We started the day with a swim in Lake Powell, as you do. A gorgeous man- made lake made part of the Colorado river. It had lovely clear water to swim in and was a perfect temperature. The lake is surrounded by red sandstone rocks which we clambered down to get to the lake. We swam for a good hour and then sat on the rocks to dry off.

After a quick lunch we drove to the Visitor centre of the Antelope Canyon in Arizona where we boarded a jeep and were taken on a very hot sandy drive down to the slot canyons. After seeing the film '127 hours' based on the book 'Between a rock & a Hard Place' I was rather excited to see these. The sun streams in to them making the rocks stunning shades of red and orange, and if caught at the right time of day, sunlight streams through the top of the
canyons causing huge light beams to fill the slots, rather like a spot light. It was a fabulous photography visit and I, not so secretly, wished everyone would piss off so I could take photos. Luckily most of the photo opps were at the top of the slot canyons so everyone's cameras were pointed up! Hopefully there will be an award winning photo in my collection of about fifty taken within a one hour period, in order to pay for a new camera. Turns out digital SLR's and sand do not mix.
A really very beautiful place, but rather ruined by loud talking tour guides and too many tour groups going in at the same time.

Next came the highlight of the day! We drove to Eastons, Utah where we set up camp in an impressive 7 minutes. Tents and all! We were running late to meet Wayde our hourse back riding instructor who picked us up in the back of his trailer with his very lovely Australian cattle dog, Bonnie. We drove across camp to meet our horses. My horse was called Big Jim. A big solid and very gorgeous, yet half blind, chestnut coloured horse with a white diamond on his head. He certainly did turn out to be a little gem and I felt rather sad leaving him at the end. I'm not sure I had got on a horse since I was about eleven, if not younger, but it was rather like riding a bike in that you don't forget the basics. The 7 of us went on a two hour hack cross country (minus Tara who has an extreme allergy to horses). The scenery was fabulous like something out of a western. We went through shrubbery, across streams, down hills and steadily built up to a skillful trott (which my arse is paying for today. ouch!) I took pictures of our shadows in the setting sun which looked fab wearing our cowboy hats, and we laughed at Amy and her naughty horse who just wanted to stop and eat all the time. We watched a scatty Bonnie bolt around chasing small creatures and running full speed down streams. A seven year old dog with the energy of a two year old.

We were all very disappointed when it came to an end, and if it hadn't been for our sore bums probably would have asked to do it again the next day. I said a sad fairwell to Big Jim and bonnie and went back to camp for a steak dinner cooked on the BBQ.

In Eastons it is apparently tradition to dress up, so to keep costs down we decided to go with a ABC party (Anything But Clothes). We bought some bin liners and some stickers and ribbon for a dollar in the crafts section of Walmart and made ridiculous looking dresses whist sipping on some oh-so dangerous jungle juice. We then spent the rest of the evening in the camp's sound proof barn playing our holiday songs through our ipods, playing pool, dancing and chatting to Wayde and my new four legged friend Bonnie, who I was pleased to discover had reapeared for the evening.