And then we really were on our way; a new country with new experiences. The next real stop would be San Francisco, so our focus was on getting there. It didn’t take long for us to get our first flat tire, caused by a huge nail which would have punctures every tire. Fortunately we could change the innertube whilst enjoying a great view.

We have been in the US many times before, but never on our bikes. Everything is made for the use of cars, so we had to wait and see what it would be like on a bike. You’re not allowed to cycle on all the roads (freeways), so you have to try to find an alternative route the leads you the same way.

In the cities there were bikeroutes that avoided the non-cycle roads. That was pretty easy, but you have to figure out which route to follow. Outside of the cities and towns we usually could use the main roads.

We basically followed the Pacific Coast Route, but sometimes we would bypass it. It’s a nice route but it also has some boring stretches in it. You ride along the coast a lot, with green hills and forests on the other side. In the south there are big, white beaches and more to the north it turns into cliffs and rocks. In some areas there are fields of strawberries as far as you can see and they smelled wonderful! We also had to cross a Navy base.

You have to cross the city of LA, which is a huge stretch. If you start at one side in the morning, you get to the other side at the end of the day. On the north side of LA, you pass the famous beaches of Venice Beach and Santa Monica with its famous pier.

We noticed that there were so many homeless people ‘living’ in the parks along the beaches. Further north are the rich towns of Malibu and Santa Barbara (very nice town). We were passed by many immensly expensive cars over there; if you have just a Porsche, you’re nothing special over there. The many Ferrari’s, Maserati’s and other exotic cars proved that it’s a rich neighborhood over there.

A while after Santa Barbara, the road goes inland again and from where you reach the coast again it’s very beautiful. It becomes (more) hilly with steep cliffs to the ocean and the views are amazing. Especially around Big Sur it’s very beautiful. There’s a forest with huge Redwood trees and we camped under those trees.

When we were in Big Sur we also got to watch the Tour of California; a pro tour with some famous cyclists. Nice to watch even though they passed very fast.

Except for one night in LA, we camped every night. Along the coast there are many campgrounds because there are many state parks and many of them have a campground. When you arrive there on foot or cycling, you can get a hiker/biker site. They are (much) cheaper than a regular site. Not always the nicests sites, but you have the same facilities as the others and it’s cheap. And a good place to meet other cyclists. We hadn’t seen many cyclists for a long time, but this route is very popular and therefore busy so there were other cyclists on the campgrounds as well. Once, we had a very beautiful spot with view of the ocean. We saw whales and dolphins swim by and withnessed a beautiful sunset.

On the campground in the town of Lompoc also were 2 other cyclists; a Canadian who was going south and the German guy Bernd who had cycled from Florida and was going north also. It was late when they arrived (seperately), so we didn’t talk long. The next morning, Bernd was up early and also left early. We left later, but at one point we passed him. The rest of the days to San Francisco we cycled together and had a good time.

We cycled together, camped, made kampfires, cooked, watched whales, dolphins and elephantseals and kept eachother out of the wind. Because, of course
we had strong headwind again. A day without wind seems impossible for us. One of the last days it was even very hard to cycle because of it. The last day we said goodbye to Bernd because he had to get to San Francisco that day. His girlfriend would arrive that evening, so he wanted to be there. So he left the campground early because the wind was still very strong. We were in less hurry and left late, but ended up making it to the city that day too because the wind had died down substantially. We met Bernd and his girlfriend for lunch one day, before they got into their rental car to explore the state a bit more by car.