Big Sur

Not far from Pismo Beach, heading North along the section Highway 1 known as "Big Sur" is William Randolph Hearst's old digs, or rather, his "castle".

It can now be toured by the average Joe. That sounds great right? Hmmm... we thought the idea of two rambunctious boys being forced to stand quietly and listen to a tour guide while NOT touching all the priceless furnishings was a little too much to wish for, so we gave it the big swerve and were quickly rewarded.

Just down the road we found an entire beach overflowing with massive elephant seals! Now THAT'S our cup of tea - stinky, noisy, ever-moving! How amazing to see so many of them in the one place at the one time. There they all were, flipping sand on to their bodies, lumbering their way down to the surf, taking a dip, and occasionally glancing up to the boardwalk above to take in the human voyeurs.

Pumped up by our close encounter with the natural universe, we got back in Bessie and continued on our way, excited to see what else Hwy 1 would offer us, when suddenly we couldn't see a thing. We were in a massive fog whiteout!

We travelled on for a while, but then it seemed kind of pointless - to travel what is reputedly one of the world's most dramatic drives without actually being able to see it!

So we grabbed a site in a forest campground opposite the sand dollar beach and took a stroll down to check out the sand, surf and wildflowers in the misty afternoon.

The next morning was overcast but higher level cloud had replaced the lower band of mist and so the visibility was much improved and we continued on North.

The Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park offered us beautiful views of the McWay Falls which is a stream that runs straight off a cliff top into the ocean. Well, it used to drop straight into the water, but after a massive landslide just north of there in the 80s, a beach was created there by all of the rubble that fell. So the water now drops straight down on to the beach.

There were Californian Condors circling above us and locals explained there are now over a hundred of them in the wild after a breeding program brought their numbers back from a mere 12.

At the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, further north, we took a four kilometre trail to some falls through a redwood grove and that was okay, but probably not worth the cajoling needed - the boys' hearts weren't quite in it.

Completing the final stretch of Big Sur to Monterey, we understood why it's considered one of the best drives in the world. There's lot of cliff-hugging precariousness mixed in with forest and ocean action. Lovely.

Driving in to Monterey in the late afternoon, we thought we'd grab a campsite quickly and wait to explore the next day, but we were wrong (and more about that next)...