Wildlife at Oceanside, La Jolla & Bonsall

On a walk around the expansive Oceanside Marina one day, I saw a large raft covered in Sea Lions. They were also lying on the boat pontoons with signs to keep away as they were dangerous. Their bark is similar to a dog's and one little poodle walking past was obviously confused! Pods of dolphins would swim parallel to the surfers at Oceanside, in deeper water.

Chris and I did a fantastic 5 mile walk or trail linking the beaches, coves and cliffs of La Jolla, the 'jewel' of San Diego, located 30 miles south of Oceanside. It is close to Miramar, once home of TOPGUN (now in Fallon, Nevada) and several celebrities including Alicia Keys. It is a beautiful coast and a huge Marine Protected Area and from the cliffs we saw seals, sea lions, pelicans (very smelly) and cormorants.

On Saturday we had a BBQ with the retired General Ty and his wife Leah in their lovely home, near Bonsall, in the heart of avocado country (in fact they have 30 trees in their garden and we are still eating the fruit). They told us about their gorgeous dogs (one looked like Cookie) getting regularly 'skunked', or sprayed by wild Skunks outside their fence and also mentioned snakes (in their compost bin), racoons and coyotes which live in the surrounding hills. Our Fallbrook Airbnb hosts warned us that we will hear coyotes and they have been known to jump the 5ft fence into their garden so beware (unfortunately none seen or heard yet!).

One the way back from Ty's, Chris exclaimed about the unbelievable size of a roadside rat (about 40cm body with 30cm tail as it turns out). Research confirmed it was a North American Opossum, with 50 sharp teeth and is less dangerous than it looks..Never seen - nor hope to see - anything like that around Brigsteer!