Civilisation!

So we made it to San Francisco!! Two thirds of the trip down, and finally some civilisation, mobile reception and no tents... After Fort Bragg, we spent four days tracking the Californian Coast through Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin Counties, during comfortably the toughest stretch of road we've done, involving far too many hairpin turns and narrow windy, and windy, roads. I feel like I should take some responsibility for this as after a few pints on our day off in Fort Bragg, I declared that I was worried the challenge had gone out of the trip now we had got past halfway. What an idiot.

Amusing incidents include going into a tourist info place to ask for a cycle map of the area, and the nice man telling us that it had been discontinued by the State transport department because they kept getting sued by the families of people getting injured or worse on the route (luckily we've finished that stretch now)! We also had a strange night in a State Park just outside SF with a 60 year old hippy who spent the whole night drinking pints of red wine over ice. We made our excuses when he started to tell us that he was going to 'invade' the UK in his campervan.

We've had a good couple of days in San Francisco - have met up with Helen and James (so Will has been subjected to the combined annoyance of three Darbyshires) and also Will's cousin Sam. Our first night here ended up with each of me, Will and James being chatted up by separate people with an average age of 30, and at least two of them being female. We'll leave it to you to guess the permutations...

Unfortunately, due to a family bereavement, I will be going back to the UK for a few days which will mean that we are likely to have to shorten a part of the trip between San Fran and LA. We're still planning to finish the route on the current timetable, but there may need to be a hire car involved at some point to keep on time.

There's also a few new photos up as well...

Keep us posted with news from back home.

written by  willsandbrook on June 16, 2008 from San Francisco, United States
from the travel blog: Cycling the Pacific Coast
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