we spotted the cars, and then their owners - who appeared to be staring at
boulders on the narrow beach. And then we smelt the boulders, and then they
began to make loud farting noises. We spent much longer there than we had
expected. Just staring at the seals hauling their massive bodies around and
lying on top of each other. Some of them were fighting each other, and many
bore the scars of earlier encounters – nature at its ugliest and most brutal....
according to our resident naturalist, Emma.
We were surprised to find a volunteer guide standing by the animals,
and we chatted to her for ages about them. Everywhere we went in the USA
we met retired people volunteering, in museums, parks, and so on, a great
way to spend your twilight years - much better than keeping cats or knitting!
When we finally tore ourselves away and headed to the castle it was
mid afternoon. We soon found out that the tours of the historic and lavish
rooms ($18 each) were sold out for the day. After seeing pictures of the rooms
included in the tour we decided not to change our schedule to come back the
next day. The ‘castle’ is based on a Mediterranean village; something that
Emma (who is half Italian) and I have seen plenty of on travels nearer to
home.
The next day we turned inland, heading towards Death Valley, on the other
side of California. We soon left the sea and the rain behind us. The first half of
the day was spent driving through a very empty landscape, filled with ranch
land and little else. Ahead of us were mountains and behind us, in the back of
the van, was a very full chemical toilet. We had not been able to dump at the
last couple of camps due to a combination of bad weather and laziness.