Day 24 – Stillwater County Park, CA. 72 km
We didn’t get as far as we intended today. Even so, it was a strenuous ride with lots of descents down ravines and sudden climbs up again. This part of the coast offers a tortuously winding highway with absolutely no shoulders anywhere. The strain of the ride is significantly magnified by our constant awareness of impatient drivers being held back, waiting for a time to pass – and often doing so in very risky locations.
With today’s shortened ride we have lost touch with a trio of 50-ish mountain biking guys we’ve been travelling with who are riding the coast from Astoria to their home in San Luis Obispo.
One of them, Joe, rides towing his gear in a trailer. He works for the city in SL Obispo and is endearing for his habit of collecting whatever environmentally nasty stuff he finds by the roadside – typically bits of lead from the wheels of cars, which he wants to prevent getting into the water system.
Tonight we are sharing a campsite with a young Polish couple, Lucas and Marta, who are riding from Seattle to LA as the last adventure of a two year journey around the world – much of it done by hitchhiking. They have been to 30+ countries – places like Iran, Turkey, Oman, India, China, Nepal, etc., and have fantastic stories to tell. These people are fearless in their curiosity to try different things and to visit unusual places. They told us about finding themselves in a remote village in Iran and being invited to spend a night with an Iranian family. Nobody spoke English, so hand signals provided the only means of communication. After living on just $150 for a month in Iran they went to Dubai and were shocked by the costs, so they pitched their tent in a discreet area in the city centre and left after two days. They travelled from the Phillipines to Australia by crewing on a 45-foot catamaran for six weeks with the owner – who turned out to be an unpleasant shipmate.
They are now coming to the end of their global wandering and return to Poland in December. I’m very impressed with this couple. They plan to start some kind of business in Kraków, where they’re from, using ideas developed from their travels. I have no doubt they will do well.