US Prologue - New year, old year

I rested up on the first day of the new year in Santa Barbara, enjoying thoughts of both an old year, in its myriad memories with worn corners, and the shiny new year in front of me. I struck out again on the 2nd of January 2013, and all that remained of my Californian bike adventure was a couple of days riding to LA, then negotiating LA on a bicycle, then a couple more days down to San Diego.

Always sunny in Santa Barbara.

It was hard to leave the good company of Brooke and her boyfriend, particularly with still sore legs - the one day rest was not nearly enough - and a few hundred kilometres still between me and San Diego. However, people had told me I'd have good weather once I hit Santa Barbara, and they did not lie, so that sped me along my way. The Santa Monica mountains and yet more beautiful coastline made for excellent riding, and after camping for the night, I continued through Malibu, where my attention was drawn from the mountains on my left to the amazing houses built out over the water on my right.

Bike paths on the beach, how good!

Then I was in Santa Monica, riding under the pier, and looking out over the long, wide, lazy beaches of LA. I had expected LA to be, well, unpleasant, I suppose, on a bicycle. But riding along the bike path on the beach - which you can do almost all the way from Santa Monica to Torrance Beach - was beautiful.

Beautiful Palos Verdes.

I stayed with friends in beautiful Palos Verdes for the next three nights, and can't thank Alexis and his family, and Donna, enough for their hospitality. I had only planned on staying two nights, but I was struggling with fatigue somewhat, and was so well-looked after there, that it was easy to take an extra night.

City covered in fog - looking south from Palos Verdes

It was there in Palos Verdes that I rolled past two milestones - the 1000km mark of my bicycle tour, and the one year mark since leaving Oz to go walkabout. Good food for thought as I started the final push to San Diego.