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Somewhere Special for Christmas!
Welcome to our Christmas & New Year bumper edition! We hope you have all had happy holidays.
After catching the Baja Rally, we headed back over to the East coast to visit the towns of Loreto (old and lovely) and Mulegé (just old). The main draw of this area though is Bahía Concepción - miles of sheltered bays, clear waters and excellent snorkelling. We roamed up and down the coast, from beach to beach and spent a couple of long weekends in Loreto enjoying the cafes, restaurants, topiary lined streets and free musical entertainment in the evenings.
Strange and dangerous wildlife kept making unexpected appearances. At Scorpion Bay we saw a tarantula. At Rattlesnake Beach we saw a scorpion. At El Coyote we saw stingrays and puffer fish.
We soon started thinking about where to spend Christmas. We were hoping for somewhere special and our choices seemed to be either a resort complex to experience a Mexican style Christmas or find a nice free camp somewhere to celebrate with other travellers.
The trouble we were having though was that everywhere was really dirty with rubbish and human waste. It was also so noisy. We’d be camped alone on a beach and a Mexican family would turn up, camp right next to us and blare out music all day and night. Even the shops and restaurants would have huge speakers pumping out all sorts of music.
We had spent a month living on or near various beaches and the noise and lack of facilities were starting to get us down. This was on top of living out of our truck for the last 6 months, and we were getting tired. Sometimes we just wanted to sleep in a bed you could get out of the side of. And not have to get dressed to go to the toilet at night. And just have a proper toilet rather than a hole we’ve dug in the ground.
Having decided not to make the leap to South America, we started to question the point of the rest of the trip. We knew we would ship the truck home from the USA, so however far South we went from here, we would have to double back on ourselves to the States, with the obvious time and money implications.
There are Mayan ruins in Central America that we wanted to visit, but these would be at least a 5000 mile round trip. We started to doubt our commitment to carry on, as we didn’t believe that the potential positive experience would be worth it.
We were also missing home and wanted to spend time with friends and family. We wanted to be in familiar places, as a constantly changing environment is mentally draining and you stop appreciating it. Bumming around for the next 4 months suddenly started to seem a bit pointless. We had achieved what we originally set out to do - we’d driven around the World from UK to Australia and then all the way across Canada and Alaska.
We have always said we would do this trip while we were youngish, because you never know what’s around the corner. We found ourselves flipping this mentality and wanting to be with family and friends, because you never what’s around the corner.
We reckoned, with a bit of luck, we could get our wish – spend Christmas somewhere special and with great people – suddenly being home for Christmas felt like the best idea in the world. It was also great to have a goal again – we realised we had just been drifting without focus for too long.
So we contacted our shipping agent to explain our most recent change of plan and started heading back to the US. Our main concern was getting back into the States. Our current visa only had a week left on it, so we were worried about them extending this to give us enough time to ship out.
It had taken us 4 weeks to get down to Loreto by zigzagging across the peninsula on the rough roads. Using the single-lane highway to go North, we were back at the border in 4 days. Along the way we met Baja Cruisers, a Land Cruiser owners club, who were out on an expedition. They loved Bowser, especially as he is a diesel, so we had to pose for some photos and they gave us one of their club stickers in return. They were a great bunch of guys.
Back at the border crossing at Tecaté, we nervously waited our turn in the long, long queue, trying not to consider the implications of not getting back in to the US. We needn’t have worried. After the usual questions and a blind-eye to our excess alcohol amounts, we were let in. They didn’t seem to care that our visa was due to expire, we had to point this out to them. After a few more questions we were given another six months. Result!
Now we were really close to Christie & Dudley, our surfer-dude friends we met at San Juanico, so the chance to meet up with them again could not be missed. A few emails later, they had booked a campsite for us all at Cardiff-by-the-Sea, just North of San Diego. So we had a lovely four days with them on the coast, with them showing us the local sights including the house where Kelly McGillis’ character lived in Top Gun and the beautiful meditation gardens at Swami’s, a spiritual retreat and temple.
We hadn’t yet had a confirmed date for shipping home, so we then spent a few days with C&D at their place in Sun City. This was when the South Californian wildfires started, one was just North of us and another just South. The sky was smokey, the air dry and choking and seeing the fire fighting planes swooping overhead again reminded us of the power of nature. Since July, we’ve never been that far from wildfires and it’s scary how devastating they can be. That’s one benefit of living in a wetter climate.
Having received confirmation that we would be able to ship before Christmas, with heavy hearts we said bye to C&D. We really hope to see them again one day, but will keep in touch regardless. They were so lovely and generous to us, we miss them a lot.
So now we just needed to drive across California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, all the time discussing whether we would let people know we were on our way, or just turn up and surprise everyone.
On the way we stopped at “The Boneyard”, where the US military store thousands of planes and other vehicles. Then Tombstone, Arizona to see the OK Corral and a re-enactment of the gunfight and on to The Alamo in Texas. It was here that we received a ‘phone call from our shipping agent to say the date was brought forward to the next day – so it was then all systems go.
Within the next 24 hours we drove to Houston, found a hotel, cleaned the inside and out of the truck, took all the stuff off the roof-rack and packed it in the vehicle, sorted what to take home with us and what to leave on the truck, took the truck to the shippers and booked our flights home.
We then flew from Houston to Miami to Oslo to London (it was the cheapest!) and hired a vehicle to drive home. We’d decided to surprise people and think we did the job when we turned up on Caroline’s parent’s drive and then again when we turned up at Bry’s family on Christmas morning. It was so good to be home, amongst family and friends, where we belong!
So another great adventure comes to an end. 30,000 kms, 200 days, stayed in 120 different places, 8 Canadian territories & provinces, 13 US states, 2 Mexican states.
Highlights? Scenery, wildlife, meeting friends and family.
Lowlights? Not as challenging as last trip, expense cut the trip short.
Thanks for sticking with us. Special thanks to all the people who put us up and put up with us over the trip. Hope to see you all again, soon.
TTFN.
Barmy, Balmy Baja
Hello from San Juanico, surfing Mecca on the West coast of the Baja peninsula. Sorry it’s been a while – internet is non-existent in some places here.
So we crossed into Mexico just over two weeks ago, at Tecate. We chose there as it is supposed to be quieter and more relaxed than other crossings – and it was. So relaxed in fact that they didn’t have enough staff to do the paperwork for us to temporarily import our truck. Not really a problem, as we can do this at another customs office further down the peninsula – but it would have been nice to get everything sorted at once. But they gave us a 6-month visa without any problems, so off we went.
Driving through and out of Tecate, the change in environment was an immediate and stark contrast to the States. It’s less developed, less organised and so much more laid back, but with that comes a dirtier feel, with a lot of rubbish strewn about and packs of dogs wandering around. But our first impressions are good - the carefree attitude suits us and the locals, on a whole have been very friendly and accepting of our pidgin Spanish. Even the regular military checkpoints (checking for drugs going North or guns going South) have not been too traumatic, although quite invasive at times.
Motorsports fans will know Baja for the famous desert races held here. The daddy of them is the Baja 1000, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary and was run this week. Over 1300 miles of mainly off-road racing, criss-crossing the peninsula from Ensenada to La Paz. Having decided not to go to South America and therefore have no chance of seeing the Dakar Rally in January, we decided we must catch the Baja instead.
The course has been marked out for weeks to allow teams to do their pre-running practices, so for us it was a simple case of following the course where possible until we found a good place to stop for a few days to watch it.
A brief run-down of our route: Tecate to Ensenada on pretty good roads, but probably a bit too rough to warrant the toll fee - Pacific coast with the roar of the waves and the sunsets, but a sea breeze meant it was pretty chilly at night. Across to the more sheltered East coast and stayed on a beach in San Felipe for a few days, warmer nights, town very touristy, lots of US ex-pats, bars and nightclubs, glad we were staying away from the main-strip. On to a remote campsite called Papa Fernandez, where we joined two couples of Canadian “Snowbirds” – retirees who head South for the winter. A nice couple of days relaxing on the beach and drinking around a campfire at night, swapping stories and getting top-tips of places to visit further South. Off road to Coco’s Corner, famous in these parts as a traveller’s stop, where you can buy overpriced drinks and look around Coco’s cabin covered with the usual license plates, underwear, bikinis, dollar bills that visitors have left. Down to Bahia De Los Angeles, whale watching place but not at this time of year. Head back West to where we are now, San Juanico, including a pretty tough 100KM off-road section that took four hours, but saved us 6 hours compared to taking the paved route.
We haven’t done much at all really! Lots of relaxing on beaches, some swimming, some kayaking, some walking. There’s lots of other travellers, mainly North Americans here on holiday or for the winter, but we’ve met a fair few European overlanders and backpackers too. Special shout-out to Nomadic Michael, a long-time North American overlander, planning on going international – good luck mate!
The coast is mainly fishing villages and holiday places and the interior barren, ever changing landscape with the odd dusty little town. The wildlife has been pretty spectacular. The sea is evidently so full of fish, great shoals of them keep leaping out of water, occasionally followed by a chasing seal, or dolphin. Hundreds of birds dive bomb the ocean, from the Exocet like cormorants to more bouncing-bomb like pelicans and the shores are littered with beautiful conch shells. The harsher inland is ruled by eagles, sunbathing on tall cacti, coyotes and their apparent nemesis, the road runner birds. The other night we were sat in a beach side restaurant, when we noticed a commotion from the other diners - a tarantula as big as your hand just wondered through like he owned the place. And last night we saw our first scorpion!
“Enough of the David Attenborough stuff, what was the racing like?” you ask? In a word – mental! No health and safety, the roads are open to the public throughout the race, so we drove the wrong way up the course, out of town, to see the first bikes coming through and along the course back to town later. The whole town turned out for a 48 hour party – drinking, loud music, fireworks as all sorts of race bikes, quads, trucks and some drunk locals and delivery drivers screamed sideways through the town. And the dust – so much choking dust! It was one hell of an experience.
The best thing about San Juanico though? Not the race or the view or the world class surfing where you can ride a wave for 8 minutes or even the fresh fish burritos or quesadillas. It was meeting Christie and Dudley, a surfer couple from California who are just so lovely, funny and easy to get on with. We met up a few times over a few days and just really enjoyed their company. They’ve had to move on as they’re off to Maui next month to decorate their other house! Tough life hey?
Now the race is done and it’s safe to get back on the road, we’re going to head back to the East coast again and perhaps do some snorkelling.
Belated wishes to Bry’s big sister who had a special birthday this week! Sorry we couldn’t be with you, but we did have a few drinks for you. Love and miss you Ka, hope you had a great day / week celebrating!
Hasta Luego!
Hasta La Vista USA - Hola Mexico!
Yes, our Español is coming on a treat! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re not there yet. We’re camping near the border and hope to cross tomorrow at Tecate. We have seen Mexico though, over the steel wall, and it doesn’t look so bad!
So last time we were allegedly near Area 51. We may or may not have driven 12 miles on a dirt track to the main gate. We may or may not have driven round to the “secret” back gate. We almost definitely didn’t take photos, as the signs told us not to. We may or may not have been closely watched by “the Feds” – the two dudes in a truck parked on a hill looking at us through binoculars were probably birdwatching. (They weren’t, they were definitely watching us). So that was fun.
The rest of the Extra-terrestrial Highway was long, long stretches of nothingness punctuated by alien themed tourist stops. The Little A’Le’Inn was the best, filled with UFO and Area 51 photos, newspaper articles and general tat. We enjoyed their Alien Burger – it was out of this world! While we were there, there were a couple of sonic booms from Area 51 that shook the windows. We also stopped at the “famous” Black Mailbox – a mailbox in the middle of nowhere allegedly used to communicate with aliens. Yes really - it’s that sort of place.
Having escaped from being probed by aliens or the Feds (the only close encounter was a raccoon running around on our truck that night) it was back into the Mojave Desert for some more star gazing and hoping (unsuccessfully) to spot tortoises.
From there, it was more desert, cacti and Joshua trees down to the Salton Sea and onto Slab City – which is a load of artists / runaways / reprobates living out in the desert on an old military base, with no running water, no services of any kind and apparently no law enforcement. It calls itself “The Last Free Place” as anyone can live there without having to pay rent or rates. Just turn up with a caravan, tent or build a shack out of whatever is lying around. Having watched some YouTube footage, we timed our stay to turn up AFTER their weekly Saturday night party and left BEFORE their Halloween bash, so we had a pretty quiet stay, just some singing, people playing instruments and lots of barking dogs. An interesting place with some obviously very talented artists there, but also a lot of crap – art wise, rubbish wise and the other.
More desert as we came back West, following the Mexican border, sleeping under the stars in complete isolation – apart from the planes, helicopters and observation balloons patrolling the border zone. Every other vehicle on the road appears to be Border Patrol, but they’ve not given us any hassle. We’ve spent some time getting our papers in order, doing as much online as possible, in the hope our crossing will be quick and easy. Tomorrow will tell.
So it’s so long, USA. We’ll be sad to leave. We’ve especially enjoyed the last couple of weeks in the deserts. The changing landscapes, the peace and quiet and the free camping (tonight will be the first time we’ve paid for camping in four weeks). The coast was lovely, but busy and expensive. We hope to come back to explore more of the southern states and enjoy the vast expanses of different landscapes. But first, Mexico calls!
Adios amigos!
Jackrabbits & Jackpots. And a Huge Change of Plan!
Hello from somewhere in Nevada, near Area 51, it’s top-secret, so we can’t say!
Having left LA, we headed East, hitting bits of what’s left of Route 66, towards the Mojave Desert. We spent a couple of nights at a public-use, off-road area near Barstow, with loads of trucks, dune-buggies, quads and bikes racing around. There was a mix of people from drunk rednecks in pick-ups to professional teams practicing for the upcoming Baja 1000 race in Mexico. It was a massive area, so the noise and dust wasn’t too bad and it was quite entertaining to watch the different types of vehicles and skill levels!
From there we entered the proper desert for a few nights. There are a few sand dune areas, but mostly it’s covered with yuccas, cacti and the world’s biggest population of Joshua trees. It was deathly quiet at night, with amazing views of the night sky and some shooting stars. A very nice change from the noise and excitement of the off-road area.
We were hoping to see the desert tortoise, but no luck. Gladly, we didn’t see or hear rattlesnakes either. There were many jackrabbits with their funny, huge ears, kangaroo rats and at night came bats and huge owls. The scariest things we saw were tarantula wasps, or Pepsis wasps. Huge things a couple of inches long, with apparently one of the most painful stings of all insects. We didn’t get close enough for a decent photo!
It was while we were camping in the desert, having one of our regular chats about what we had done and what we wanted to do next, that we made a tough, but satisfying decision. Having got prices for shipping to South America and working out how long we’d want to stay down there, we have decided NOT to go. The cost of shipping, plus flights and having to pay for accommodation for however long we would be without Bowser, would leave us short on funds to “do” South America properly. We would basically have to race through it in a few months and then be faced with the costs of shipping home.
So instead we will spend more time enjoying Central America and then perhaps turn around and come back to the States to ship home. It’s a shame we will not get to South America (on this trip at least), but the time and money that is now available to us means we can relax and enjoy the journey a lot more. We are happy with the decision and it has lifted a weight that has been bothering us for a couple of months.
With our new-found wealth and time schedule – it was off to Las Vegas! We stayed at the Stratosphere (the one with the thrill-rides on top of the tower) for four days. We saw all the sights. We watched the Gay Pride Parade. We did the zipline over the crowds down Fremont Street. We relaxed at the pool. Total cost? £100.00 for the 4 days, including the zipline, which was £50!
How did we do this so cheaply you ask? Well, when we say we “stayed” at the Stratosphere, we mean we slept in the truck in their car-park. But it was safe, secure and very quiet – no room doors banging all night, not to mention the partying of the other hotel guests. The nice young lady on reception gave us some blank, room key-cards which meant we could use the pool free of charge, and also the showers. For doing a simple survey which didn’t even require an email address, we were given free bus tickets, so we could travel “The Strip” at our leisure and at the Pride Parade, we were given 2-for-1 vouchers for restaurants and take-aways.
So that was our accommodation, washing and eating sorted – “What about beer?” you cry. $7 a pint from the casinos? No thanks. $1 a can from the shops next door, go to the casino front doors, pick-up a free plastic glass which you must use to drink in the street, and hey-presto! Vegas done on a budget. We didn’t put a single cent in a machine. We did everything we wanted to, had a great time and it actually cost less than our normal daily budget!
We must of course mention the incident at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Seeing that now infamous gold building, the music arena still taped off as a crime-scene and the 58 crosses and floral tributes at the “Welcome To Las Vegas” sign was very moving. For us it changed the incident from yet another horrific story on the news to somehow being more real-life. On Friday, the huge funeral motorcade for the police officer / ex-army officer killed travelled down the strip - it’s still an ongoing process of grief for the city.
But there were so many signs of hope - the resilience of people determined to enjoy themselves, the crowds at the Pride parade, numerous weddings, the messages on the huge hotel screens such as “When it gets dark, Vegas shines”, “We’ve been there for you during the good times, thank you for being there for us now” and “#VegasStrong” everywhere. We ummed and ahhed about visiting Vegas after the shooting, not because we were scared, more because it might seem a bit macabre. But we’re really glad we did – we saw evidence of the worst of humanity, but a lot more of the best.
Then it was a quick stop at Hoover Dam and the new bridge that bypasses it – both very impressive – with a little jaunt into Arizona, before heading back to Nevada to see some planes at the Nellis Air Force base. And now we are here, somewhere near Area 51, heading for the Extra-terrestrial Highway and who knows what that may bring? Probing anyone?
Live long and prosper!
Californian Surfin'
Hello from LA.
First of all, thanks again to Aunty Pat and cousin Debbie for their amazing hospitality. We left them 10 days ago, and after being spoilt rotten for so long, getting back on the road was almost like starting over again, with the usual feelings of excitement and anxiety of what lays ahead.
So we headed down to Northern California, the day before the awful wildfires started, to Stockton to get an oil cooler fitted to Bowser’s gearbox, to keep the temperatures down on mountain climbs. We went to Valley Hybrids, a renowned Land Cruiser specialist, who were amazing. They took us into town while they did the work, picked us up 3 hours later, gave Bowser a clean bill of health, gave us stickers and t-shirts and even posted photos of Bowser on their Facebook page as an “international traveller”! We’ve tackled some steep, long climbs since without problem, so hopefully that’s done the trick.
From there we drove through Silicon Valley, which we were expecting to be all high-tech companies on business parks, but was a real mix of buildings, with houses and shopping plazas right next to the HQs of international companies. Apple’s current building was quite bland, but their new HQ still being built like a spaceship looked amazing, from what we could see through the hoardings. Google’s was more funky with a few things to see and do in amongst the employee rest areas. Facebook’s was big and colourful, but nothing to see other than the big “like” thumb-up sign outside - the buildings themselves didn’t even say Facebook on them.
Onto San Francisco, we obviously headed straight for the Golden Gate Bridge and bay area, where there happened to be an air-show on, so that was a nice was to spend a few hours. Highlights were the Canadian Snowbirds, US Navy Blue Angels and a United Airlines 747 sweeping down over the bridge and circling the bay. We then did a drive though the city, going up and down the streets from Bullitt and up to the Twin Peaks look-out for great views of the city and Alcatraz.
Then we bumbled down the coast to Santa Cruz, which has a huge but slightly sad amusement arcade on the waterfront and a very hippy-dippy town-centre, with lots of “interesting” people (mainly weirdos). Monterey was more interesting, with loads of old adobe buildings from the Spanish and Mexican times, one of the many towns with a Mission, built by the Spanish monks to convert the locals. There’s something special about whitewashed buildings, red roof tiles, blue skies and cafés in quiet shaded plazas – like “proper” inland Spain, but then there’s a beautiful white beach with huge surf at the end of the road! It’s certainly made us even more excited about heading to Mexico and seeing more, older architecture.
Carmel (the place Clint Eastwood was mayor) was absolutely lovely - probably our favourite place so far. Quiet, small, clean, interesting shops, loads of places to eat and drink and another beautiful beach – it had it all. We visited Clint’s old pub – The Hog’s Breath – and his current business, the very posh Mission Ranch Hotel. The valet boys must be used to tourists driving through the car park, as they just stared at us with no suggestion they thought we were potential guests!
Further down Highway 1, we drove the legendary Big Sur road as far as we could – it’s still closed due to landslides last year. The scenery was as expected – stunning – but it is a true road-trip – there aren’t many places to actually stop and enjoy the views or beaches. Having turned around and gone back to Carmel, we drove through the Carmel Valley, which was arguably more twisty-turny and beautiful than Big Sur with hills, valleys and vineyards as far as you could see.
San Luis Obispo was next up, with another Mission and bizarrely a “Bubble Gum Alley” – a narrow brick alley covered in used gum of uncertain origin, but at least the 1970’s. Lovely! Then it was onto Santa Barbara, one of Caroline’s favourite places from her previous trips. The stunning Courthouse was only built in the late 1920’s, but in a Spanish style. It’s intricate design, coloured tiles, murals and gardens are worthy of a 5-star boutique hotel, let alone a public building. The rest of the town was similarly beautiful, with more adobe buildings, so many palm trees and a long, white beach.
So then it was on to Hollywood, the sign, the Walk of Fame, Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Strip. We got there early on a Saturday and it was surprisingly quiet, even managing to park on the road by the Chinese Theatre. Then along Mulholland Drive through Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Van Huys and Sherman Oaks just being blown away by the sheer opulence of the houses, cars and shops. We’re not big “celebrity” fans, but we did seek out Nikki Sixx’s infamous “heroin house” (Motley Crue bassist) and Dave Grohl’s pad. It was one of those surreal days, driving our old, scruffy truck from the UK through some of the most iconic and famous streets in the world.
Our plan from here is pretty loose. We’ve started sorting shipping to South America, which may be from Guatemala or Honduras, probably sometime in December. Soon we will head to Mexico, but first we will probably go inland to check out the Mojave Desert.
TTFN