Journey's end

It has been a very long day with 10 1/2 hours of driving, three hours of which were through the Mojave desert, part of which reaches a height of 5,000' and where Joshua trees abound. The landscape then evolved into yellow ochre coloured hills gasping for some rain, leading into areas where water was obviously piped in and shrubs and small trees appeared, giving way finally to orchards and vineyards as we drove nearer to the Pacific Coast and the air cooled. The Pacific rolled gently in, covered for the most part by a thin layer of sea mist and we stopped at one point to watch a large group of elephant seals as they lay on the beach idly flapping sand over their bodies, presumably to cool themselves down. We continued along the scenic and rugged coastline until we were about 70 miles from our destination of Carmel, in California, when cars ahead halted and we saw that a vehicle was on its side, presumably having crashed taking the hairpin bend too quickly. The young occupants escaped unhurt but within minutes the vehicle caught fire and the flames soon licked the grasses at the roadside and continued up the hill. The police had been called and so we decided to turn although it meant taking a detour of a further 2 1/2 hours around the mountain ridge Four fire engines and two police cars soon passed us en route to the accident and I expect other fire engines may have come in from the other side as the area was like a tinder box.

We eventually arrived late at Carmel just as the sun was starting to disappear below the horizon and dashed to the beach, anxious both to get some fresh sea air and to catch the fading light. Kymba was thrilled to escape the car and ran into the surf while my son and I concentrated on trying to savour the moment and capture some of it on camera. This reminded me so much of our dash to catch the sunset at Dante's Peak in Death Valley on Christmas Eve last year!

I hope you like the scene, as it felt magical to be there after such a long and eventful journey. We are all very tired tonight.