Blue Coast HWY 1

It was back to the coast .... through endless dry landscapes that were still green. The route was lined with olive, orange, and walnut plantations, as well as various fruit fields. It's better not to know where the water comes from, greening the desert is already questionable. As beautiful as California sounds, 95% of this state is just dry desert/savannah, or agriculturally fertile areas made fertile with large amounts of water.

The coastal section along HWY 1 is touted as one of the most beautiful roads in the world, so of course we didn't want to miss this part. We started in Monterey, once the old sardine canning capital (our most personal and bizarre highlight here: a vomiting sea lion) and Carmel by the Sea. Here, the well-to-do have settled down. The most beautiful section of the cliff coast begins at Big Sur, where there are some nice viewpoints and state parks. Unfortunately, due to wildfires, many things were denied to us, most of the access points were closed. We didn't experience much of the fire itself, only the presence of the many firefighting helicopters and camps hinted at what was happening.

The coastal section is great and the road mostly runs right along the steep coast. The Pacific, crashing against the rocks, alternates with quiet bays. A colony of sea elephants has settled in one section of beach. Once again, an interesting sight and very amusing to admire these colossi.

We were getting closer to our final destination, Los Angeles, and on the way we crossed a few other places like Solvang, a Danish village, similar to the touristy Bavarian village in Washington, and Santa Barbara (very beautiful). Further through the legendary Malibu where David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson once gained fame in their red bathing outfits (in reality, the most unspectacular beach ever!) and finally Santa Monica with its pier and the end of Route 66. Here, the upper class and stars have built their houses on the slopes of the coast. Quite a contrast to the past few weeks in nature... Or were we the contrast here, unkempt and with a long beard? Since it seems to be quite normal here (especially in California) for some people to be homeless and have to live in their cars, it apparently gave the impression that we also belong... Well, whatever...then we shared our lunch with a real homeless person...birds of a feather flock together, after all ;-)