After Guy leaves us we head down to the beach and meet Dave and his son Ryder. The boys click and play happily and Dave and I chat and relax knowing they’re happy. It’s a really lovely white sand surfers beach with powerful breakers and a strong current and interesting limestone cliffs. After heading back to the campsite and sorting some food, Dave and I have a couple of drinks round the fire together whilst the kids have marshmallows and talk in an unintelligible language about Minecraft worlds they plan to build. We head to bed for the first night in beluga - it feels odd without Guy and getting used to the new systems. I’m rudely awaken about 2 in the morning when the battery system complains it’s out of juice and the fridge dies… bugger.
We wake up to find ants everywhere and get on to the rv place to see when we can get beluga in to be sorted. The electrical system needs a full check and we probably need more batteries. We’ve also had a water leak I manage to fix, not a good start. I get beluga booked in for electric system to be sorted and adding better lithium batteries like we had with Wendy. Driving the truck camper through the outskirts of LA traffic is a challenge as is reversing the beast to park in the small camping spaces with no wingman or cameras. I manage it without bending anything and we relax for the evening. We have no fridge as the electrics are dead so we make do with leftover bits! We awake the following day and I manage to secure a parking spot for us so after an overcast morning on the beach we pop to Walmart for shopping and setup in the carpark (as we have as a last resort in Canada and USA). After drifting off to sleep we’re soon awoken by crazy thumps music and several cars parked very close to us and skaters skating around us. Seems we are their entertainment but we’re a bit freaked out and I am debating whether it’s best to stay or move when we have an aggressive knock on the door and a really unpleasant security guard telling us we can’t park (every other Walmart allows camping in their car parks but not this one apparently). After he calms down and realises we aren’t evil/druggies/out to ruin his day he tells us we can park at the 24 hour gym just up the road. We Move there and it’s peaceful for the rest of the night but I’m on edge on my own. We wake early to a perfect sunny day and I manage to get a space back at San Clemente campsite with a full hookup which is useful and we walk down to the beach. Alex sees a chap catching creatures and learns they are sand crabs for bait and he’s soon digging up the beach searching for them and he finds a few! We have a lovely naughty lunch of Nutella waffles for Alex at the west toast cafe near the pier in San Clemente and see dolphins play in the surf.
Perfect antithesis to the stressful night we had before. We walk to the lovely pier (about an hour from the beach near the campsite) jutting into the sea and talk to the fisherman there who are using sabikis with multiple hooks to catch little anchovies. We buy one from the tackle shop on the pier and Alex enjoys trying to catch them - we see the shoals moving but he only pulls out one little tiddler but it makes him happy!
We watch the beautiful Sunset with Alex chasing about in the surf and then catch a trolly bus home that runs between the beaches and enjoy some homemade burgers and a movie.
Awaking refreshed Alex wants to head back to the pier and as we get to the beach we meet some shark fishermen. They have huge rods and reels and lots of specialist equipment including a drone to drop their lines and bait at the right distance beyond the breakers. They’re lovely and share lots of stories with Alex and some pictures of them catching great whites and nurse sharks. They even give him some tackle to try off the pier. Fishing people seem to be endlessly kind. We leave Alex’s new found hero’s behind and he happily catches some more sand crabs on the way to the pier where he managed to catch 4 anchovies which he gives to other fishermen as bait . A fisherman manages to pull out a Little brittle star and shows Alex.
Nobody is really catching much apparently it’s not good this year for fishies! We grab some lovely pizza for tea and an Uber home where we try to make a fire but fail as we don’t have any kindling so we snuggle up instead.
I finally get a call that the batteries and parts needed to sort beluga have arrived so we pack up and head back to the rv place (more scary driving). It’s takes a few hours to setup the batteries and sort out the electrical system which had some issues and Armando and Karen have kind of adopted us and feed Alex cake. Electrics sorted and nice beefy batteries installed we get back to the campsite and as I get in the wooden ladder to beluga fails and I slice open my leg - fortunately not too nasty but it feels like beluga is out to get me! We finish off pizza remains and drive to go get daddy from San Diego airport to hear all about his epic solo drive cross country!
With mr c back in the van we’re rudely awoken to another alarm from the electrical system as the batteries did not have enough charge to power the fridge overnight - they should have been charged from solar and driving the truck so we didn’t expect this. After a call to the rv place mark the superstar gives us a call and we talk it through and think the charging from big blue to the batteries is not working and he agrees to come and sort it the next morning. So mr c heads of to do some errands like getting a sleeping bag for Alex for his bed and repairing the ladder that tried to murder me. Alex and I head back to the beach where we see sea lions in the distance chilling out on the rocks. We also meet a lovely chap Paul who is fishing for perch and used to teach fishing so takes Alex under his wing - soon Alex has caught a lovely perch and paul catches a couple more which I'm he gives to Alex.
After we've exhausted perch fishing, we're near the water when I realise that there’s been a cormorant really close to us for a while which isn’t normal and he looks like he’s getting battered in the surf. I get as close as I dare trying not to get pulled by the very strong undertow and realise he is badly trapped and wrapped in fishing line that’s weighted down and can’t escape. I manage to grab the line and pull him onto the beach carefully so I can check him out . The poor bird is incredibly tangled and as soon as others realise on the beach he needs help a couple of guys appear with a knife to cut him free whilst I wrap him and his pointy sharp beak in a towel to protect them whilst they work. It takes a while to set him free and unravel the lines and whilst this is happening we send a lady to talk to get one of the lifeguards so we can talk to them about any animal rescue options. The lifeguard arrives and is dismissive and said he either survives on his own or we’re not interested. We have now freed the little cormorant who looks exhausted and we have put him just out of the water line to try to give him time to recover. He has some damage to his leg and wing from the lines and doesn’t seem to be able to walk. Not satisfied with the lifeguards lack of interest to our brave little cormorant I manage to find a local animal rescue and give them a call. They give us instructions to leave the bird to recover for an hour or so and after this if he’s not recovered and left wrap the bird in a damp towel and they’d come and get him. By this time a nice chap has arrived equally as concerned as me for giving the bird a chance, so I stay with “plucky” and he waits for the rescuer by the main road. We eventually have a lovely lady arrive and take plucky to the sanctuary, that he wanted to try and peck her when she arrived was a good sign she says as he has some fight and we are hopeful he will survive. Apparently they don’t give updates so I’m hoping plucky made a full recovery. Sadly my phone died so I didn't get any piccies of plucky.
After the beach drama - Alex was so pleased plucky had a chance to survive, we cook up our perch for dinner and the we have a fire and shmores and watch night at the museum with some new friends (Matt) meet at the campsite who have setup a makeshift projector and movie screen next to their tent. Alex and their little boy skyler have a great time scampering about in the dens and bushes near our campsite.
Mark arrives early next morning and sorts out the truck connections - great one issue sorted! Our new friend Matt is a contractor and has his gear in his van and kindly offers to fix our ladder and even heads out to go and get some bits after Guy’s home depot shopping trip didn’t go so well! We move campsite near our new friends so the kids can play some more and Matt fixes our ladder. Out of adversity we find people are so kind in trying to help us. We have a bit more beach time and bump into the shark dudes on the pier who teach Alex some more bits about fishing and we have a lovely fish dinner watching the the sun go down at the restaurant on the pier looking out to sea which is lovely .
After a trolley ride home we pick up some ice creams to thank Matt and his family for sorting the ladder and enjoy another movie theatre night with fire and shelter - jumanji this time!
After a good nights rest and all our camper issues hopefully sorted it’s time for Mexico baby!!
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