Hello all our loyal followers,

This morning we were being driven around Monument Valley in a 16 seater open top off-road vehicle which I would have preferred to use for the rest of our trip. Our van is really starting to get to me, cramped, smelly and even worse 11 other people who maybe starting to get on our nerves (Germans!). That aside we headed out the valley and dusty roads heading for the Grand Canyon.

After an hour of driving we stopped at a flee market in the middle of know where for some food and fuel. The market itself reminded me of a England car boot sale but with no midden gems or comic books just hand maid jewellery and rubbish . After a short walk around we decided there was nothing worth spending our hard earned travelling money on so thought we should grab some food.As a rule of thumb, we always went to the places which were busy as that normally meant the food was safe. We found a Mexican stand with our Trip leader in the queue so thought we would try it. We bought 6 tamales - three hot and three mild and they were amazing. For people who don't know a tamalesis a starchy corn based dough steamed in a leaf wrapper with either a spicy or mild meat/source filing. After this very filling lunch we headed back to the van and continued down the road.

Another 3 hours down the road and we passed through the entrance gates of Grand Canyon National Park not knowing what was a head of us. We parked up at the visitors centre and were told to get in a long line, one in front of the other and close our eyes. We walked approximately 30m and were told to turn to our left and wait to be told to open your eyes. James (our guide) shouted open and after a brief moment of adjustment we were standing 2m back from the edge of the Grand Canyon! It was massive and beyond anything I had thought of, I had seen pictures of the canyon and it in films but nothing could prepare me for the sight. The Colorado River ran along the base of the canyon like a small trickling stream, it was breath taking. We then walked up to the visitors centre and viewing tower to take some photo's and look in gift shop. By this time is was 5pm and starting to get dark so we headed to the general store for fire wood and dinner supplies before heading to the campsite. After an hour setting up camp, the group started dinner (BBQ burgers and hot dogs) and the heavens opened. The rain wasn't hard just a lot of it which put a bit of a damper on things. So once dinner was eaten, some of the other trip groups arrived at the same campsite. They had a large rain cover which we set up and lit the camp fire before the liqueur started flower. I can safely say there were going to be a few saw heads in the morning.

We awoke after a very cold night at 9.30am with frost on our tent and a few people not looking their best. The majority of the group were going on a helicopter flight over the canyon today so didn't have to get up early. Me, Nikkiand two other guys decided it was really worth it as the weather wasn't great and was very expensive for a 30min flight. Therefore we got up and got supplies for our day hiking (Gatorade, fruit and warm hats and gloves) and headed together to the shuttle bus to the Bright angel trailhead. A 1.5mile hike up and down the grand canyon face. The decent was ok, walking down steps and long winding paths along the face of the canyon and took approx. 45min. The uphill section back up the same route on the other hand HURT! The very steep gradient and heat from the sun beating down on the face made the climb back up 2hours long. It was strange, it seemed very and humid walking up the face but as soon as we were over the top it was freezing. We took a break at the top before walking the rim trail round the visitors centre. This follower a 5 mile route round the edge of the canyon taking in the sites and a rock trail showing how the rocks have changed over time in the canyon. It was beautiful, cold but beautiful to walk round one of the seven wonders of the world. Once back at the visitors centre we got the shuttle bus back to the general store and cafe were we sat on wifi to warm up for an hour or so. We also grabbed a sloppy joe from the cafe as by this time we were getting hungry. The light started to fade so the four of us wondered back to camp to start preparing dinner. The weather got even colder once the sun had gone down and made a lot of people get tucked up in there sleeping bags early (or that could have been the after affects of the night before, who knows). Tomorrow Las Vegas!!

From Grand Canyon with Love,

Nikki and Ben