Firstly a little something I missed off the previous report….
In San Diego we said goodbye to two dear friends who joined us over the Christmas and New Year period. Firstly, was Stefan from Swizterland who was actually our first ever volunteer on the Swiss TOPtoTOP expedition in 2002. Thank you for joining us again – it was super to see you and have you on the road with us once again.

After joining us in Joshua Tree and saying 3 weeks until Solana Beach, we also bade farewell to our dear friend from Alaska, Ron. Thank you for your kindness, help and everything else inbetween! We all miss you both a lot.
From San Diego we headed up the coast a short 70km hop to San Clemente. Here we stayed with some good friends of Torgen and Lindsay, Gary and Laurie. Whilst here we were joined for the weekend by John, a mechanic and friend we met whilst in Grand Canyon.

Optimised for green living and the environment, Gary and Lauries home was an inspiration. Solar Panels on the roof provided the house with all its electricity needs, and then there was their diesel car, which, no longer runs off diesel – but used oil from local restaurants and cafes! Having had the car smog tested it’s omissions are over half than that of a diesel car too! Thank you so much to Gary and Laurie for your kind hospitality and help in co-ordinating future events, your home was a lovely place to rest for a couple of days. Whilst at Gary and Lauries we were also joined by Cori, a world class surfer we were introduced to by Bart. Sabine and Salina were lucky enough to have a surf lesson with Cori whilst in Solana Beach – Thank you so much… we had a blast!!! And thank you for coming for dinner also – it was great to see you again and say goodbye!


We then set out to cycle through Los Angeles, fortunately, being a Sunday, traffic was low and we made the 172km ride, passing newport, long beach and finally making it to the Topanga hills at sunset. Here we met a very friendly bunch of fire fighters at station 69 – thank you for all your help (and letting the kids fire the hose!)

Tomorrow we set off from Thousand Oaks where we have been this week, staying with the Campbell family we met whilst in Joshua Tree who we then travelled to Mammoth with.
Thank you so much for having us! We know we will see much more of you in the future!