03/07/2010 – We were all up early to have a very good breakfast in the hotel beside Bright Angel Lodge. Hannah and I had come here with our trek group in 2007 and remember having a very decent breakfast, we weren’t disappointed this time either. Afterwards we packed our gear into the 4WD and shortly after we were on the road back towards Las Vegas. We knew the drive was long, but had no idea it would take as long as it did. We spent well over two hours queuing to cross the single lane Hoover Dam and when we finally got to it I didn’t go over 5 miles an hour, incredibly frustrating. So finally we made it back into Las Vegas, where we headed straight for the airport to drop of the hire car. ... read more

This morning we were moving on again, we got ourselves ready, packed the car and left Ponderosa Ranch to our next destination, Monument Valley National Park. I was behind the wheel today. It was a nervous experience considering my lack of experience driving on the wrong side of the road. After a few hours driving across the beautiful canyon lands of the South-West we arrived at our Monument Valley hotel called, ‘The View’. Last time Hannah and I came here the hotel didn’t exist and that was only a couple of years ago. We checked in but our rooms were not yet ready, so in the meantime Selina & Ash decided to go on a Navaho Indian guided tour, while Hannah and I would take the 4 by 4 and explore on our own. So after ... read more

It was an awesome few days in Vegas but today was time to leave the city lights to explore some of the nearby National Parks. We packed all our gear, checked out of The Wynn and the four of us took a cab to the Las Vegas airport. It was here we picked up the hire car, we picked the biggest SUV our money could buy, a Nissan Pathfinder, it was great. Ash began the drive as we hit the interstate on our way to Zion National Park. It took a few hours to get to Zion and our first stop was the National Park sign. Each of us got out of the car and took some photos, then shortly after got back in the car to find the visitors centre. We were a little nervous ... read more

This morning we woke up, got ready and met Selina & Ash downstairs in a café for breakfast. This wasn’t just any café, it served one of the best breakfasts, I’d ever eaten, beautiful fried eggs with spicy chorizo and small lemon cake thing which was amazing. But before I get too carried away on breakfast, today we had the whole day to explore this awesome city they called Vegas. We walked down past the Venetian Hotel & Casino when we decided to buy tickets to see Phantom of the Opera in a few days time. We saw it when we were last here in Vegas and it was amazing so both Hannah and I had no issues seeing it again. We continued our way down the strip and decided to have a quick look inside ... read more

Vegas Baby! What originally started as silly idea quickly turned into the best idea we’ve had in ages, Vegas over summer. We sold the idea to some friends and the four of us were set. Hannah and I’s flight left London Gatwick mid morning but we still needed to get up at the crack of dawn since Gatwick airport was on the opposite side of town. It probably took us a good 1 ½ hours on public transport, that including getting a taxi, the tube and the overground before finally reaching Gatwick. We checked our bags in, found a café for breakfast and before long were ready to board our long flight across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a long, long 10 hour flight. We flew Virgin Atlantic and our seats were awful, they were broken ... read more