by Liz

Day’s mileage : 67

Running total : 2,166

I intend to write a shorter blog post today because we have some celebrating to do 🙂

Good things about today: 
We got to the border with Mexico 😀 We saw ospreys nesting. We watched a pair of hummingbirds happily sitting in a tree for ages. We were heartily congratulated by a cycling club of octogenarians we met who go by the name of Old Spokes. We sold one of the bikes 🚴‍♀️

Interesting things about today: 
We passed more curious, attractive erosion patterns. 
We rode by a salt panning area and company. 
Instead of riding over beautiful Coronado island we went all round the back roads and industrial estates of San Diego 🤔 Who needs dreamy palm trees and beaches when you can slum it in some dockyards?

I’d imagined our arrival would look like this: we’d ride along the coastal road, reach Imperial Beach, touch the border, have a swim, enjoy fish and chips on the sand and maybe a donut to celebrate. But the oceanside state park by the border is closed as it’s flooded with sewage 😐

It’s also approached via deserted country roads along the foot of the Peninsular Ranges with the wall visible all the way along and border control helicopters constantly flying overhead. Not a little unnerving.

So we turned round and went a few miles inland to the Tijuana crossing where we made it to the Mexican border! And decided a photo was enough to mark the occasion before heading to somewhere that felt more comfortable.

This evening we’re staying about five miles from the border, on the US side. Helicopters are still overhead. Any minute now we’re going out to a Mexican diner to toast the successful completion of a totally amazing expedition.

Additional notes

Oceanside to the Mexican border, San Diego county, CA.

Left at 9am. Arrived at 6.10pm

Weather: Overcast. Cool. Windy, often a headwind. It warmed up later. Sunny spells.

Landscape: Attractive residential streets of Oceanside. The road we were on ran parallel to the coast so in-between each block we could see the sea to our right. Through Carlsbad we were on a road along the sea with lots of surfers in the water. Stopped for a snack near a Buddhist temple in Encinitas at the Swami Seaside Park rest area, with pretty views over palm trees and the sea. The road was lined with shops and eateries for quite a long way, through Solena Beach and Del Mar. A bike trail lined with trees through Del Mar, where I found a nice little fir cone to be the third in the set – Washington, Oregon and California, now complete. At 11.30am, stopped for a snack on a bench above Del Mar overlooking the sea and enjoyed the hummingbirds and interesting Bryce-type erosion nearby. Rode inland along Torrey Pines Road for a way with interesting erosion to the cliff face on our right. Mission Bay Park with trees and picnic areas and people out for the day, playing in and beside the water. Nicely done but all developed, not unspoilt like Tomales Bay, for instance. After lunch we followed trails around the bay and joined the road at a traffic light. Into San Diego on a busy road, not well set up for cyclists. Along the waterfront with boats and ships moored up, the San Diego skyline attractive against the blue sky. Through the industrial area of San Diego then we emerged into a large car park where we heard the ospreys. A cycle path out of the industrial estate led to an impressive intersection of flyovers, several with traffic on them and our cycleway quietly suspended beneath, beside and above them. We started seeing mountains ahead and what looked like snow but was actually white buildings. As we got closer we could see it was a whole city – Tijuana! We joined a quiet country road and passed a salt panning operation. Country roads through occasional homes and ranches, many with stables and signs offering horses to rent but they were empty, as though the bottom had fallen out of that market. The road towards the mountains became more and more remote with hardly any traffic and in the end, none at all. We started hearing helicopters overhead – border control. At the foot of the mountains the road turned west, mountain on our immediate left and occasional homes or a campsite or a nature reserve to our right. At a gulley we stopped and looking up at the left the Border Wall was right there, jagged against the horizon, way above us, looking foreboding. There were warning signs about unauthorised entry, smuggling and penalties including fines and prison. At the closed border park we turned back, as we knew we would need to, and retraced our steps. Headed east on country roads again then joined a main road in the direction of Tijuana, quite busy and reassuring not to be on totally isolated roads, but we were unsettled by then and on full alert. At the border area we pushed our bikes over the pedestrian bridge to border control, lots of people tramping across in both directions but none with bikes. It felt strange, nerves heightened. On the far side was a train station, many commuters coming and going in the hot sun. Almost everything was in Spanish. We found another sign and took another photo. Very few white faces. When we left we made our way through the busy street and onto the road back to the US. It was about 5 miles to the Air BnB. I felt safer riding away from the border but there was a close shave with a car turning right on a red light. I really didn’t want us to get all the way to the border and have an accident at that point.

Towns: Oceanside. Carlsbad. Encinitas.

Trails: A railway trail near Del Mar. Excellent bike paths catering for all the cyclists here.

State roads: South Coast Highway 101.

Breakfast: Porridge, banana and nectarine.

Lunch spot: At a picnic table in some shade at Mission Bay after 34 miles.

Dinner: We had a celebration dinner at Rocko’s Authentic Mexican diner up on the main road, the only people there, nachos, tacos and rice and beans. No English spoken.

Wildlife: Beautiful pelican line-ups flying past over the water. Either a heron or an egret flew overhead, very elegant, its legs tucked neatly beneath its body. In a large car park we heard an unusual, frequent cry which we traced to a bird on top of a streetlamp – a juvenile osprey calling to its parents. Further along the cycleway we saw more precarious pole-top nests and heard more juveniles squawking. We saw four nests altogether. It was a joy to see them against the blue sky and Philip felt instantly better!

Plants: Palm trees. Various wildflowers growing in the verges.

Things we saw: On one uphill stretch along Torrey Pines Road there were two cycle paths so you could overtake slower cyclists. From our lunch spot we could see a woman on the other side of the bay encouraging her horse into the shallows. It was funny because the horse was extremely wary and Philip was making her say things like ‘You know you liked it last time.’ At a traffic light, we watched as a big palm tree branch broke off in the wind and careered down to the roadside opposite. Wouldn’t want to be in the way of one of those. Beautiful old ships in San Diego harbour with multiple masts and rigging, as well as a huge naval ship. As we approached the salt panning operation, we first saw two large mountains of salt with a digger moving shovel loads of it around, then the salt pans themselves shining in the afternoon sun. A sign on a bike path that read ‘When flooded turn around. Don’t drown’.

People we spoke to or saw: Bob Jones (Cathy Hingley’s brother) and his wife Mary came at 8am to look at the bikes. Bob is going to buy Philip’s for $3,000 but mine was too big for Mary. We saw two laden cyclists in high vis jackets up ahead and I guessed correctly it was Bethany and Kristen. We finally caught them up in Carlsbad in their fun party shirts. Many surfers in black wetsuits both in and out of the water on their way home, carrying their surf boards, often in bare feet even on the roads. We passed several older cyclists on the way, part of the Old Spokes group, and we chatted to them at the Swami rest area. They ride twice a week, about 20 miles. They celebrated how far we’ve come and were very interested in our e-bikes. Many day cyclists. We passed a man on a skateboard on the shoulder of the fairly busy highway, playing the guitar as he went along. A fisherman walked past and chatted to us about ospreys as we were watching the juvenile through binoculars. He pointed out where the nest was and said he loves them too. When he catches fish he can’t use he throws them to one side and the ospreys come for them. We passed a young woman on horseback with a rucksack on her back. Philip thought she was probably commuting. I wondered if she’d ridden from Canada to Mexico but when we passed and could see her face, we could see she wasn’t nearly weathered enough. At the border train station a passing lady who didn’t speak English kindly offered to take some photos for us.

Incidents: Neither of us slept well last night. I commented to Philip it would be 10 minutes before we caught up with Bethany and Kristen but in fact it was more like an hour – they are faster than we are even on normal bikes. We only caught them up because they had stopped to change into their party shirts. Forgot to pack our party shirts! I missed the more rural sections of our route. Riding into San Diego on a busy road several times we had cross lanes of fast-moving traffic which was a bit hairy. For some reason the Komoot route didn’t take us over Coronado Island where Bethany and Kristen were going and where most sensible cyclists would go. By the time we looked at the map we’d passed the turn off and decided to stick with the Komoot route which ran along the other side of the bay, thinking it would be more of the same attractive waterfront. But instead it took us through a series of industrial estates and naval docklands of San Diego, really ugly, which I actually loved. We went from pillar to post in Nestor trying to find a loo. Riding along the foot of the mountains was unnerving and surprising – I was totally unprepared for this landscape. I’d thought our approach would be completely different and I really liked how unexpected and intrepid it felt. Yesterday evening, in an effort to plan our arrival celebration, I looked up to see if the beach at the border has fish and chips and donuts and was safe to swim, only to find a warning that the area was closed because ‘the roads and trails may be flooded with sewage, contaminated water and mud’. So we knew in advance we would most likely have to backtrack when we reached the Border Field State Park. As we retraced our steps, we talked about the helicopters, that they would certainly have clocked us and probably decided we were not a concern, but if they weren’t sure a squad of police cars would no doubt show up. They didn’t. But we were both nervous, we hadn’t thought we might be at risk at this end point, but we’ve heard things about people disappearing at US border crossings at the moment. At the border train station we decided we’d gone as far as we had appetite for, slightly further in fact.

Shopping: At a little food shop along from Rocko’s diner, the highway dark and no streetlights.

Accommodation: A very nice garage conversion in a residential area, cool, smart and comfortable and everything matches. Two young girls were doing some gardening in the driveway as we turned in.

Today’s sound: Helicopters overhead. Young ospreys calling.

Today’s smell: Timber yard at San Diego dock.

Special moments: Watching the two hummingbirds that weren’t going anywhere. I was riding well, in auto but rarely in turbo, enjoying the miles and remembering to savour them as I went along. I saw today as the same as every other day’s riding – part of the expedition, not for a moment feeling tired, travel weary or wishing we were there. Just how I wanted it. Loving that we found ourselves in the industrial docklands, from where we could even see the dreamy palm trees of Coronado Island, it seemed so funny, and interesting to be off the beaten path. Philip didn’t like it at all. Seeing ospreys and their nests. Our milometers passed 2,200 miles this afternoon, the last time we would pass a 100-mile marker. The landscape became increasingly interesting and unexpected south of San Diego. I’d thought it would be developed, highly populated, big roads and beach paths, but the route we took was on country roads with signs warning of horses. Heading towards the Tijuana border we stopped at a road sign beside the highway that read ‘Mexico only. No USA return’ and took photos for the record. Arriving at our hard won, epic destination. Liking our Air BnB. Tea and cookies. I wrote a speed blog so it wouldn’t dominate the evening. Cathy was up late at a Beyoncé concert and congratulated us on reaching the border.

Positive experience from my journal: Making it all the way to the border without incident.

Appreciation from my journal: Riding well today and writing a funny blog post.

Blog comments from Aran and Beth, Cathy, Lorna, Cathy H and Claire. Aran and Beth: ‘AMAZING!! Well done, you guys (using the local vernacular). Happy to have been able to insert ourselves into just a few hours of your multi-week trip 🙂’. Cathy: ‘Yippeeeeee you did it! Congratulations!! Love you both xxx’. Lorna: ‘Congratulations on completing your epic journey. How do you follow that? Safe journey home, catch up at Wisley next week’. Cathy Hingley: ‘Ta Da!!! Well done Liz and Philip! You have certainly seen the best, and the worst, of the Pacific Coast. What a trip! I hope you find scrumptious Mexican food and toast yourselves with a margarita. Enjoy the moment!!!’ Claire: ‘You did it! What a fabulous achievement – we are so proud of you and deeply impressed. Hope the celebrations have been special. Cannot wait to see you and sending lots of love in the meantime’.

Social media replies from Kira, Bethan Foden, Nick Freed, Jen Adams, Vicky Graham, Mara Uzzell, Colin Darling, Clive Brooker, Lynn Hedges, Simon Cruse and Matt Pottage. Bethan: ‘Congratulations both – an amazing experience!’ Nick: ‘Congratulations, following you both was amazing. Nick and Michaela’. Jen: ‘Well done to you both. We will miss your accounts’. Vicky: ‘Bravo! What an achievement’. Mara: ‘Many congratulations to you both! What an awesome trip and thank you for a great blog and photos you’ve shared. 👏🏻👏🏻’. Colin: ‘Jolly good show!’ Clive: ‘Many congratulations!!!!!’ Lynn: ‘So many Congratulations. You achieved your goal Liz with Philip this time. You must be thrilled’. Simon: ‘What a fantastic adventure!!’ Matt: ‘Love the Juniperus chinensis ‘Kaizuka’ ❤️’.

Video: Philip cycling through Carlsbad (14m59s + 1m56s). Philip cycling through Encinitas (15m41s). Hummingbirds (2m9s). Philip cycling through Del Mar (4m8s). Philip cycling through La Jolla and Torrey Pines (9m20s). Philip cycling through San Diego and docklands (10m49s). Ospreys (1m9s). Philip cycling through Chula Vista and Egger Highlands (10m53s). Philip cycling along the border road (14m40s). Philip cycling towards Tijuana (3m17s). To the border (28m52s).

Audio: Osprey calls (38s).

Mementos: Rocko’s Family Restaurant and Farm Fresh Market receipts, Imperial Beach.