The south coast started with a flat sandy area until we reached North Bend when the coastal features changed back to what we had been used to with spectacular effect.
As mentioned above the area was somewhat flat with high sand dunes both on the coast and inland. There were many areas used for dune buggy activities. We were treated to our first sitting of whales if the coast by the Umpqua Lighthouse. Unfortunately they were to far of the coast to be able to photograph but we had good views through the binoculars. (See Photographs)
We were treated to the sound of Sea Lions the moment we arrived on the Cape and quickly made our way toward the sounds which were very loud indeed and got much louder as we arrived at the cliff edge. We were treated to a fantastic site of hundreds of Sea Lions of various types, harbour seals and California sea lions. We took many photographs and here are just a selection (See Photographs) We also took some video and here is a clip of the views (See Video) 320x240 3.8MB
We decided to stay the night on the Cape itself and were lulled to sleep by the songs of the massed throng. In the morning we decided to take a route to the beach that would hopefully take us a lot nearer to the mammals and get to see them at eye level. We had the camera with the long lens and the the video camera. We were very, very lucky and crept slowly along the cliff edge to get within a few feet of some of the seals. We decided that she wanted to get a little closer to the main throng of the action. We also took a video of a friendly seal. (See Video) 320x240 3.1MB
After we had recovered from a very exciting 2 hours on the rocks we have both aquired the strong and exclusive new perfume 'Channel Le Sea Lion'. A visit to the laundry was imperative in the afternoon.
The road from Charleston were we stayed the night near Cape Argo was not that interesting, perhaps due to the rain and misty conditions. By the time we arrived at Cape Blanco it was very foggy and we had to wait until the morning to visit the cape and even then had very little time before the mist came in again. We set of in the mist which was intermittent all the way. A respite came at Harris Beach just before Brookings when the late evening cleared for a little while to give some spectacular scenes with the changing light. (See Photographs)
