Ragged Point nature walk

A short drive away from Hearst Castle is Ragged Point Inn where we stopped for lunch and a stroll. Just past the Inn there is a steep, narrow switchback trail down to a tiny beach. There is a sign at the start of the trail warning us that if we dare to walk it we do so entirely at our own risk and that the inn reserves the right to refuse access to the trail, presumably if it thinks we might not make it back up. This made it irresistible. It was cold and overcast, so we didn't bother going back to the car for our hats before we set out down the slope.



Wildflowers bloomed on the hillside. Hummingbirds hovered around teasing me into taking blurry photographs of nothing. The sun came out and bathed the slope with yellow light. The wobbly timbers of the ladders and bridges gave me thrilling bursts of adrenalin as I gingerly trusted them with my life. The dust from the dodgy trail steadily coated my clothing and plugged up my nostrils. The booby trapped seat at the halfway point almost pitched us both down the hillside. It was great.

The beach itself wasn't nearly as inspiring as the path to reach it. It was small and the sand was grey. A small waterfall trickled down the rocks into a bubbling green stagnant pool in which new life forms might form at any moment.

There was an interesting lizard who cheerfully posed for photographs.

Marcus was much less cooperative than the lizard. Perhaps he was already feeling the effects of the sunburn he was about to have. Fortunately, my vampire like terror of the sun led me to put on sunscreen before we descended and so I was spared the same fate. We made good time on the trip back up the steep hill, mainly because we now knew not to sit on any of the seats, but we were still both scorched and dripping sweat by the time we made it to the top. There was no sign of the cold breeze that had been blowing when we started the climb and heat haze now rose from the car park where an hour before we had shivered and reached for our jackets.

We had lunch in the restaurant, along with a bird who sampled the remains of the sandwich Marcus had ordered. He didn't seem at all interested in my potato and leek soup. Note for future reference: when eating in the open air, choose food that doesn't resemble bread or worms.

The one creepy part of our visit to San Simeon was seeing this roadside motel. It was perched on the cliff like something out of a Hitchcock movie, a very specific Hitchcock movie. Muttering darkly about the Bates Motel we jumped out of the car to take photographs and discovered that the cold breeze of the morning had reappeared. Within seconds we were rushing back into the car, covered in goose bumps and slightly blue. Either the weather had it in for us or this really was the Bates Motel.