Green and grateful

Spending the night in our tent on warm sand, the sound of waves making a commotion, cooking and sleeping with one blanket lightly fallen over me; today, that night still makes me smile. After being in pine forest, after mountainous national park, after another, the simplicity of being near the ocean had me pulling my pants up daring myself to get my legs nice and icy. This is where I discovered 'sand dollars'. The first time I picked one up, not knowing how fragile they were, I dropped it and it broke. I was sad; for about ten seconds when I realized that the beach was filled with these wonderful gems I never knew existed. Very cool. These I will try to smuggle back to Australia.

After happily leaving the sterile and upper something world of the South Bay (Santa Cruz and beyond), we hazily drove down the Big Sur Coast dreaming, and only dreaming, of setting up camp somewhere along the wild and rocky shores that it waved in front of us. As you would know if you've ever ventured down that way, it is limited unless you have some nice secret spots down your pants that you wouldn't dare share with anyone, which I can fully appreciate. 

On we drove, keeping our eyes open for the spot which would be our second last night camping in a California State Park. Yes, we did find one that would probably be written up in Tent Camping; Secret spots that you will probably never get to camp in because you were too late arriving. 

So we drove on.

Then, around the bend, balding hills, at the foot of those balding hills, a little beach town. The last American beach town. A TOWN. No resorts, no manicured palms, no high rises. I hope it stays that way.

The town, Cayucos, California.

Not far north of Cayucos, we watched fat Elephant Seals on the beach. They were fasting for their journey out to sea for the winter.

Out from our camp ground, which was a car park with grassy and sandy patches, we watched wales breaching. Serious whale behaviour going on. Spouting water and everything.

On the other side of the highway, on fields of lush, thick grass, there were elk. Elk. I know they weren't running wild, but still, my first elk sighting.

Just one more. On the back from fetching provisions of local avo's and home made spicy sausage, we watched a school of dolphins having a mighty fine time. Just a big stones throw away from the shore. They were happy we were there

As you would imagine, we were pretty hyped up about our first beach camping opportunity. Even having neighbours so close that you could here them crack a beer wasn't worrying us. In celebratory spirits, Glenn made his very green and grateful guacamole. We drank beer and worried about nothing.

And that, is all you really need to do when you're camping at the beach after driving a long, winding road.

A little under note: Flying across the sky in that last photo, pelicans. There were long lines of  pelicans just before the sun went down, giving us one last show before bedtime.