Big Sur

We picked up a hire car in San Francisco which we will be flogging around California for about the next week.
First destination was over the Golden Gate Bridge, via a few inconvienient oneway streets and dead ends. Also headed up into the hills on the other side of the bay for some nice views of the bridge and the city.
Heading south on Hwy 1, we stopped in half moon bay for lunch, traditional little american diner, pancakes and a greasy burger, mmm... The local sheriff was even in the booth next too us.
After a quick look at the Santa Cruz board walk which is another American theme park pretty much, we grabbed some coffee, and headed for our accomodation in Monterey, an old fishing village, very pretty.
We made friends with some girls from the UK, so might see them in a few months time. Both were near the end of their trips, one has been away for 3 mth and the other 8mth (she only had $3 in her account and had to wait up late to beg mum for a loan!)
Thursday
The 90 odd miles south of Monterey is known as the big spur, and is similar to Victoria's Great Ocean Rd. We drove the length of this and stayed in a tiny hostel in Cambria. Of the 15 or so guests were 2 noisy kids, and some american dude who was doing yoga in his underware when we walked in, nice!!!
The drive was amazing, unbelievable coastline. We made a few stops on the way, did some hiking in a national park, lunch on a windy beach, mmm sand sandwiches. We saw all sorts of birds and wildlife, sea lions and otters included.





It was an awesome drive winding roads on the edge of massive rock walls and cliff edges, i think Need for Speed (computer game), actually based a track on this road. I could try to explain it, but I think it will be easier to post some more photos at some stage... Watch this space...
Friday
Just a driving day, headed from the bottom of Big Sur, to Midpines, at the gate of Yosemite NP. Think it was about 350 miles.
The next few days will be spent hiking and in search of a big grizzly bear.