The next morning we wanted to get up early - in the end we got up at 10 and were on the road at about 12. Our next destination should be Santa Barbara. Although we first had planned to spend the night in or close to Santa Barbara, we changed our schedule again. We just stopped in SB for a tank of gas and some incredibly delicious Mexican food (see pictures). After that, we were heading towards Big Sur, without really knowing, where to stay for the night and what and where to eat. Therefore, we just drove on and on until we came to a beach that fulfilled our requirements for building another sand castle on it. So we built another big sand castle on the beach, the name of which we don't know - the only thing we know is, that the sand there is awesome! "Weird Germans", they must have thought when they saw four twenty-two year olds building a sand castle.
When we felt that it was time to look for a place to sleep, we made some more 50 miles on the bendy roads of California - the mountains to the right and the sea to the left. For people who have never been to Big Sur, it is hard to imagine that next to big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego there are hundreds of miles of coast with no civilization at all. Everything is almost like it had been when the first settlers arrived - except for the famous Highway 1.
Since it was Friday evening it was quite hard to find a campground that still had open spots. We came to one that was in the woods close to the coast and had no facilities but some porta potties. As our only alternative was to do wild camping, we happily accepted the offer to put up our tent on one of the last spots. Without anything but some cereals to eat we made us feel at home by putting up our tent and having some smalltalk with our neighbors, who invited us for a round of cornhole (if you don't know it, look it up - it's heeps of fun!).
Since it was Friday evening it was quite hard to find a campground that still had open spots. We came to one that was in the woods close to the coast and had no facilities but some porta potties. As our only alternative was to do wild camping, we happily accepted the offer to put up our tent on one of the last spots. Without anything but some cereals to eat we made us feel at home by putting up our tent and having some smalltalk with our neighbors, who invited us for a round of cornhole (if you don't know it, look it up - it's heeps of fun!).
For California, this night was really cold. Too cold for Natalie, who didn't really sleep that much. The three of us guys had already internalized the natural schedule of going to bed when it gets dark and getting up with the first sunlight, which, by the way, is great! You feel so much better than with the "artificial" rhythm we have due to coffee and lightbulbs. Although we had been warned, that we might meet some mountain lions, rattle snakes or bobcats out there, unfortunately we didn't see any.