January 10, 2013
Lucia to San Simeon: Elephant Seal Surfari:-)
The Lucia Lodge provided a reasonable breakfast so we were able to tank up and be well prepared for the day ahead. We knew that the way included two pesky hills, coming up after the small centre of Gorda. The day had started out threatening showers, but it straightened out to reasonably sunny, though cool. Almost more than on other days, we enjoyed the colours of the ocean, the trees, the mountains - the things that make up this landscape.
The hills after Gorda turned out to be just like those north of San Francisco - where the road is shakily sketched along cliff faces.. For some reason we quite enjoyed this sort of road this time. I think the main reason was that traffic was extremely light, so we did not feel we had to cringe at the edge of the cliffs. There was also a big area of road work. That meant the road crew hheld up traffic and sent it along in batches. So in between batches, the road was all ours.
There was also the good news/bad news of a very strong north or northeast wind. The good news was that in places it was blowing us straight up the mountain. The bad news was that in places it was trying to blow us off the mountain. One result was that we had to walk the bikes in spots, both on the uphill and the downhill sides.
Once downn from the two big hills, we saw that the landscape was totally changed. The profile was much flatter, and the land much drier.The wind now blew pretty much right behind us, and we could fly along, with again one exception: The road had deteriorated to chip seal. On this bumpy and loose stuff, too much speed meant a great feeling of insecurity.
Before Gorda, Dodie had spotted sea otters out in the kelp beds. That was lucky, but no luck is needed to spot the elephant seals, near San Simeon. Huge males, cute females, and new born pups are all on the beach. Most are fast asleep, but you also see the males jousting for dominance, the new pups nursing, and in one case - a pup being born. All this happens on one main beach and a few nearby ones, about 2 km north of the Hearst Castle. There is a Vista Point there where a boardwalk has been built for 1/2 km. Signs explain what is going on, and docents from the Friends of the Elephant Seal are on hand to answer questions.
The wind was blowing so hard by now that it was difficult to take pictures, since the camera kept getting blown around. Still, we got quite a few. Most just show the huge immobile lumps, which are the seals in their favourite fast asleep pose. But there are some good action shots too.
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Our big game day, with the otters and elephant seals, finished up with the strange appearance of zebras in a field beside the highway. Why would people have zebras? Can't (really) eat them, can't ride them. Oh well, we are approaching Southern California where anything is possible!
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 1,730 km (1,074 miles)
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