CA-1

Whilst we took the fast and wide I-101 highway south, we took the CA-1 back north.

The CA-1 is a winding road that follows the Pacific along the cliffs. If you have played computer games where you drive along the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, you might be familiar with this road. It is kind of California's version of the Great Ocean Road, but without guard rails along the edge.

Driving in the hills near our place, we've learnt that the locals are not too sure where the edges of their cars are. They tend to drift into the oncoming lane or off the edge of the road on corners. Mostly, this isn't a problem, as highways have barriers down the middle, but hill roads don't have dividing barriers. We were nearly been run off the road by a car coming around a blind corner in our lane a few weeks ago.

We pulled off the road to take some photos from one of the lookouts along the road. There was a friendly squirrel there to welcome us. We noticed a steep road down to the beach, where we found people surfing.


While we were driving back along the CA-1, we came to a set of traffic lights, signs ("Rough Road", "Slide Ahead") and cones blocking off half of the road. We stopped at the red light. Some cars arrived behind us, including one that honked, took off through the red light and around the bend. Thirty seconds later oncoming traffic arrived and eventually the light went green. The genius who had jumped the lights had pulled over just around the bend. There is a picture of him below.


Further down the road, we spotted a few cars stopped beside the road. We pulled over to have a look. People were watching two whales swimming along the coast. Louise saw them blowing water into the air, but I was looking in the wrong direction. We tried to get a photo, but whales are difficult to catch on film!

When we got home Ebony was very happy to see us.