Ventura to Malibu, California: All the diamonds in this world, that mean anything to me...

January 15, 2013

... are conjured up by wind and sunlight sparkling on the sea."

Echoes of Bruce Cockburn's "Salt, Sun, and Time"

Arthur has posted in the guestbook today some of the harsh realities that lie behind Southern California. His is, of course, as always right on. But my approach differs right now, I am seeing the beauty in the place, the wide shoulders and bike paths, and I am looking forward to some luscious fruits that I know they sell at Venice Beach.

When we stopped at Ventura for some training with the Bike Fridays last year, we were also taken with the beauty of the beach and the plants, the bike path, the surfers, etc. That time we just nipped from Ventura to Rincon Point and back. So today at the same starting point we again noted the bike path, the beach, and so on. But this time we were heading the other way, south to Malibu. Quite quickly the route had to leave the beach to bypass the marina moorages. It did not soon return, but wended its way inland a bit by Oxnard and then around the Hueneme naval air base.

At first I was ignoring the military installation, rather waiting for it to get out of the way so the route could return to the beach. But the amount of land taken up by the base was so great, I had to accept it as a physical feature of this place and start paying attention. I stood by the chain link/barbed wire fence and snapped a shot of some military transports. Just as I did this, I remembered the story of a Canadian/Iranian lady journalist who got tortured and killed for much the same photo journalism. That was in Iran, though, and presumably it's safer to wave a camera around here.

Just down the road, we found that the military had thought of us, and put up a park with mounted specimens of some of their golden oldie missles and fighter planes. Although these we all pretty much just shells, I noticed here something also observed at the Science Museum in London - rockets and planes and such when viewed close up (at least older ones) are less sleek pinnacles of technology and more piles of soldered pipes and riveted plates. A Samsung Galaxy S3 is a way more impressive piece to look at.

The Sidewinder was famous - looks very simple

This clamp holding the Sidewinder together does not look very high tech. It's rusty too, like a Bike Friday!

Radar equipped planes were zooming around

We guess these SeaBee trainees were shooting the straw men (targets)

At last the route returned to the coast, and here the shape and colour of the sea, the rocks, the plants and yes, the sand made for a truly stunning visual feast.

Sooner than we expected we stumbled on the Neptunes Net restaurant that Arthur had alerted us to in the guestbook. We made a bee line for it, finding that they also had excellent burgers and sweet potato fries. One thing, perhaps Arthur's research originated in the south and ended at Neptunes Net, because he failed to mention the giant menorah just north of the place. We have no idea why this menorah is there. Perhaps Neptune's is trying to establish its kosher credentials. Unlikely!

Just to look at the map of the Malibu point and hwy 1 near it, one could form the image of an essentially empty place, with a few desultory businesses and laid back surfers in their woodies floating around. In truth, it is miles of upscale "tuscan villa" style estates, both up in the hills and down along the water. We don't know where the surfers went to, because even in January they should be here. Maybe it's the cold snap. All the tuscan villas do not mean hoards of wannabe Tuscans around, patronizing tuscan-like restaurants. Instead there is more or less no one around. (This excludes people driving in their cars - they are so insulated from the world they are passing through they might as well not be here.)

In the north section, there are in fact miles of beaches with lots of parking lots, but it is all empty. That, of course, is due to the season. The south section we have yet to see, because our run down motel is located just south of deserted Zuma Beach, which is maybe in the centre of the 50 km stretch that seems to make up Malibu.

Tomorrow we will roll through the rest of it, checking out the other landmarks mentioned by Arthur, and pressing on to Venice, Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo, and Long Beaches, in the heart of the Los Angeles beast.

Some more sights and themes from today:

Fruit stands were not open yet. We will have to wait and get fruit at Venice Beach

A surfer oriented business enntrance in Oxnard

A large tile at a house gate post in Malibu

Dozens of Land Rovers, still wrapped in plastic, passed us on the road.

Gefahr of the day. We feel like we are back in Germany.

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,126 km (1,320 miles)

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