The tent was the wettest yet, the warm evening and very damp wet air made it seem like it had rained. As we left Oceano behind the road gently rose and fell but surprisingly there was actually a tailwind so we made good progress.

Passing through Grover Beach then Pismo Beach then Shell Beach, all of them having more RV Parks that you would know what to do with (unless you had an RV to park of course). As you can tell with the give away common name clue in all the last three places, we followed the coast closely.

Then we turned inland and all of a sudden there seemed to be green everywhere, proper green not green caused by irrigation. Although there are many many vineyards here, acres and acres devoted to the grape.

We headed to San Luis Obispo, which is a very lovely town it would have been very nice to have stopped here, it does not have a campground though. The main street is full of cafés and bars along with many places to eat, everything a tourist would need! We did pause for a grocery shop and a coffee with a donut as what is better than donut powered legs on a long cycle ride.

On we went to the next town Morro Bay, another really nice place, this does have a campground and it is well worth stopping here. But we didn’t deciding to continue on taking advantage of the unusual tailwind.

So yes you guessed, very shortly after moving on the fantastic tailwind turned around and we were stuck with a headwind! Usefully we got some advice from a local cyclist whose suggested route avoided a few hills, which is always nice.
After Morro Bay came Cayucos yet another lovely town, this one has the advantage of being home to a famous cookie store (thank you Karen for letting us know about this) where parting with a large sum of money will get you a small but perfectly formed bag of “original” cookies. They taste very nice indeed.

We continued on and even though this was not a hilly day still managed 2000 ft of climbing, it sneaks up on you almost without you realising it.

Harmony was the next town, it has a population of 18, there did seem an extrodinarily large number of cars parked here, which means either a lot of visitors or every inhabitant of Harmony owns five cars.

Finally through Cambria yet another nice town and on to the San Simeon State Beach Campground our stopping point (a 50 mile day today). The campground was empty apart from 9 tents all from cyclists, the most we have seen. There is even a couple going the same way we are (north).

We did walk to the beach in the failing light, then chatted a little with other cyclists. They did warn us to be vigilant with our things if we camp in Monteray as the local homeless / addicts know the hiker / biker site as somewhere to find unattended tents. It may be a motel night when we get there.