Bajker s long bajkom, nam rano poradil aby sme si isli popri pobrezi na 17 Mile Drive, ze je to velmi pekne. Po ceste k pobreziu, chceme "natankovat", uz nam dosiel benzin do varica, ale na pumpe aj ked je otvorena, nik nie je. Kym hladame obsluhu (pretoze tu sa najprv plati az potom tankuje), pride k nam akysi chlapik a da nam 10$ a zduchne skor nez stihneme podakovat. 17 Mile Drive je naozaj pekna cesta, vedie po pobrezi s krasnymi skalami a utesmi, je tu aj jedno "tulenie" bralo s paradnou koloniou tulenov (a paradnym puchom sa od nich valiacim, dost fukalo v zlom smere :-)). Na krase tejto cesty neubralo ani to ze viedla cez golfove ihrisko. Bolo vsak celkom citlivo spravene, takze celkom zapadalo do scenerie. Bol tu aj maly lesik s endemických druhom cedra (uz si presne nepamatam presne akym). Za tymto lesikom sa nachadzaju nabliskane palace tej bohatsej vrstvy USAncanov, vacsinou repliky, klasickych stavieb z Europy. Opustame Monterey a prechadzame cez Carmel, snobska kolonia bohacov ako vysita, ale maju tu postu a tak posielame domov balik so "zbytocnymi" vecami. Konecne sa nam trocha nase tasky odlahcili, aj ked to stalo okolo 60$. Za Carmelom uz zaciname ukusovat z Big Sur-u, dalsiemu legendarnemu kusku zapadneho pobrezia. Kopce tu uz su uplne bez stromov, cedre uz v davnych dobach padli za obed rozsirujucej sa pastve a rancom, teraz kopce pokryvali len zakrsle kriaky a sucha trava, do toho je kade tade vidno rozbite svahy eroziou. Cesta sa postupne zacina stverat do kopcov, lemovana po pravej strane strmymi utesmi. Zaciname prekonavat hlboke rokliny po prvych mostoch, pobrezie je lemovane fantastickymi rozorvanymi bralami a skalami, okolo ktorych sa vlnia tesne pod hladinou lesy chaluh, najproduktivnejsieho to ekosystemu na zemi. Zdviha sa poriadny vietor, nastastie busi do nasich chrbtov, obcas ani nemusime slapat do kopca, problem je akurat v zakrutach, ked poryvy vetru do nas udieraju z boku. Na uzkej ceste a so strmym utesom po pravici to nebolo velmi prijemne. Nakoniec sa cesta, klukatiaca sa po utesoch, vyrovnala trocha sa vzdialila od oceanu a prechadzala pastvinami s dobytkom. Bol dalsi z krasnych zapadov slnka s krvavo cervenymi oblakmi. Noclah sme nasli v kempe Andrew Molera State Parku. Okrem nas tu nikto nebol a vo "food" boxoch sme nasli celkom slusnu zasobu jedla, piva a skoro plnej flase Krakena, pomerne lacneho rumu. Takze vecer nam bolo celkom veselo...
That guy on long bike recommended us to follow the coast on 17 Mile Drive, which showed up to be a good choice. On the gas station (we had to refill gasoline bottle for our cooking stove), somebody just gave us 10$ to sponsor our journey, I guess :-) 17 Mile Drive was really beautiful, with very nice coast (rocks, cliffs), even it let through golf courses. We saw many seals/sea lions and a lot of birds, passed through small forest with some kind of ceder, which groves only here. There are also huge (fake) houses, probably some very rich people tried to built them as replicas of the old European houses, but everything is just wood and plasterboard. Even worst it is in Carmel, which we renamed to Justforrichpeopleland. We stopped there for while in post office to send home some useless stuff. And then we were finally on the Hwy 1 and with Big Sur in front of us. The hills on our left side are without any trees, redwoods were cut down a long time ago, pastures for cows were probably more important. Nowadays we didn't see any cattle there, pastures were covered with shrubs and slopes broken by erosion. The coast hwy slowly went uphill, but this time the wind helped us a lot, it was so strong that we nearly didn't have to pedal. We crossed the first from many Big Sur's bridges, some of them overarching pretty deep gorges, with beautiful cliffs and ocean on our right side it was gorgeous :-) With strong wind in our backs we were nearly flying, the only problems were curves where tailwind changed to sidewind and then we had to fight for balance and not falling down 600 feet to the ocean. Finally after we crossed the cliffs, the road went more inland and nicely level and with pastures (this time also with cattle) around us. This day slowly ended and after amazing sunset in last rays of light we arrived to Andrew Molera State Park. We found here nice and completely empty campground, perfect for us. What was even better in food boxes we found some candies, beers and nearly full bottle of Kraken rum, so we could celebrate Barbora's nameday :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment