Torrey Pines

We went to Torrey Pines today. It involved walking up a road then along a trail towards the edge of the cliff and down some steps. Then we walked along the beach and crossed a scary narrow outcrop to the next beach.

We were aiming for the paragliding centre, which meant we had to climb up the cliff using the scariest steps I’ve ever encountered. At first, my ploy was to look at only the next step so I couldn’t see how far there was to go nor how far I had to fall if I lost my balance. This plan failed because I couldn’t bear not knowing how far I still had to go.

I looked up, and saw that there was an awful long way to go and that there were some really scary looking parts where the steps were worn or there was a sloping piece of rock to cross.

I plodded my way up as best I could. At various points, I had to stop because I was either out of breath or I was just plain scared.

The breathers were straightforward, but when I got stuck, I started panicking that I’d be stuck there forever, able to go neither up nor down. Mr Pandammonium was right behind me and told me to put my foot there. I reluctantly put my foot there, convinced I was going to fall, but I didn’t. I got past each one with his help, and finally made it to the top in one piece. Such a relief.

We met the others at the paragliding centre, where some of them had gone out but some of them were waiting for the wind to come back. We weren’t paragliding, so we went back to the resort with one person who had been and one person who had to be elsewhere.

In the evening, a group of us went for dumplings. We ordered loads, causing the waiter to ask if we wanted to remove anything from our order. We did not. He said most people that go there order only two dishes, as opposed to our minimum of three dishes, per person. By the time we had finished, there wasn’t much left over. I think the waiter was reluctantly impressed.