Well as previously mentioned I decided to head down the coast into Orange County for some surf action.
Most advice I received was that 'the' place to stay was San Onofre, so I managed to book myself in for 3nights camping at the San Onofre Bluufs State park campsite. After all the raving I´d heard you can imagine my surprise when I pulled up into what most would consider a motorway services lorry park. You had the busy interstate 5 and heavy rail way on one side, Nuclear Power station to the North and Marine Camp Pendleton to the south...hmmmm. What was most interesting of all was that the Americans seemed to have gone over board with their 'lorry park´ camping and every parking space was occupied by huge outrageous RV´s, massive palace style tents, Gazebos and essentially any type of camping paraphernalia you could dream up (including basket ball hoops). It was with some trepidation that I pulled up into my parking space, which dwarfed my mid sized SUV, and commenced unpacking my brand new still wrapped tent, under the stink eye from my neighbouring campers :-\ 20 minutes later and I stood mightly proud of myself for erecting my tent without having to ask anyone for assistance and further more managed to assemble my camp stove and get a cup of tea on the go.......RESULT! Actually I can't really take any credit, that has to go to Wallmart for selling 100% idiot proof equipment, I also have to note that as per everything in America, I'd erected my very own palace complete with Queen sized double bed!!
Camp set I decided to go and check out the surf, after all it was the main reason I found myself in Camp America. I was delighted to discover my pitch was a mere 200m away from Trail 6 which according to the Storm Rider Guide is the trail to head for. Furthermore it was a huge relief to discover that as soon as you hit the trail it was like entering another world, no screaming brats or cars or trains just peace and quite (well except for the constant drone of military aircraft and what I assume was an incessant boom from a quarry although equally could have been something to do with the military). The trail grew more picturesque as I descended down the cliff and although the surf wasn´t epic by any standards I did surf all 3 days in around 2ft of glass beach break. The first day I surfed could possibly go down as one of my most memorable surfs ever; a huge black fin popped up a mere 8feet away from me and justifiably scared the hell out of me. I obviously started to paddle swiftly back to shore only to be overtaken by the local and his two mates. 3 Dolphins came out to play with me in the surf, an utterly amazing experience especially given that there were surfers scattered up and down the beach but none in my near vicinity so I was alone with these amazing creatures. According to some local surfers these 3 constantly patrol this beach they were there every time I entered the water along with their fellow flock of pelicans. It was the weirdest experience to surf here under the cliffs so detached from the car park at the top.
Hmmmm Wallmart well I wasn´t thinking about it BUT now you mention it not a bad idea round here!!!
Now moving on back up the coast to San Clemente and then Huntingdon Beach for some surf history and the US national Open surf event.|
