DRIVING CALIFORNIA ROUTE 1 - THE PCH

DAY 9: The PCH coastal drive; San Luis Obispo to San Francisco via Big Sur and Carmel

Today was going to be a long drive, but hopefully a nice one from San Luis Obispo to San Francisco. We had plenty of time to do it and plenty to see along the way. Or so we thought!

For a lot of the journey we had thick, low-lying fog along the coast but there were enough breaks to still make it the fabulous drive it is and the roads a nice to drive on.

Our first stop was at a beach where a load of elephant seals reside. There were a lot of burping and farting noises going on and it was quite funny watching them try to flop up the beach from the water. Two or three flops and they would have to rest. Far to fat for that.

We stopped at Gorda for a cuppa at a cafe called the Whale Watcher's Cafe. All we could see was a wall of fog though.

Even though it was foggy for some of the drive, it was really nice, but when there were breaks in the cloud... WOW!!! It was just incredible. There can't be many car journeys that rival this for views. It's quite hard to look and drive too, I found.

Now what happened next took our breath away. A spider the size of a small dog stomped out from the bushes into the road and I had to swerve to miss it. Jen said she saw its face and I'm sure it was wearing Nikes.

The drive through Big Sur was lovely and we decided to stop in Carmel for a spot of lunch. Wish we were able to stay for a few days as it's a really lovely town with a stunning beach. We ate at the Village Corner restaurant which we highly recommend.

Back on the road and when we were on the other side of Santa Cruz the weather was really weird. Thick fog in the mid-afternoon. Spooky. Appropriate then when we passed a pumpkin farm selling pumpkins for Halloween (see photo in California album). It was like Christmas tree shopping, only with pumpkins. The Americans get so up for Halloween. We've heard people talking about their plans and their party outfits non-stop for the last two weeks and it's still a couple of weeks away.

We finally arrived in San Francisco and found our hostel easily. We even scored a free parking space just around the corner which is unheard of here. The car will probably be gone or smashed up by the time we leave.

The Green Tortoise hostel is great. It's a big hostel with a really good vibe, even though there's a strip club every other door in our street (I had not known this prior to booking, promise). And free beer the night we turned up too! We watched a few funny drinking games that Train Club will almost definitely be taking part in at Christmas (it's amazing what you can do with booze, plastic cups and a ping pong ball.). We then hit the sack.