Aguacaliente

After months of taking the slow winding roads we eventually had no choice but to hit the Interstate down to San Diego. We splurged on a posh hotel for the Thursday night (ok, only as our loyalty points were about to expire) so we could get to our first aid course, needed for our volunteering in Guatemala, easily in the morning. Being in the middle of a city was a strange change but we made the most of it with a few jars at the local brewery and then a tasty meal at the Chinese around the corner, before falling asleep in front of James Bond! The next day we completed our Red Cross first aid course, which was pretty simple as they don't let you do too much now a days, and hopefully we won't have to ever use it (Jo says 'touch wood' as some of you will remember she was involved in a mountain rescue last year!)

There's not a lot of camping available but we were booked in for a couple of nights at Mission Trails, which bizarrely only lets you camp at the weekends. We drove into town and parked up on the sea front and took our bikes on the ferry over to the Coronado Peninsula. It's a beautiful long sand spit but unfortunately most of it had been claimed by the navy for a massive base, but it was a nice flat ride (for a change!). The next morning we went for a long run around the grasslands in the park then spent the rest of the day lazing around on Ocean Beach, rounded off with an amazing burger at the famous Hodads. We moved camp down to Sweetwater Park just south-east of the city centre, and spent the day doing chores prepping for the next phase of our trip. In the morning I went for another run (it's nice to have showers again) and more last minute jobs before we drove into Kensington for meet our friends from Colorado who are heading off on a 3 month cycle tour of NZ. We had a delicious meal with their friends Dennis and Shou, with brownie to die for, before we both headed off on our respective trips to other ends of the earth.Read more