Big Sur meets Big Sur
November 20th, 2011
We rode south out of Carmel with a dark storm gathering over our shoulders and locals’ warnings ringing in our ears. Slowly the road began to rise and then twist, with each switchback lifting us up higher onto exposed coastal bluffs while the waves crashed below.
Despite the impending soaking , I grinned to myself as we panted up a particularly vicious gradient. The first of Big Sur’s enormous bridges appeared over the crest of the hill and the road disappeared high into the distance beyond, an image I had gazed at longingly for years in books and other cyclists’ journals.
Finally, we were riding the Big Sur – a mythical stretch of the Californian coastline which, through two years of planning and saving, seemed to encapsulate everything we wanted from our own adventure. So much so that we decided to name our trip and this blog after it; our very own ‘Big Sur’, or ‘Big Ride South’ .
Sure enough, the rain lashed down an hour later as we put up our tent. We were soaked through, but had made it this far and were still smiling. It felt like our adventure was well and truly underway.
James
Sea meets sky
Room with a view
Turquoise
On the bluff
Sunset at Jade Cove
November 21st, 2011 at 12:01 am
So much great literary history to this stretch of coastline. You’ll have crossed Bixby Canyon bridge under which Kerouac stayed in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s shack to dry out. There’s Nepenthe a bohemian writer’s hang out purchased on the Big Sir cliffs. And of course Steinbeck’s Cannary Row seems to animate every rockpool of this sandy swaithe. Good luck on your further travels. Looking forward to hearing about Tijuana- have lawyers, guns and money at the ready! D.
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November 25th, 2011 at 6:35 am
But, its no Brighton Beach at the end of the day…
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