California Route 1 took us to Monterey and its famous

California Route 1 took us to Monterey and its famous aquarium. In essence this is not dissimilar to Ocean Park, but it has a strong focus on sustainability and education. There were also no mainland tourists, and no "waa, ho sik!" from the crowd. Adorable sea otters were the highlight.

Taking Route 1 further down, we passed through Big Sur - along with a myriad of other vehicles including RVs and Harleys. The coasts seems to be shrouded in perpetual fog, but it was highly memorable nontheless.

From high up on the cliffs we spotted sea otters through our binoculars, and came across feisty sea lions a little further on. Sightings of blue whales had been reported, but no luck for us on that front.

Camping was undertaken at Morro Bay State Park. This was billed as the "Gibraltor of the West" - but with its seafood restaurants and coal-fired power station, it was perhaps more like the "Lamma of the East".

Not long after settling into our sleeping bag and tired from a long day, the park ranger arrived and said we had set up in the wrong spot - grumpily we relocated our tent a few places down.