Friday 24 October 2008

And now the end is near

Yep, I've almost finished! I'm in Santa Barbara having a day off, then
I just have 5 more cycling days to go. On Sunday i'll be in Malibu, on
Monday I'll be in the centre of LA then on Wednesday I'll get to the
Mexican border.

I've done all the major hill climbing now. I thought yesterday would
be an easy ride with only one high, but gentle hill. It's quite hot
during the day now though so I was completely knackered after the
first hour of riding. And only days before I'd been cruising over
much bigger hills in the appropriately named Big Sur - that was
definitely one of the highlights of the ride.

As I was riding through Big Sur I saw a couple of helicoptors in the
distance. When I got closer I saw they had huge buckets hanging
underneath which they were dipping into the sea and then flying over
to a fire that was just over the hill from me. I thought I'd come to a
foggy bit of the coast but it was actually smoke from the fire.
Luckily the road was still open, as was my campground.

Have seen lots of wildlife over the past few days, there was an
elephant seal colony that have taken over a whole beach, there must
have been hundreds. I have some video of them to put up when i get to
a computer. From my campground I can see dolphins in the bay. I
thought about joining them for a swim but the water is seriously cold.

I still need to find a place to stay in LA, there's a hostel that all
the bikers normally stay at in Huntington beach but it might have
closed as their phone number is disconnected. Looking round for
alternatives makes me realise that all I know about LA is through
listening to hip hop, anyone fancy a night in a hostel in Compton? Me
neither!

So I'm going to confirm the day I'll be flying back on Sunday. I'm
hoping to get a flight on Saturday 1st Nov, but if there's no
availability I know I can get one on Tuesday 4th (meaning I'll be back
on the 5th). And my ride won't quite be over until I get back to the
UK as apparently it's not too hard to cycle from Heathrow to central
London ...

1 comment:

Eliza said...

You'll be home in time for bonfire night!