Day 14: The Big Sur, cont.

Bus Sur close to San Simone village.

We spent the night at Fresno, in the middle of San Joaquin Valley. In the morning we drove west crossing the vast valley with never ending fields of corn and orange trees stretching up to the horizon. The landscape didn´t improve until Reef city. Finally the big plain has finished and we started climbing the lazy hills of Diablo Coast Range. Paso Robles is a famous wine growing region. The vines were introduced here by the Spanish settlers as early as 1797 but gained more notoriety when Ignacy Paderewski, the famous Polish statesman and concert pianist became enchanted with the area, and planted Petite Sirah and Zinfandel on his Rancho San Ignacio Vineyard. From Paso Robles the winding road took us down to the Pacific coast and soon we entered the Big Sur. The views over the rocky cliffs, fog and angry sea below were splendid.

Big Sur squirrel.

Maciek.