A Rugged Coastline

After leaving Quail Lodge and the beautiful Carmel/Monterey area behind this morning, we headed for our next "lodgings" at San Simeon. The road gets very narrow and windy for most of this section of the trip making it slow going. We stop in at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park to walk a few trails that should give us a birds-eye view of the vista, only to find that the park is closed due to fire damage. However there is one very short trail that is open 10 miles up the road. We take their advise and head up the road and take a walk out to a very interesting point. Very rugged but equally beautiful.


After a snack lunch of nuts, dried fruit and iced tea we continued our journey south to Ragged Point. The road reminded me of a mix between the old Kiama bends road and the Great Ocean Road. Very twisty with regular rock slides and road works. At one point we saw three helicopters collecting water from the sea and dumping it just over the other side of the steep mountains to our left.


After a latte and a sticky beck we continued on to our new home for the next two nights Best Western Cavalier Oceanfront Resort. On the way, there were multicoloured elephant seals lazing on several beaches and people kite surfing at another.


We have an upstairs oceanview room which is nicely appointed with king size bed (a real one), fireplace and balcony overlooking the bluff to the ocean. The reception service was fast, informative and friendly.


This afternoon, we took a quick drive over to Cambria which is just 4 miles further on and on the way we saw zebras grazing with cattle! Any open areas this side of Carmel seem to be cattle ranches where north of Carmel is produce farming. They use all available land right up to the cliff or water's edge.


We had dinner at an Italian restaurant tonight within walking distance of our rooms - nothing to write home about really.
Today's photos are of the rugged coastline and sunset from our balcony.