South to San Francisco

The decision to take the coast road or highway 101 was excellent, and I wish I could say it was mine - but I can't. To get to the coast from where we were travelling along highway 101 was rather interesting. 

Between Megan getting violently carsick, the electric brakes overheating to the point of smoke pouring out from under the trailer when we stopped and a lot of rain, the drive was tiring. Also the road wound serpentine like up and down at least 3 mountain ranges and we had to pull over to let cars pass regularly which then slowed our momentum. The law in California and Oregon states that slow vehicles MUST pull over to allow faster vehicles to pass when there is a turnout. 

The coast road of Northern California.



Checking the road.



The edge looks a little close, doesn't it?

As Jill drove along the coastal highway, we began to understand what they meant when they say it hugs the coastline. The pictures above are for a section of road that has been altered to pass a couple of metres inland of this point (now). There was a section of road earlier in the drive when this was exactly the case with a 100m plus drop to the sea below. I realized with some horror that if I opened my door as we drove along the wet and slippery road, fully half or more of my door would hang over the cliff edge! If I stepped out of the car I would fall directly down the sheer cliff. We were literally centimetres from the cliff line and yet driving along the road proper inside the white line. later we noticed a few small spots where the white line has sunk and fallen over the edge!! Thank goodness Jill was driving as I still tend to "wander" with my driving when the scenery gets good.



A view of the coast and road along northern California.

Further along the road we discovered some more of the perils of being too close to the edge of the coastline.

Remains of one house that was built too close to the coast.

We arrived at a section of the coast where a number of houses had fallen into the sea or are about to over the next few years. I beggars belief that anybody would be allowed to build so close, let alone stupid enough to do so. There are still houses perched precariously close only metres along from this one and people still live in them!


Sea lions resting on the beach near



Seagulls near the sea lions.

As we drove along the coastline we began to see surfers at certain places, and so when we saw a crowd on the roadside we assumed it was good surfing too. It partly was, but mainly the crowd were there for the sea lions. They were lazing on a beach that had formed across the mouth of a river running into the sea, and quite a few were swimming along the river and just playing.


Driving onto the Golden Gate Bridge.



The Golden Gate bridge with not so good weather.

There are some things that everybody just 'have to do' when they visit San Francisco and one of those is drive the Golden Gate Bridge - so we did- at a cost of $US9! This was possibly the most expensive bridge that we have crossed and the rates almost rival the Kangaroo Island ferry!!

Just to prove we were there.

Driving into San Francisco and along the peninsula to my friends place at Belmont proved to be more arduous than we first expected.  It turned out that I had forgotten to change the GPS navigation from shorter distance to faster time. We spent over an hour ducking and weaving our way through the back streets instead of following good ol' highway 101 straight down the middle and almost to Wade's door. Oh well we got a good look at the suburbs of San Francisco.


Apartments in the inner suburbs of San Francisco. No two are the same.

Eventually we arrived at Wade's house in Belmont and camped for the night under a huge gumtree!