Thursday 24th March:

Today was a day of tracks and trails and lots of direction finding at Ranchos. Neither Bill’s or my maps were accurate nor show the exact way to Punta Evaristo on the East  Coast.

The road and directions lead us to La Presa which is north of our intended route, but the river crossings did add some green to the always grey countryside.

Away from these rare patches of green the country is extremely dry, harsh and full of all things with spines and prickles.

Along the road are constant reminders that religion is an important part of daily life, and a needed inspiration to farm these dry lands.

Finally our road turns south and starts to climb the backbone of Baja. As we crest one range the road conditions reminds us of the ‘Tibetan Highway’ where the road hangs on to the side of vertical mountains, and snakes its way down to the valley below.

In places the track is so steep that the locals have concreted the surface over the step rocks. The concrete is of such low quality, the  surface is covered with fine sand and concrete dust that the wheels skate over, under too much breaking pressure.

After La Soledad, the road on the map turns to a dotted line. The road on the ground now requires low first 4x4 to scale and descend the loose rock track as it follows the river to the final mountain pass.

At the final pass we are only 6kms from the ocean and at 450meters so the decent will be steep....and it is, in places only a vehicle width wide where 1/2 the road has fallen into the valley below.

On the coast, just south of Punta Evaristo, we drive down a sandy and rocky creek to an isolated beach. here we will camp for a couple of days.

There are repairs to attend to on the vehicle and then maybe a bit of fishing.

Camp 43:  Beach Camp

N24* 49.814 W110* 40.458

Today:  83 Kms

Total: 11,641 Kms.

Friday 25th March:

In the evening Bill cooked pork roast in the camp oven....followed by Chocolate Pudding prepared by Lyn.

All very nice.

Saturday 26th March:

The road south was rough then finally turned corrugated and then into broken black top all the way to La Paz.

The scenery impressive with pink and green cliffs.

La Paz is a cosmopolitan town that is rapidly selling its beach fronts to developers. For us it will be an overnight stay only for resupply, laundry, and internet. Tomorrow coastal roads south.

Camp 44:  La Paz RV Park

N24* 05.856 W110* 23.235

Today:  139 Kms

Total: 11,782 Kms.

Sunday 27th March:

Leaving La Paz around midday, we drove the bitumen road south west out to the Bay of Dreams (Ensenada de los Muertos) yet another large development for those happy to live in a gated community.

The water is beautiful and clear and the sand whitish, judging by the number of fishing boats and the size of some of their catch, the fishing also good.

The way south was again a rough road over the Sierra la Gata  Mountain Range. Not quite 4WD but an exciting and beautiful drive up the range, then following down creek beds the other side.

Finally along the mountain edge as it hugs the coast. The waters are so clear! With a road like this fortunately this part of the coast line will be protected for a while from the bulldozer.

These bays are home to the giant Whale Sharks, Sea Lion colonies, and Manta Rays.

Camp fire story:

The US state of California was once part of Mexico, this and the Baja California Peninsula was called California before the discovery of the Americas by the Europeans. From a book published in 1510  by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo only 15 years after Columbus first set foot on the Americas, he describes the California ‘island’ rich in Gold and Pearls. It was also apparently inhabited by amazon women with a ruler named Queen Calafia.

These writings inspired many a conquistador one of them being Cortes who had conquered the Aztecs in 1521. Wishing the Kings blessing for an expedition Cortes wrote “there is an entire island populated by women, with no man among them, and at certain times they would go to the mainland to take men whom they will mate with and if they give birth to girls they will keep them and if boys they cast them out....there is great wealth in pearls and gold and I shall work hard in finding out the truth and will give a detailed account to your majesty”

After many expeditions Cortes deemed the area too arid, hostile and difficult to colonise. he left the area and now only the Bay of California bears his name as the Sea of Cortez.

Our camp is on the Sea of Cortez

Camp 45:  Rocky Beach at the Palms

N23* 53.979 W109* 48.316

Today:  101 Kms

Total: 11,881 Kms.

Monday 28th March:

It was a lazy start to the day, just very pleasant sitting under the old date palms and listening to the lapping of the waves.

A guy and his two children came around in his purple ute and offered us 1kg of fish fillets for MP100 (A$8) we saw him earlier in the morning fishing out in the bay. That will be dinner tonight!

Heading south towards Los Barriles we see more and more luxury homes along the water front...this group having  its own airport!

Definitely the place of rich foreigners, whilst the Mexicans are tending to the gardens and painting the fences, therefor giving something back to the local economy.

Something caught our eyes that was jumping out of the sea. Pulling over and out with the binoculars , we see hundreds of Sting Rays jumping as much as 2 meters out of the water. Their ‘wings’ flapping as they ‘sail’ as much as 3 meters, then slapping back down into the water.

Never see such a sight.

Something else to Google

At La Riberta, where yet another development was underway with bulldozers pushing sand and digging canals we stopped at a public beach and enjoyed lunch under the cabanas.

For the next 30kms or so the road was fenced with 4 strand barbed wire on both sides of the graded verge...Baja Developments has made it here. Everywhere ‘Land for Sale’, ‘No Trespassing’.etc. We find this very annoying that this could happen to such a pretty coastline. Many of the houses built in the boom times now lie neglected and becoming very weather beaten. The only beach open was at Los Frailes which was a mess of toilet paper and more of a rubbish dump.

So we begin to look and drive the small tracks to the left of the road towards the beach across empty and occasionally unfenced blocks. Finally on the forth attempt a very tight track and a bit of 4x4‘ing we have found our spot. To the south, a luxury but deserted house, to the north shacks and houses dot the coastline.

We did not have to pay the ‘From US$20,000’ land price.

Later in the afternoon a couple of the local care takers came by and gave us the ok to stay for 2 or 3 days should we wish. Very friendly.

Camp 46:  Our own Condominium at the Beach

N23* 20.502 W109* 25.625

Today:  105 Kms

Total: 11,987 Kms.

Tuesday 29th March:

Now in San Jose del Cabo at the lower tip of the Baja peninsula.

Just a tourist town, very hungry for the wallet...need to get out o here!

Plan to head into the pine covered mountains later today.