California, 14th November, South Beach Point Reyes and a coyote afternoon

We drove up to Point Reyes South Beach for a spot of late lunch and studied the surf. There were squadrons of pelicans flying overhead and I decided that I liked pelicans as much as I like crows, my favourite bird. Looking into the sun through the spray and the mist the low cliffs were obscure.

Coming back to reality we decided we should move on so we made a quick visit to a bird reserve which we did not really have time to investigate and, driving out, were lucky enough to see a bob cat crossing the road. It was too quick to photograph but we felt very privileged.

The car was due back in San Francisco the next day and we had to find somewhere to sleep for the night, having not booked for this final camping evening. We drove back past Schooner Bay where backlit by the lowering sun a coyote was crossing the river and stopped to shake the water off on the other side. We watched, fascinated.

We had several abortive attempts to find a campsite and partially ate a hurried dinner of Kraft macaroni cheese which was absolutely disgusting. One site we went to was walk in only, which meant you had to abandon the car and walk in with a tent, not much use to us. Another foray saw us driving into a school yard, but finally we ended up in a large car park next to the marina in Sausalito. It was free parking at night and there seemed to be no restrictions on camping in your car. Even more of a bonus was that the public toilets were luxurious with clean tiles, mirrors and even flowers. Far better than the National Park standard.

We had a walk around Sausalito, very upmarket. The lights were on in San Francisco across the bay and we felt sad that this would be our last night in the camper.