This is what I love about the Tortoise bus. I went to sleep on the bus at the hot/lukewarm springs and woke up at Arches National Park. Brilliant! Arches is incredible and is almost more impressive from the outside than inside, until you reach the trails.

A good group of us chose the Primitive Loop trail and it was really nice walking through the desert looking at the amazing rock formations, even though the weather was a little cloudy. Our small group consisted of Barbara, Isaac, Davide and Nicholas. Ryan and Laura joined us later and we met Holly and Helen who had turned back due to rough terrain. Not to be defeated, we powered on and eventually to Private Arch for lunch and a cool Street Fighter pose from Barbara and Nicholas (who has that photo?!).

We stayed a bit late and got to Double O arch which was ten times more spectacular from the other side. Thanks to whoever told me to climb through to the other side and hike to the viewpoint. Nice one. We then had a bit of a mission to get back to the bus as we were miles out with not much time! We walked back via Devil's Garden and were 10 mins late in the end. Could have been worse!

We stopped in Moab which conveniently had free wifi, then moved on to see some petroglyphs high up on a cliffside before heading through nuclear wasteland to our campsite next to what I think was the Colorado River. I'll change it later if I'm wrong!

We had some Utah beer and got introduced to smores, which are basically chocolate and marshmallow crackers. The roasted marshmallow melts the chocolate and all is good.

It was time to layer up and prepare for another night under the stars. And in the wind. There is a big group so hopefully we'll stay warm!