The Baja Divide – Part 1 (The Northern Sierra)

London > San Diego > Tecate > Ojos Negros > Eréndira > Rancho El Coyote > Vicente Guerrero

Our trip started off with a bang. Literally. Unloading the bike boxes at Heathrow Terminal 5 from our 8-seater minivan, hired specifically to fit two rather oversized packages, the driver stepped up into the boot and, with a bang like a gunshot, his rear wheel blew! I’ve no idea what the odds involved are, but we definitely dodged a bullet there!

Feeling slightly sorry for our driver but relieved to not have been delayed en route, we bade him farewell. The rest of the trip to San Diego passed relatively uneventfully, the nerves relating to ‘what I might have forgotten to do/buy’ replaced with those of excitement and the unknown, surely the hallmarks of any good adventure.

Arriving at our AirBnB guesthouse in a residential area on the outskirts of San Diego (in Chula Vista), we first had to address what we had already identified as the greatest single threat to the stability of our relationship and the ongoing trip… hanger (think anger, not where you park your private jet)! For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, this is the state of anger and irrational behaviour induced by hunger and is something that we are both highly susceptible to. We were miles from the nearest eatery, our bikes were in a semi-deconstructed state and we didn’t have the energy to traipse out by taxi. But then again, we’re in the land of the free and the brave, the land of opportunity, the land of… Uber. Half an hour later, an Uber Eats driver is delivering us a pizza and salad and the crisis is averted.

The next morning was spent eagerly assembling the bikes, hopeful that careless baggage handlers hadn’t damaged our beloved machines. Thankfully, they were in perfect condition and we soon had them ready to head out on a day of errands – breakfast at Denny’s, followed by grocery shopping at Walmart and a quick trip to the bike shop. A perfect American day. OK, substitute auto repair shop for bike shop perhaps, but almost.