Monday 16th October 2017

We bid farewell to Costa Rica and caught the shuttle bus from the hostel to the airport ready for the five-hour flight to Los Angeles.  We had a lovely breakfast roll at the airport. We both watched three films during the flight: Despicable Me 3 [both], Boss Baby [both] and Singing in the rain [Jacqui], Notting Hill [Julie].

The car hire companies are stationed some way outside of the airport and reached by shuttle bus.  We collected our Toyota Yaris without incident and headed out towards Hollywood. Within a few minutes we could see the Hollywood sign high up on the mountain side. The sign is protected by guards and only accessible by foot so we parked up and walked the designated path where we first encountered an area called ‘The Berlin Forest’.  Having been to Berlin with The Keynsham Brass Band in our youth the friendship between Berlin and Los Angeles which was established in 1967 was of interest to us.

1. Visiting the Hollywood sign 16th Oct (33)

After around 20 minutes we reached a good place for a photo. Having got the photo we craved we walked back to the car and travelled on.

1. Visiting the Hollywood sign 16th Oct (34)

We then travelled west to find our airbnb accommodation for the night. Having not eaten much since breakfast and with no access to a kitchen we headed the short distance to ‘Westfield Topanga’ – a vibrant shopping and eating area.  We stumbled across a lovely Japanese cafe called ‘Sweetfin Poke’ where we indulged in:

It is a fairly new business, having only been around for about eighteen months, So if you get the chance to eat at this cafe, do so, it is beautifully fresh with a great taste. We would highly recommend it.
Tuesday 17th October 2017
We discovered this morning that our flights to Fiji and then on to Australia have not been confirmed, so will need to be booked again. It appears to be something to do with trying to book then whilst we were in Costa Rica.  We rebooked the first flight out of Los Angeles and into Fiji and decided to do the rest at some later date.  We also did some research into the fires that are ravaging the National parks [Sequoia and Yosemite] and after a couple of phone calls we established that the parks were open but the air quality was poor.  We finally decided to take the pacific coast highway first and then make a decision about our visit to the parks later on in the week.
We headed south out of Los Angeles towards Malibu Beach where we stopped to watch the many surfers and walk along the pier looking for ice cream.  We enjoyed strawberry and cappuccino ice-cream sandwiches overlooking the bay and watching the waves crash against Malibu Lagdon State Beach.  This is the biggest waves and surf we have seen so far and also the coldest water – the North Pacific Ocean.

Travelling further North on the I-101 we stopped for fresh – straight from the field – strawberries.  They were delicious.

2. Ventura Pier 17th Oct (17)

We made another stop at Ventura and walked along the Ventura Pier learning, by way of boards, all about the piers history. Originally built in 1872, it is California’s longest wooden pier.  It has been destroyed by storms several times and rebuilt, the latest renovations taking place in 1993.  It was built initially to encourage trading vessels to dock and bring building materials, fuel and other supplies into the areas to build the reputation of an otherwise failing town.  In return they shipped out corn, wheat and barley to the cities.

Stumbling across Carpinteria State Beach Camp Site was a great find. We chose plot 236 which was just a short walk from the dunes and the beach. We also had a lovely view of the Santa Ynez mountains.  Once we’d set up camp we headed for the beach to take in the last of the sun’s rays. As the sun began to set we headed into the small town to buy some supplies for supper and breakfast.  As Jacqui prepared a tea of chicken salad, Julie lit the fire.  We had a lovely evening sitting around the fire and playing scrabble.

3. Carpinteria Beach State Park Camp Site 17th Oct (14)

Wednesday 18th October 2017

We awoke early having had a good night’s sleep in our small but adequate tent. After packing away all our equipment and preparing and eating breakfast we headed north once again on the I-101 and the I-1 up the Pacific Coast Highway.  We called in on ‘Sub-Way’ for coffee and cookies and then made our way through a few small towns one of which was called Guadulape – a small but quaint town. Finally, we called in on another California State Park called Oceano Dunes. We decided to take the one-mile walk along the boardwalk and then walked onto the beach and back along the water’s edge watching the waves gently lap the shore, a fishing osprey being chased by a gull and another trying to extract food from someone who had left their clothing and snacks on the beach.

We then headed on towards our camp site for the night.  Airbnb accommodation is really expensive here on the Californian coast so camping is our most cost-effective option.  We chose Morro State Park Camp Ground. It was close to the estuary and in a wooded area not far off the highway. We set up camp underneath the trees because this was the only place we could get the tent pegs into the ground and we could also tie some of the guy ropes to the trees.

We needed to buy our wood for tonight’s campfire from a ‘Camp Host’ – these are people who volunteer to stay on the camp site as an ‘out-of-hours’ contact and to man the woodsheds. With this achieved we settled down for the evening [Julie – Blogging; Jacqui – researching and booking accommodation for tomorrow night].  As the evening went on it got colder and colder and we began to layer up – trousers, socks, shoes, thermal/base layer, jumper, gilet, waterproof. Only a few hours earlier we had been in shorts, vest tops and flip-flops!  We lit the fire and prepared supper.  We had decided to try cooking something over the fire so had bought a foil tray as a make-shift pan for only 45 cents. Into it we put a tin of chunky bean soup, pepper, onion, tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms. It cooked up a treat and tasted good as well!

Finishing the evening with a tot of Jeagermeister and then a cup of peppermint tea we headed for bed.  By this time it was really cold so we entered the tent and poured ourselves into our sleeping bags fully clothed. It was a fitful night’s sleep as it was the coldest we have experienced so far [510 F – 100 C].  We awoke early, still cold and extremely stiff and needing coffee!  We packed up and headed straight to town for breakfast.