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Thursday 6 September 2012

Day 32: Under the bridge - Monterey to Limekiln State Park

Wow what a day!
Dave and I took an unscheduled rest day yesterday in Monterey as we were both exausted, Dave's knee was sore and it was forcast thunder storms. I'm not sure if it was the extra rest or the excitement of booking our onward travel but we whizzed through today, which us detailed as a difficult day in our guide book.
Following back onto the 1 from Monterey the road took us up to the steep cliffs of Carmel Highlands. The houses here were amazing, huge and must cost a small fortune!
The road followed the coast for most of the day towards Big Sur, where the views were amazing. There was still a lot of climbing, but compared to some of the other days the climbed seemed to be made easier as each canyon or bay had a bridge joining the roads rather than taking you right down to sea level and back up again. Some of the bridges were fantastic to look at and even more amazing to cross over on the bikes. Some you could look straight down almost beneath you.
Highway 1 takes you back inland for Big Sur through more mighty redwood trees which meant it was lovely and hot again. We stopped for lunch in the Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park and ate our lunch by the Big Sur river surrounded by naughty Blue Jays.
Leading out of Big Sur is a climb of over 1k feet, i mufh earned by ice tea from the shop at the top! The descend down took us through the redwoods and red sand opening up into red ocean cliffs. The views were just breathtaking and made every second of each climb worth it - thank god there was no fog, or lightning!
Stopping at a point we heard sealions barking up from below and could smell them (they stink!), the more we starred the more we could see. Lining every rock in and out of the water, there were even pools of them in the water.
The road followed the rugged cliffs with connecting bridges and amazing views, we started talking to another cyclist on his way to San Diego who advised us some of the campgrounds didn't have drinking water, so we decided to end the day at Limekiln State Park. It sounds a bit strange to say its under a bridge of the highway, but it really was lovely. We managed to get a hiker biker spot right by the ocean and watched the sun set before bed. What an awesome day.
Miles today 58. Total miles 1378.






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