Day 15 Part 2, To Hearst Castle and beyond...

So, Dud Lightyear and myself set off behind Dean in the direction of Hearst Castle.

As we followed Dean, we saw signs for Elephant Seal Vista. Blow me down, if as we ride by a couple of sandy bays, we don’t see what look at first glance like grey rocks on the beach but which actually are, real live Elephant Seals. Another first for this trip, seeing those in the wild. No time to stop though, as we are on a mission to get Hearst Castle before 15:40, the time of our tour. I’m thinking Dean has cut it too fine, we hadn’t left Ragged Point until 15:05, maybe even later and with 10 miles to go to the castle, with lots of tin boxes in front of us, I’m fearing the worst. But hey, this guy is cool. He knows his sh*t  and we are in the parking lot with 5 minutes to spare.

As we go in we are given tickets and wristbands stating which tour we are doing.  We are doing the Grand Rooms tour. We head straight for the bus to take us to the castle. Yes, they bus you up, on account of the visitor centre is down by the coast road and the castle is a couple or three miles up on the top of the hillside. The road up would have been good to ride up, full of twists and switchbacks. It was actually designed that way, to give just a tantalising glimpse of the castle itself before veering away and thus taking the castle out of sight. A bugger for getting a photo though! There is even a separate down road, similarly bendy.

On the way up there is a commentary that tells you a bit about the history of the place, etc. William Randolph Hearst had the place built from scratch on land his family owned and used to camp on. The place housed the largest private zoo in the US at one point and even now, has its own landing strip. Amazing what one can do with a few dollars!  Passing a paddock with cattle in it, it is also a cattle ranch, we see the last 'descendants' of WRH's zoo, some Zebra. Back in the day there would have been all kinds of animals, straight off the African Savanna, not to mention further up the hill, an enclosure with Polar Bears. Can't imagine those big beasts took too kindly to the heat.

The bus disgorges us at the top and Chris our guide takes us upwards still further, to the front of the house.

Hearst Castle

The front of the house looks like a meditteranean church. The front door sits between the two towers. we're not allowed in there though, we have to sneak in the back way. Once inside we are greeted by the sight of huge tapestries on the wall, church alter pues around the outside of the room, and an intricate painted ceiling. Most of the fabric of the room is 15th, 16th or 17th century, Spanish or Italian, seemingly taken from churches. There may be the odd French fireplace thrown in. The rest of the rooms follow the same pattern but not one single room has a single, say Spanish, theme, they are all a mishmash of things from different countries. It is all very fascinating but because of this hotchpotch of styles, quite bizarre. The last room we visit is a cinema. Yes, he had his own cinema for entertaining his many, varied and influential guests. Filmstars, such as Charlie Chaplin and polititians such as Winston Churchill. The cinema holds around 50 people. Interestingly, the staff of the house would also have been allowed to watch the film, along with the house guests. 

Back outside, there is more continuity to the property. A stunning swimming pool, all marble and surrounded by marble statues and columns. It is so inviting in this heat but it is probably many moons since anyone bathed in it. The gardens are beautiful and the views from the top of this hill just stunning. Around a corner we find the tennis courts, under which is an indoor swimming pool, equally as stunning as the first.

The indoor pool

We board the bus for the trip back to reality, another commentary describing how the Hearst Trust gave 13 miles of coastline to the National Parks of California, an indication of what 250,000 acres of land means in real terms, the size of the estate in its heyday.

Back in the visitor centre, Dud spent more money in the gift shop, then we jumped on the bikes once more. Dean had given me a map of how to get to the hotel at Pismo beach. We were about 50 miles away but first, we decided to head back up the coast to take a look at the elephant seals close up. 

In close up, these creatures are even more amazing than you imagine, from the roadside. Not for anything more than their sheer size and numbers. There must've been over 300 on this small bay. Laying cheek by jowl with each other, motionless save for the occasional flick of a flipper to cover themselves with sand. Suddenly, well not that suddenly, these are huge creatures, one appears from the sea. A few hops up the beach then a rest. A few more, then another rest. The weight must really tell when on land. A few more hops and he was amongst the pack. He wasn't content with that though, he wanted a particular bit of sand occupied by a smaller seal. There followed a stand off, of the sort you see on the wildlife programmes, Rearing up, head to head until the smaller seal backed off. Content, the big boy collapsed into the vacated space. It was quite amazing to witness this first hand.

That's my space, move yer ass!

  Back on the bikes and a quick check of the map, we set off for Pismo beach. We guessed it would be about 19:30 by the time we ot to the hotel. Dean's map was spot on, of course and we got to the hotel at 19:25. The others were long since ensconced in their rooms or even out having dinner. Dean and Larry had been kind enough to unload our bags and leave them in the room, a note to that effect being posted on the back of the trailer, which we didn't notice! No worries, reception had our keys and told us the bags were up there waiting.

Showered and changed we went in search of food. A place right alongside the hotel was the place of choice and not just by us. Inside we saw Dean, Carol and Larry, Steve and Paul, Keith and Mary and even Elizabeth and Johan came in later for some pie, which is, apparently, the restaurant's speciality.  

Dud had the Frisco burger, something Carol had said she was looking forward to all day, me a pulled pork burger, followed, quite obviously, by some pie. Apple and Ice cream for Dud, Blueberry for moi. I had to be honest and say it didn't blow me away. Nice but no more and after the Cognito clan had bigged the pies up so much. I felt a little cheated. The restaurant did have a really cool salad cart though, an old Ford flatbed.

Fed and watered it is time for bed. Tomorrow (Friday) will be our last riding day, from Pismo into Glendale, where we will return the bikes. :-(