San to LAX

As the train leaves San Diego it goes through an area of hills with some valleys and is quite slow. The area is quite spectacular in a bleak and barren sense. The vegetation is similar to Southern Spain away from the coast, a misture of dwarf trees and xerophytic shrubs, mainly brown with areas of green where there is water under the surface.


It is this type of chapparal vegetation that is causing so many problems in Northern California currently with a number of wildfires. The area has not had fires for along period and any that start are put out. This means a lot of dead material builds up and subsequent fires are worse. A lot of the vegetation requires fire to stimulate regrowth. The area is inacceable and lightly populated so I would change the policy. Let the fires burn and open up a state run insurance people pay into which pay out if there houseis destroyed by a fire.

After this the railway finds the flattest part of the countryside, along the sea front. There are a number of lovely houses and towns in this area as well as some really ugly buildings as well.

After this the train crawls for over 40 minutes through the LA suburbs which are a mixture of attractive, modern areas, morerundown areas, strange looking industrial areas and rivers that are channelised running through high concrete banks (picture the car race in Grease or thelorry/motorcycle chase in Terminator)

Thank you for the supportive emails. To claeify an experience shared is an experienced doubled as you then have a common point of reference from which stories or jokes can spawn.