp last night, and John who we camped with in Santa Cruz. After a quick round of hellos and John giving us some more local advice on the road ahead (spot on, as always) we were off, continuing our "up-the-hill, down-the-hill" ride of the morning. We finally made it out the final end of Big Sur and stopped for lunch at a local cafe, but not to go in rather look like weirdos eating our packed lunch in the carpark. It was about 1pm and we had already had a tough morning but were facing a big decision: to stop nearby at the closer campground or "risk it all" and carry on to the further campground another 30 miles away. John had suggested we carry on as there would be strong tail winds once we got over the last hill (a total killer). In a reckless rush of blood to the head we decided to carry on, which initially looked like a bad move when at 5pm the road was still winding up and up the side of the hill, and the winds were picking up to match, with 30 miles to go.

The elephant seals.

But once we reached the top of the last hill things changed and our pace more than doubled, with no one pedalling at all for two whole hours. We zoomed past Hearst Castle and just managed to brake in time to detour to an elephant seal colony. There was a whole bunch of them on the beach lolling around making their weird sounds. From there we zoomed into camp to the usual worst place in the facility, in this case right next to the highway. It was a massive day - almost 7pm when we pulled in and after last nights party we were all pretty much stonkered..