Day 7 - February 13th, 2025
6 a.m . Temperature 11 C
Our alarm jolts us awake. Time to get up, get caffeinated and drive to the Mexican border. Our very first overnight experience at a Walmart had been successful. A few loud cars revving engines and squealing tires in the late hours but overall not much different to the rest stops we have been used to for most of the trip so far. We had spent weeks reading up on all of the options and recommendations and daily updates on the drive Baja Facebook group. Based on those, we decided to cross at Mexicali East. We reached the border by around 6:30 a.m. and there was no line up at all. We were pulled over for inspection - one border agent had a quick Look inside our van, checked our Mexican temporary resident cards (but didn’t ask for our passports) and also our van registration and insurance. Another agent wanted to check inside our roof box and our rear storage box. The other agents were all enthralled by Otis who just loved the attention.
Everyone was super friendly and efficient and within less than ten minutes we were on our way, driving through Mexicali. The wrong way through Mexicali. This was the time that Google maps decided to have a brain fart and tried everything in its power to direct us back to the border as we struggled to find our way to Hwy 5 . We were nervous as we didn’t know where we were going and didn’t want to make any kind of mistake. Driving too slowly. Late lane changes. Not stopping fully at stop signs (a hard stop and count to 5 before you set off again is what we we’re advised). We had read lots of reports of tourists being pulled over by the police in border towns for “driving infractions” that usually seemed to end up with just a warning or sometimes a “donation” but all of which took time. After a few guesses and finally giving up and pulling over to re-set the bloody app we had our directions back. A quick detour up a side street, passing a police car (don’t look, don’t make eye contact) and we were finally on the right road, heading to Hwy 5. And South to San Felipe. We later realized that when we had punched in the border crossing at Mexicali East, we had selected the US crossing instead of the Mexican one so after we crossed into Mexico, Google maps was trying to get us to go back to the US crossing line. Our fault. Not Google. Apologies to Google for all the swearing and horrible things we called you in our ten minutes of panic
For the record, Emma wants to state that it was 100% Simon that was stressing out and getting anxious throughout this time and not her. She was cool, calm and collected and giving common sense suggestions to her spiralling husband that finally resulted in him listening, pulling over, restarting the app and which resolved. the problem. OK, back to the story.
San Felipe is on the East coast of Baja and is a very common first stop for travellers headed South. Baja itself is divided into two - the North is Baja California and the South is Baja California Sur (or BCS for short). We hadn’t pre-booked anywhere to stay, in fact it’s difficult to pre-book a lot of places although some do take reservations. Instead we had a few places we had looked up in iOverlander and were confident at least one would work out. We wanted an actual campsite for the first night so we could recover from the stressful day of crossing the border and driving the Baja roads.
The first forty minutes or so driving out of Mexicali is not very interesting. A mix of commercial and run down, abandoned buildings, waste ground and taco stands. After that it opens up to more of a desert landscape with mountains. And it’s probably, no definitely (up until now) the longest, straightest road I’ve ever driven. If you like going around corners, this road is not for you (didn’t we just spend money upgrading the van suspension to help with things like corners? That will come in handy later but not now.) After just under three hours, we entered the town of San Felipe. We headed straight for Calimqx, the towns main grocery store where Emma went to stock up on a few days worth of groceries (and maybe a few verve as) and I walked the dogs around the parking lot. We actually had to park on the street as the parking lot was too small and had covered stalls that the van would not have fit under. Fully provisioned, off we went to the first camp spot on our list Campo Touristico No. 1. We rolled in and there was only one other rig there. $300 pesos for the night with electricity and right on the ocean. We picked a spot, backed the van in, opened up the back doors and cracked a beer. Brought the camping chairs down from the roof box, set up the Starlink and we were all good for our first day in Baja. Another two vans rolled in late afternoon and that was it. The dogs ran around and made friends with a black dog that lived there - he wanted to be friends with Freya more than Otis but she was giving him the cold shoulder. There was also a restaurant on site but that didn’t seem to be open.
We caught up on some work, took the dogs for a walk on the beach, drank a few beers and went to sleep early. It had been a tiring day. And the sound of the ocean sent us to sleep, reminding us of the sound of the river back home.
Distance driven today: 214.85 KM
