America 2024, the adventure continues.

Our first stop was Santa Barbara then on to Solvang, a quaint little Danish village which is very much like Hahndorf.

All the parking along the Santa Barbera seaside and the inland side streets was 90 minutes so that restricted our sightseeing but we were lucky to park our beast on the main road between Sterns wharf and the marina.  Built from timber in 1872 as a commercial jetty, there are several restaurants, cafes and shops at the end and a natural history museum and aquarium.

The marina, like many we’ve visited in Queensland, caters to very many different types and sizes of boat, including fishing boats who unload their catch on the docks.  On Saturday mornings some of the fisherfolk sell their catch on the main access jetty and I was interested to see what they had caught.  Everything was freshly caught and live, waiting in tubs to become someone’s dinner.

There were massive spider crabs, and large mud crabs, lobsters, abalone and halibut but the most fascinating were the sea urchins.  Very much like our crown of thorns star fish, the vendors, wearing very sturdy gloves, broke them up, cut them open and scooped out the inedible parts.  The delicacy, I was informed, was the roe (think caviar), a yellowy, mushy looking blob inside the thorned shell.

Did I mention all the seafood was live?  These sea urchins or uni were moving as they pried them apart, and as they cut out the inedible parts, and as people bought them, sprinkled them with a sauce and ate them!  And, even after having their insides completely cleaned out, the spines on all those discarded shells were still moving in the bin!  So creepy!

Time to retrieve Peter from the chandlery (or like Bunnings for DIYers, the toy shop for sailors) and move our RV before our 90 minutes was up.  Next stop was Solvang which we remembered from our last trip as having Xmas shops all year round.

On the outskirts of Solvang we stopped at the Santa Ines Mission, built in 1804 and then walked into the town.

Being a Saturday and a beautiful day, it was packed with people and most of the accommodation we saw had no vacancies.  There were many shops to browse through, including the obligatory tourist gift shops, several Xmas shops and of course, the bakeries of which there were 5!  Everything was Danish, the gift shops had beer steins and cuckoo clocks and every type of clog you can imagine, and the bakery choices were mostly Danish butter cookies or Danish pastries.  Who would have thought?

Solvang have taken the quaint Danish Village theme to the next level though because it isn’t only the one main street that’s themed but all the streets, shops, buildings and houses.  There was even a trolley bus that gave guided tours of the town. 

But it isn’t a Disneyesque themed town as first appearances might suggest.  It was founded by 3 Danish Immigrants who bought 10,000 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley for farming.

The Lutheran church was the first structure built in the traditional Danish architecture in 1928 and within a decade, everyone was incorporating medieval style Danish architecture in their dwellings.

After visiting too many shops to count, Peter indulged in a custard-filled chocolate Berliner, but I’m not a fan of the Danish pastries so I shared some very nice aebleskivers (Donut balls with apple) and cream cheese. Very yummy!

LA is one of the more difficult places to find a spot to park an RV.  There are some nice RV parks along the coast (which are exactly that, a parking spot for an RV) some have optional power and effluent connections, but everything costs here.  One that we found on the way back from Solvang wanted $US75 for a night! Just to park by the coast with no amenities!  Needless to say we kept on driving and found a nice spot adjacent the ocean on the “old road” for free.

The next morning, I found a trail called Baron Ranch which looked like an interesting walk into a valley between two hills.  We even found some wild avocado trees and I managed to tree climb enough to grab 4.  They’re hard as rocks so time will tell if they’ll eventually ripen and be edible.  The week before we arrived here, they had a solid week of rain, and it also rained the second day we were here.  Consequently, a lot of the trails are still wet and muddy, and the creeks and waterfalls are flowing.  Which is what turned us around after only a couple of miles, and with shoes caked with a thick layer of black mud.

Still keen for some walking, we found a reserve at the end of a suburban street in Santa Barbara that was planted with Monarch butterfly attracting trees and plants, including a large area of eucalypts.  Just as we started up the trail a local walking his dog stopped to ask about the RV.  Not missing a trick, when he asked about our water situation Peter said we needed to find water.  “No problem, I live in the two-story house just down the road and my garden hose will reach.  Just pull up after your walk and you can fill it up.”  This is the kind of wonderful hospitality we’ve experienced everywhere we’ve been, so after our walk, which meandered through the butterfly area to the coast and back, we stopped at his house, and he happily dragged out his hose so we could fill up.  He said, “I don’t know anything about RVs but just let me know if there’s anything else you need, and I’ll help you out.”  I do wonder if it’s the Aussie accent that does it?

Ever on the hunt for walking and hiking trails, that afternoon I found another hiking trail that followed a creek up into the hills.  We parked on the side of the road, just up from the trail head for the night and set off after breakfast on Rattlesnake trail.

The creek was flowing briskly and there were numerous cascades as we wound our way up the hillside.  Some of the track was wet, but relatively easy to bypass.  Not so the half dozen creek crossings!  The first, and most challenging, saw us shimmying over the creek on a fallen tree! 

Subsequent crossings were easier, although we were still very careful.  It was a very crisp morning and the thought of ending up drenched in what I’m sure was freezing water, did not appeal!

Pick a spot to cross

After hiking, rock-climbing, and traversing the creek, all uphill for 3 miles or about 5kms, we reached the road, and it was downhill 5 miles (8kms) all the way back!  The road was as steep as the trail and wound its way around the hill, providing some fantastic vistas all the way to the coast and interesting views of many of the houses that were perched up on the hillsides in some of the most precarious terrain.

You can see all the way to the coast

We’re all set to purchase our new Bounder tomorrow (Tuesday), so we’ve been making our way back to Ventura.  This afternoon we stopped in the Santa Barbara foothills and discovered, quite by accident, the Santa Barbara Monastery, founded in 1786 and complete with the ruins of a dam, aqueduct, kiln and washing basin built in the early 1800s. 

Mission dam

Adjacent the monastery, which still has a holy order of monks and provides religious services, was a lovely grass park with a rose garden, fountain, and well maintained gardens.

Another search for hiking trails led us to our current park for the night at the Jesusita Trail head.  Certainly, popular with the locals, while still daylight we’ve seen more than a dozen runners, some with dogs, heading off down the trail.  They’re clearly not concerned about the recent warning that’s been posted on the trail map!

Apparently a mountain lion has been spotted recently in the area. And they say Australia is bad for it’s venomous creatures! We figured if the locals weren’t deterred by the sighting, then we shouldn’t be either. So the next morning we set off on the Jesusita Trail and again, were faced with several water crossings. After the first couple, we were a bit over the precariousness of the rocks with the creek water rushing past and scouring the banks to try and find the least likely crossing to cause us wet shoes, or worse. Eventually we decided we’d had enough and backtracked to take an offshoot trail. The Arroyo Burro Trail was fantastic to begin with, winding its way through woods and open meadows until we came to another seemingly uncrossable creek. At least, we weren’t prepared to cross so again we backtracked to the trail that went into the town….and another creek crossing! Really!! There’s got to be another way, so we followed the shoe imprints in the mud on the bank by the creek until we came to a steep section which we managed to clamber along until we got to a small dam wall and managed to cross onto the other side. A short few hundred meters and we were on the bitumen again and trekking back up the road to the RV, with very muddy shoes, AGAIN! But, the countryside is lovely and the sound of the water cascading down and birds chirping meant our treks were worth the effort.

When hiking, we’re both very aware of our surroundings, particularly in rough, steep or slippery terrain. These trails ticked all three of those boxes so we were frequently watching the trail for the best place to step. This is how I managed to see the largest animal footprint I have ever seen! I put my hand down for size reference. There were lots of dog paw prints but this was huge! Remember that warning sign about the mountain lion that had been spotted recently in the area? You can draw your own conclusions, but It was very strange!