Up early this morning ready for our trip to Monument Valley. We had breakfast and soon found ourselves driving towards the valley. The scenery was stunning and when some of the monuments came into view it was unreal. We drove into the valley hotel car park and parked up. We found our tour guide a Navajo who made the men look very short he was a big man. As Claire and I sat in the car I noticed there was a jeep tour of the valley - why am I not doing this instead of risking my all on a horse? We drove into the desert following our guide in his jeep and arrive at the stables. Keevin another Navajo met us he is going to take us out. We went into the stable and found hats and leather pouches for our water bottles. Keevin teamed us up with horses suitable for our ability. I was given a pretty horse called Tumbleweed who apparently was a steady plodder.....The horses all had their winter coats so looked soft and fluffy. We were given an order to ride John was at the back I was next then Claire,Nick Alan and Keevin at the front. We set off Tumbleweed was walking nicely but we were soon getting behind as he was a plodder, suits me...then he suddenly seemed to realise he was behind and went into a fast trot!! I was holding on tight and bobbing up and down like a jelly..should have gone in a jeep! After a few whoa boy he slowed down and went back to his steady walking phew!
Claire and John were laughing their heads off,how uncaring is that? The valley was awesome,as everyone seems to say out here, so beautiful the monuments amazing so much bigger than you realise and the cacti and herbs and small trees growing out from the dry ground where turquoise and silver and gold shone in the sunshine. Got behind again and Tumbleweed took off again, more laughter from Claire and John especially from John as my horse was also passing wind as he trotted to catch up! Of course John was blaming me for that - really!!! We had been riding for about one and a half hours and Kelvin suggested we get off and tie the horses up to stretch our limbs, good idea but how was I to get off gracefully? Shouldn't have worried Keevin came alongside and let me put my arm on his shoulder so all was well. We took some pictures and Kelvin told us a bit about the plants and the rocks it was fascinating. We got back on the horses again and started off on the second half of our ride. It's wonderful what an experience! got behind again and this time I kicked him gently and clicked my mouth and we were off in a fast trot felt quite proud although I still looked like a jelly! He was a lovely horse who took good care of me so glad we didn't take the jeep tour this was so much better. We sadly arrived back at the stables and had to say goodbye to Keevin and our horses. What a wonderful experience. Had a coffee in the hotel which was really posh! Looked around a Navajo museum and then left and made our way back to our hotel. On the way back we stopped at a restaurant Alan had been recommended called The Blue Coffee Pot. It was housed in a replica Hogan. The food was great as was the coffee. We had Fried Bread and beef with potato salad and green salad, the fried bread was nothing like ours was a bit like a crisp puffy pancake yummy. Nick and John had Beef ribs in a sauce which was also good. Finally made our way back to the hotel where we all had hot baths!! What a day!!