Despite getting on the road by 10am, it took us most of the day to reach our destination. Our progress was severely stalled by the frequent stops we had to make once we entered the Big Sur region, and the discoveries we made. We had planned a stop in Julia Pfeiffer State Park where we knew of a short walk we could complete, however by the time we had even reached there, a fair few photo stops had already taken place and we were already behind schedule. The reason? The views of the pacific ocean were truly magnificent, and it was simply impossible not to stop to try and capture the images – even with a camera which really doesn’t do it justice.
After arriving at the State Park, it then took us over an hour to undertake what was around an 1km walk. It didn’t take long to photograph the waterfall into the sea, or the cliff view, but it was here we made an exciting, or should I say, two exciting discoveries. Yep, the lizards are back!! The first lizard was basking in the sun on a rock and Chris was able to get close enough to take about 20 photos. Then just when we started back to the car, I made an even more exciting spot, in a bigger lizard – with a blue tail. I think I win this one.
Happy with our wildlife spots, we got back on the road and with over 150 miles still to travel and with it already getting late in the afternoon, we were determined not to stop again. We were doing quite well until we saw a gaggle of people in a car park ahead. They seemed to be looking out at the beach to where there were lots of light brown, long rocks. Strange. We weren’t entirely sure what was going on. As we approached, I suddenly realised that these ‘rocks’ were actually the biggest seals I have ever seen in my whole life. A rather dodgy, last minute manoevure from Chris and we careered into the car park on two wheels to investigate.
There was hundreds of what are called ‘elephant seals’ just sleeping and flipping sand over themselves on the beach. It was amusing to be so amused by a bunch of fat seals who were so lazy they almost looked dead. Chris rather liked watching a particularly fat seal ‘shimmy’(?) down to the sea – blubber wobbling in ajelly like way. I think I might quite like to be a seal when I grow up.
We still couldn’t get back to the car though as there was a tiny bunny and then a cheeky squirrel in the bushes demanding their photos taken. It was a bit like something from a film where the animals are out to get you.
Finally, much later than planned we made it to Santa Barbara, where a run in the dark for me followed whilst Chris recovered from his nausea after having to pay twice the price for some petrol at some country garage (we were pretty low). Despite the travelling, it was a pretty cool day and just what we had been hoping for.
No comments:
Post a Comment