Wake up early and look across the pantiled roof half covered by an huge Eriobotriya (loquat tree) of the sort I can only get to grow to five feet tall in Suffolk. We chatted and coffee’d and then, realising we had another long drive we said our goodbyes and hit the road….again. This time we stopped about an hour later for gas and some fruit and I ended up behind an expat who was getting increasingly frustrated by the girl trying to charge his card. He gave her three cards and then uttered a few expletives, causing all of us to look hard at the rows of sweets and sandwiches lining the walls of the service station. The third card worked but outside he continued his tirade saying how he had come to live in California having made a fortune on the stock market, but the place was full of bullshit so he was thinking about going back. Did not like it much when Neil told him things were pretty similar in the UK. But the reason I tell this is that he asked where we were going and saved us a few extra hours by telling us not to go on Highway 1, part of which had fallen into the sea and was slowly being rebuilt, causing huge diversions etc. So we went instead to Avila which has a nice beach and we got a suite facing the sea. Still around 5 hours drive tomorrow to get to San Francisco, but worth the stop. Thought we would have a dip in the pacific but as we tiptoed in, it was almost as cold as the North Sea. So we tiptoed out and had a couple of cocktails at a nearby bar instead. Then watched a scary film and went to sleep lulled by the gentle whooshing of the waves.