Bye horsey
De-sanding
Our planned lunch stop was Nepenthe, Big Sur. We had read fab reviews and it was the perfect location on the way down too.
You can’t make reservations for less than 5 people so we were happy with either Nepenthe itself or the more relaxed cafe Kevah downstairs.
The carpark was completely full so we parked in the roadside parking bay instead and walked up to the gift shop first for a browse.
They had some brilliant stuff there and lots of unusual items.
After a short browse, we decided we only wanted a light bite and to just go to Cafe Kevah anyway. It was moderately busy but we easily found a table. What a setting! I honestly don't think there’s a prettier cafe view than this place!
We weren’t massively hungry but knew there weren’t many opportunities for food between now and our home for the night in Santa Barbara, so we got a breakfast burrito to share and some water.
Menu
After we ordered it took about ten minutes or so for our food to arrive. It was gigantic! It was absolutely lush and packed with flavour.
After brunch, we popped back in the shop to use the loo and have another browse then took the opportunity for a picture with the incredible view!
After a successful lunch stop we were ready to drive further South.
The scenery was beautiful and the pictures just don’t show how pretty it was. I kept wanting to pinch myself that we were actually there, it was so pretty.
We were very lucky that this stretch of road was even open, just over a year before the road had suffered a massive landslide
The entire road was completely blocked in both directions and it took over $44m to reopen the road, which thankfully opened a couple of weeks before we were due to arrive!
The detour would have meant we had to skip a huge chunk of the beautiful coastal road and head inland onto infamously treacherous Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to skirt the landslide area still being repaired.
The road is a very steep, narrow road with NO guardrails!
"The 7-mile ascent to 3500 feet includes several treacherous hairpin curves where passing an oncoming vehicle could be difficult."
Everything I read suggested to drive extremely carefully and take your time. The alternative was to head inland much further North and miss even more stops.
I was surprised to find out they essentially built on top of the landslide as there was just too much for them to move! Look!
After that excitement we continued on to San Simeon
We arrived shortly afterwards at the Friends of the Elephant Seal beach.
This little stop of was brilliant! The seals were fascinating and we stayed and spectated for a while, there were some big personalities on that beach!
After we left, we drove out the car park and I did a double take… zebras? In a field?
I still had no 4G to Google it but it turns out Hearst Ranch has zebras roaming amongst the cattle! How random!
We were in need of a loo break, a drink and a snack so we pulled over shortly afterwards at Hearst Ranch.
