We pretty much rushed past Monterey and Carmel, which was a shame, but we had to make some sacrifices to stay on schedule and do the Big Sur drive in daylight. About an hour out of Santa Cruz we hit the town (hamlet) of Big Sur, filled up with petrol and had a coffee in a lovely little mountain bar, which kindly put its chairs in the babbling brook at the bottom of the hill so we could cool our feet.
Then off for two hours of never-to-be-repeated driving and views. It was simply incredible. Alan was the passenger today so got to see all the views and be official photographer for the afternoon, but I had the bonus of driving the road. You kind of enter a zen-like state as sweeping turn after hairpin after rising and dipping bends come at you one after another. You catch glimpses of the view with the mountains on your left and the Pacific on your right, but you have to concentrate the whole way round. A different kind of fun from taking in the scenery, but fun nonetheless.
And we managed to come off the mountains just as the sun was setting. A genuine life experience. Wow.
