I first went to Baja California when I was riding a motorbike alone from Alaska to Argentina in 2003. I’d quit my job and wanted an adventure. I felt culture shock as soon as I crossed over from southern California. I’d never seen anything like the desert scenery. Everything was so exotic: cowboys on beautiful horses trotting around, those cardon cacti with arms – it felt like being in a cartoon.
Many Americans thought I was mad. But I had met a guy who was a Baja fan in Oregon. He wrote “Playa Escondida” (hidden beach) on a piece of paper and I thought: “I’ve got to go!” I carried that bit of paper with me for ages. Another friend in California had given me a “Baja Almanac”, an almost homemade topographical ring-bound guide. It was like getting my hands on a secret map, not many were printed then, and as I looked at it I could see the adventure unfolding before me.
Baja was an adventure playground for Californians in the 1960s, in the way Morocco was for Europeans. People went there to get wasted and feel free. It has a mythical status, particularly in the world of dirt biking, because of the Baja 1,000 race that started in the 1960s – it was cool and glamorous, with the likes of Steve McQueen riding it. There’s just one highway and that was only tarmacked in the 1970s; before that it was a network of dirt tracks and cattle crossings. You have to get off the highway to see the real Baja, across the spine of mountains and along old mule trails that go back to the conquistadors, linking oases, old ranches and Spanish missions from the 1700s.
One of my favourite places on the 750-mile-long peninsula is Bahia Concepción, which has miles of white sand coves, turquoise water and palapas (poles with thatched palm roofs) on the beach. I remember the thrill of seeing it opening out in front of me. You can wild camp anywhere and just sleep on the sand. It’s also a great place for kayaking. A lot of the hotels have kayaks and you can paddle from bay to bay, stopping for margaritas on the beach – brilliant! Of course, in the winter you get the US snowbirds in their campervans and tie-dye T-shirts, but although there’s more development these days, it’s still mostly wild.
The Cardon Cactus Forest is probably my favourite place in the world. The landscape is spectacular, so stark in a really beautiful, cleansing way. Lawrence of Arabia said he liked the desert because it felt clean and you can really get a sense of that here. It’s dry and monochrome with staggering rock formations – you wonder how the hell they got there – and there are enormous cacti, about 30ft tall and hundreds of years old, as far as the eye can see. In spring, when the cacti flower, it’s incredible.
I love Bertha’s Café on Playa el Burro. It’s just a shack with a sand floor, but the fish tacos and huevos rancheros (fried eggs with spicy tomato) are fantastic, and margaritas are the order of the day. There are great shacks all along the highway and on the beach, serving simple but amazingly tasty Mexican food and local Tecate beer.
You’ve got to put the work in to get to Mike’s Sky Rancho. It’s in the high desert, 20 miles from Valle de Trinidad, the nearest town. You need an off-road vehicle to follow the dirt tracks and cross a river. There’s no electricity or phone; it’s just a basic ranch with rooms, pool and restaurant. I broke my vegetarianism for the night because all they had was steak – they never run out of beer though!
Coco’s Corner is an iconic and insanely weird cafe/beer shack on the route of the Baja 1000 race, about 22 miles from Gonzaga Bay on the Sea of Cortez. It’s run by Coco, who’s about 90 years old and has no legs. The whole place looks like something out of Mad Max – tons of junk and old trucks with no wheels and crazy homemade shacks. He and the place are something of a Baja legend.
In the midst of the wilderness you stumble across lovely colonial towns. The central, inland town of San Ignacio is really pretty, with a beautiful Spanish mission built in 1728. It’s an oasis – you travel through desert and suddenly there are lush palms. Loreto, on the Sea of Cortez, is another great place and good stop-off point for supplies if you’re going into the wilderness. Mangoes fall off the trees at Hotel Oasis there, and they do excellent nopales, a prickly pear salad.
Guerra Negro, on the Pacific coast, is great for wildlife. It’s where people go whale watching but there’s also loads of amazing marine life in the Sea of Cortez. It’s an inland sea with no waves and clear water – you can see turtles, colourful fish and stingrays.
Baja is an amazing place for adventure with just the right amount of civilisation, and it’s so accessible from San Diego or LA. Go!
• The Adventure Travel Film Festival runs from 14-16 August at Mill Hill school in north London. See Lois Pryce’s website at loisontheloose.com
