Gary L Beer
I stop at the northern elephant seal colony north of San Simeon pulling in to the large gravel car park, for I do not intend to say farewell just yet. I plan to camp near Morro Bay before heading out into the desert and want to spend one last weekend in this area. February is a good time to visit the seal colony with the pups a few weeks old and fattening up in readiness for the sea. Soon the adults will leave the pups to their fate, after weaning it will be up to the pups to teach themselves to swim and hunt for food. The baby elephant seals have changed enormously in the few days that I have been away, appearing to have doubled in size they now look fit to burst. The babies are also lighter in colour as they turn from the black of newborn to a grey; that will take on a silver hue for when their time comes in a few weeks to head out into the Pacific Ocean. A lot of the baby seals have pulled themselves away from the beach and are now amongst the sand dunes some even pushing up hard against the fence that borders the highway! The beach is quiet with a lot of the females now gone leaving the big bulls to guard what remains of their domains. Most of the bulls are sleeping, exhausted after their three-month ordeal, losing almost a third of their body weight defending their harems unable to take the time to eat whilst they stay on the beach. With the beach not so populated the smell is a lot better, though rotting carcases of pups still remain that have been pulled apart and eaten by the big gulls and ugly vultures. I watch the amazing scene for only about an hour as there is urgent shopping needed and head back to the Toyota and drive out of the car park. Turning off Highway 1 a few miles south of the seal colony I head east up into the southern Santa Lucia Mountains to Paso Robles and Wal-Mart to get food shopping and hopefully exchange the tent as the zip has broken. The Californian scenery of steep hills of grass and trees that seem a very deep green make it an exhi
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