THE PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY

24TH JULY - 3RD AUGUST

We arrived back in the Bay Area around lunchtime and decided to head to Berkeley and check out the camping shops. We had both realised how cold it can get in California even in summer and decided that our Australian sleeping summer bags were definitely not up to the job of keeping us warm enough at any kind of altitude. There were loads of outdoor shops in Berkeley and like with most things in the USA they are cheap. Rob’s sleeping bag has definitely seen better days so we decided it was time to purchase a new one then at least one of us would be warm enough at night! We were also killing time as we had arranged to meet Dom and Dina for dinner and they were both working so wouldn’t be around till later on. Rob got a great new sleeping for the grand total of $55 which was a bit of a bargain to say the least. After this we generally pottered around for the rest of the day.


After a couple of phone calls we arranged to meet Dom in a bar fairly close to his place. Dom and Dina has again kindly offered us a stay on Nightingale so the plan was to meet up, pick up the new part to my rucksack (keeping everything crossed that it did actually fit!) have dinner, then go back to Nightingale for a beer or two and say our goodbyes. We had a great meal of pie and roast potatoes and very yummy dessert in Alameda’s local New Zealand bar, then headed back to Nightingale for a nightcap. We’d had another great night with Dom and Dina and were very humbled by their kindness and generosity, they had made us feel very welcome and we were extremely grateful and felt like we‘d made a couple of great friends.

The next morning we said our final goodbyes to Alameda and Nightingale. We’d had a wicked time staying at the harbour, everybody had been so friendly towards us, somehow