Day 5 - On Which Matt & Rach Visit a Beach and Watch a Sunset
Summary: Drive to Malibu, play in the sea. Watch sunset from the beach.
Itinerary said: Pick up car 9am, LAX, leave LA - Ignore rach’s navigation Send matt wrong way up interstate
Camp at Montana De Oro SP - attract bears from where??!
We got up at 7.30 to catch another bus, which ended up being three buses to get to the collection point for our rental car. The guy tried to upsell us repeatedly, but Matt stood firm and we’ve ended up with a pale blue Hyundai Accent. It’s not a bad little car, though it struggles a bit on hills. Plenty of room though.
Drove out of LA and up to Malibu, only going the wrong way twice. There was a fog/haze/smog along all of the coastline and no parking, so we drove past the main state beach and ended up stopping at a little beach called Paradise Cove. Parking was $25 (!), or $3 if you spent $20 on food in the little café. We splashed around in the sea for a bit - there were some pretty big waves, though nothing like some of the big ones you see in films. More sunburn. Tomorrow, I’m wearing a T-shirt!
We ate in the beach café, was pretty pricy but we each ended up with enough food for two people. Was really tasty though.
We drove up north to find our campsite at Montana De Oro - about 210 miles in total. It was really crazy how quickly the scenery changed - we spent a lot of time with ocean on one side of the road, mountains on the other, but we also drove through forests and desert.
Got to the campground and pitched our tent. Everyone was cooking their dinners - having had a large lunch we’d decided not to bring food, but the smells from the campfires were awfully enticing. We went down to the shingle beach to watch the sunset. Matt climbed up a large rocky outcrop, I attempted to follow, but after dropping my camera down the cliff and generally skidding around, I decided that I was too much of a wimp and wussed out. Found another spot on the cliff and clambered up there to watch the sun actually go down. Missed the actual sunset because it dipped behind a large bank of cloud. We decided to have another early night, as it got dark and it was easier to go to bed than fumble around with torches!
Distance driven: 222 miles.
Day 4 Day 6
Itinerary said: Pick up car 9am, LAX, leave LA - Ignore rach’s navigation Send matt wrong way up interstate
Camp at Montana De Oro SP - attract bears from where??!
We got up at 7.30 to catch another bus, which ended up being three buses to get to the collection point for our rental car. The guy tried to upsell us repeatedly, but Matt stood firm and we’ve ended up with a pale blue Hyundai Accent. It’s not a bad little car, though it struggles a bit on hills. Plenty of room though.
Drove out of LA and up to Malibu, only going the wrong way twice. There was a fog/haze/smog along all of the coastline and no parking, so we drove past the main state beach and ended up stopping at a little beach called Paradise Cove. Parking was $25 (!), or $3 if you spent $20 on food in the little café. We splashed around in the sea for a bit - there were some pretty big waves, though nothing like some of the big ones you see in films. More sunburn. Tomorrow, I’m wearing a T-shirt!
We ate in the beach café, was pretty pricy but we each ended up with enough food for two people. Was really tasty though.
We drove up north to find our campsite at Montana De Oro - about 210 miles in total. It was really crazy how quickly the scenery changed - we spent a lot of time with ocean on one side of the road, mountains on the other, but we also drove through forests and desert.
Got to the campground and pitched our tent. Everyone was cooking their dinners - having had a large lunch we’d decided not to bring food, but the smells from the campfires were awfully enticing. We went down to the shingle beach to watch the sunset. Matt climbed up a large rocky outcrop, I attempted to follow, but after dropping my camera down the cliff and generally skidding around, I decided that I was too much of a wimp and wussed out. Found another spot on the cliff and clambered up there to watch the sun actually go down. Missed the actual sunset because it dipped behind a large bank of cloud. We decided to have another early night, as it got dark and it was easier to go to bed than fumble around with torches!
Distance driven: 222 miles.
Day 4 Day 6