Day 39: Solvang - Nojoqui Farm - Refugio State Beach, 46km

Our second night camping in a State Beach campsite has taught me the pecking order of campers and their perceived expendability. Bicycle tourers at $5 a pop are the least worth preserving - in the event of a Tsunami apparently America would not like us left to repopulate the country - maybe it is the fear of boiled swimmers. The next are group campers - I guess they can be obnoxious at times. However, it appears the most desirable to save are RV drivers. Curious.

The guys in the bike shop yesterday told us to start early and avoid the rush hour on our pilgrimage back to the coast. We have learnt to heed the advice of locals, although with our own interpretation - we set off at 11am.

We followed Alisal Road out to hwy 101, past a guest ranch, along one of those nagging climbs that looks flat and as a result leaves you demoralised as you puff and pant your way to the top, the peak of which goes almost unnoticed seeing as the gradient was almost negligible. Of course I had a sore knee and there must have been something wrong with Tim's bike. Ignoring my 'Never cycle north' mantra we turned right onto the highway and pulled into Nojoqui Farm where the guy we had met yesterday lived.

I have great concern for Tim's credibility as a farmers son. Filaree and Andrew sent us off with a bag of organic cabbage, green beans and mange tout. Tim, however, thought we had runner beans and a red carrot. I can't even imagine what he thought the black pepper was. Maybe the vegetables in Ireland have funny names too - lord only knows what he thinks eggplant is ;-)

Andrew took us on a tour around the farm which his wife's parents owned. For the first time since hitting the states we saw someone use their 4by4 in the vain it was intended. As we drove down a steep track, and across a fjord, I felt like we were on a full sus bike, down down the forks. I was thankful we weren't on our bikes.

As we came back to the entrance Filaree (Andrews wife) and their son Holden appeared and we went off to pick raspberries - I was in heaven. Holden was very cute (the photo shows it all), scampering around the farm without a worry in the world about thorns or mud or machinery. He was happily munching on fruit - obviously oblivious to the fact that most kids refuse fruit after being fed too much candy and pop.

Although we were within easy reach of Santa Barbara we figured we would camp outside to make good use of all our fruit and veg in our most sophisticated camp meal to date. As we pedalled away we both knew what the other was thinking - how is London ever going to compare to this sort of lifestyle.

We had had so much fun on the farm, that time had escaped us. Our route through Gaviota Canyon was far more spectacular than i had been expecting as peaks rose above us on either side. As we pulled into Refugio State Beach we realised it was 7 hours since breakfast. Failing to find the hiker/biker section (OK we didn't exactly hunt for it) we devoured sandwiches and raspberries. Replete in every sense of the word, we set up camp then lazed on the beach, dreaming and reading, reading and dreaming.