THE LONG TARMAC RIBBON that wraps around the stretch of California coast that is the Big Sur region offers a view to die for, and, on a warm spring day, I almost paid the price.
On my right hand side as we speed along Highway 1 in a rented silver Chrysler PT Cruiser are the pale blue waters of the Pacific ocean which stretch out as if to infinity, although, in fact, it's a mere 2,541 miles to the next patch of land, Hawaii. On my left hand side is my beloved wife, settling down to sleep after an early check out and, speeding directly towards me, and in my lane, is a truck.
Yes, after two weeks of confidently driving on the right hand side, I have been distracted by road works a mile or two back that pushed me into the left hand lane, where I have since remained. Given the tight twists along this dangerous cliff face road, it's a miracle I'm here to type.
My life may not have flashed before my eyes, but the last couple of contented days certainly did and, well, it was worth the re-cap. Big Sur has a reputation that long precedes it. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the Spanish explorer, sailed past the coast in 1542 and recorded in his journal that there were "mountains which seem to reach the heavens, and the sea beats on them". A couple of centuries later Spanish settlers, peering down on the jagged cliffs that wrecked passing ships, called it "el sur grande" or the Big South. This beautiful, but rather lonely place, was only reached by settlers in the 1870s when a wagon road was finally hacked out of the wilderness. Highway 1 wasn't completed until 1937, while electricity lines didn't arrive until the 1950s.
Yet it was this combination of natural beauty and isolation that made Big Sur a draw with artists, Bohemians and the harbingers of the New Age. In 1944 Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, to whom he was then married, bought a cabin in the area as a retreat from Hollywood. When Henry Miller had to leave Paris during the Second World War he moved to Big Sur, relished its peace and wrote: "Rising, I would go to the cabin door and casting my eyes over the velvety, rolling hills, such a feeling of contentment, such a feeling of gratitude was mine that instinctively my hand went up in benediction."
Sadly, Jack Kerouac threw his hands up in despair at the primitive shack in which he was expected to recuperate from drug addiction and write when he arrived in 1960. Still, it couldn't have been that bad as he managed to spin out a thinly fictionalised memoir of his trip, Big Sur (1966). While the author of On The Road had to make do with a hut with no glass in the windows, we decided to check out the hotel regularly voted the most romantic inn in America.
To reach the Post Ranch Inn, visitors follow Highway 1 as it curves off the coast and away from the beguiling ocean view, and rolls through a valley forested on either side by towering redwoods. The entrance is a subtle stone sign – we missed it at first – and the driveway along the winding road that leads up to a small strange structure of wood and bronze steel, the size of a small railway carriage, which turns out to be the reception.
Inside a log fire crackles in a stone hearth, chilled wine or hot coffee is served and the staff are soon loading your cases into a little golf cart while you are escorted up a staircase, across a short wooden bridge and on up a crooked path to the top of the valley ridge where lies, given its altitude and view, a little slice of heaven.
Like Hobbiton, transported to a cliff top, the inn's best individual guest rooms are built into the earth, with roofs carpeted with flowers and grass and little chimneys puffing out smoke from their log fires. The interiors are all red wood, grey stone and polished glass, but it is the verandas that are truly stunning, if entirely unsuitable for those with small children or vertigo. A thicket of gorse bushes lie to the left and right and green grass sweeps down to the cliff edge, but other than that all you can see is the vast big blue of the ocean and the cloud-speckled sky.
Supplying environmental serenity to the affluent, the Post Ranch Inn offers a range of spa treatments, including North American Shaman sessions (unfortunately unavailable during our short stay), fabulous fine dining and guided hikes in a countryside that makes you drowsy with its beauty.
A note of caution for Calvinist Scots: on my first evening I decided to check out the outdoor infinity pool, which is perched on the clifftop and offers a wonderful view over the Pacific and a sky scattered with bright stars. It wasn't until I was already in it that I realised that the current occupants, an elderly couple from Wisconsin, had clearly forgotten their bathing costumes. Still, I smiled and kept my eyes fixed on the stars, having found the sight of wrinkled flesh not conducive to a restful slumber.
We were unlucky with the weather during our visit, which is unpredictable at Big Sur throughout the year. Fog was followed by rain, but this prompted us to drive along the coast to Carmel-by-the-Sea, perhaps the most picture postcard town in America, a gleaming vision of white picket fences, clapboard shops and a main street that rolls downhill to a beach of fine sand where big breakers constantly crash. Clint Eastwood was once Mayor, though clearly it should have been Martha Stewart.
And the Post Ranch Inn had one generous surprise. On our last afternoon the sun came out and for a glorious hour we baked on our veranda, gazed out at the Pacific and realised that Henry Miller was right. sm
FACTFILE: BIG SUR, CALIFORNIAHow to get there• Virgin Atlantic offer return flights to Los Angeles or San Francisco via London from £349 per person, visit
www.virgin-atlantic.com for details. Big Sur is a three-and-a-half hour drive from San Francisco and a six-hour drive from Los Angeles.
Where to stay• The Post Ranch Inn, Highway 1, Big Sur, California, visit
www.postranchinn.com Rooms from £270 to £700 per night. There is a two-night minimum stay on weekends.
And there's more• To experience the cutting edge of the New Age, visit the Esalen Institute a few miles from the Post Ranch Inn. Set up in the 1960s to explore human potential, Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Joan Baez gathered to develop ideas and innovative art forms. For classes, courses and massages, visit
www.esalen.org• Scotsman Reader Holidays has an 11-day break to America from £949. Tel: 0131-620 8400, or visit
www.holidays.scotsman.comThe full article contains 1194 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
