Sunday 13th April

Finding the crab that he'd made friends with the previous night squashed on the floor of the parking lot wolfie was a little upset, But after chucking the few bits that we'd taken out of the car on the previous night we headed for the Monterey Harbour and upon arriving we could hear before we could see them the loud noises of the Californian sea lions. Heading straight for the back of the main pier we gave an awesome view of the harbour area you could see them on the mooring ball for the boats and swimming about in the water going about their daily business. We could see a large group of them in the water near to the fisherman's pier (the commercial one) it was open to the public so after booking something that was in our price range (a $10 boat drive around the harbour) we went over to have look.

It turns out the smaller sea lions couldn't and weren't allowed by older and bigger sea lions to jump up onto the horizontal beams on the piers. So they would group together in big masses in the water. Wolfie got some clam chowder to try it came in a bread bowl was actually very nice, anyways onto the boat and around the harbour we got up-close and personal with the sea lions and sea otters which are absolutely huge and great they just sit there on their backs and eat food off their belly's.

It was soon time to leave Monterey bay and take a short drive up the coast to another famous town called Santa Cruz the apparent birthplace of the O'Neill surf brand and the WETSUIT. We checked out the famous boardwalk and contemplated going on some of the rides but having been to all the theme parks recently we couldn't be bothered. We then went for a walk up around the coastal area and caught some of a local surf contest, watched sea otters playing in the sea and seen some more dodgy dressed dogs.

After leaving Santa Cruz we wondered when the weather would change and it would get cold gradually or if we would go to sleep and the next day would be freezing as up to now we'd had nothing but sun, sun and more sun. About 10 miles past the city limit we started to approach a wall of fog like something of an Alfred Hitchcock film as we entered it the sun disappeared and the air went cold. So with the windows up and the night drawing in we continued north to our destination at point Montara a short way out of San Francisco.

We finally arrived at the light house hostel late in the evening around 9pm and booked in to our room which was the old watch room were the lighthouse keeper used to live back in the late 1800's. The lighthouse remains on the grounds of the hostel and is working although these days is automatic and maintained by the coastguard.

Monday 14th April

Point Montara

After breakfast and taking in the amazing surroundings of the lighthouse and its grounds. The endless cliffs, small coves and submerged rocks that have claimed over 50 ships. We headed down the coast around about a 20-30 minute walk or so to the Fitzgerald marine reserve and area of tidal rock pools with loads of fish, crustaceans and invertebrates. We spoke to the park ranger and purchased a laminate copy of a guide showing what we could find in the rock pools before heading off to explore.

Over the next couple of hours we found about 6 different species of crabs, loads of starfish and some fish. There were sea urchins, anemones and seaweeds (some of which were very slippy). With the wind chill soon reaching the bones we went for a pub lunch at the local that overlooks the reserve taking in the views and watching the tide start to come in. On the way back we picked up a few bits for tea and spent the evening talking to a couple of young Canadian girls and doing some washing.