Last leg of US roadtrip - Gila, New Mexico, San Francisco, Auckland

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A fews days driving through wonderful high desert landscape through Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, displaying the terracotta coloured adobe housing landscape and cactus galore. We had a great time in these towns, which were fascinating in that most of the inhabitants were artists and musicians providing lovely entertainment.

A short, turbulent flight to Silver City for a week on a dude ranch called Double E, a working cattle ranch. Here the cowboy spirit was able to surface as we penned calves, did mounted shooting and explored canyons and high desert land on horseback. Within hours of arrival we donned our hats, dusters and boots and were ready to round up cattle.

The last few days were spent back in Oakland near San Francisco. Time in Alcatraz, San Francisco - for those who have visions of incarceration and grand plans to escape, we were indeed behind bars but luckilu just for photo opportunities. Having been to Robben Island, Capetown where Mandela spent many years, this was of particular interest although I didn't know of any of the infamous US inmates such as gthe Birdman. Happy days!

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Photos

The Asian Dragon
Tasted as good as he looks!

Near Silver City, New Mexico
The Double E Ranch occupied about 8,000 acres near the Gila National Park

Long horns
Feeding the calves each morning and night

Calf penning
Despite being outnumbered they'd manage to break away, run back to their herd and make total fools of us!

Walter and Cowboy Kahlua
Double E Ranch, New Mexico

The cowgirl outfit
The duster was totally necessary with snow on the ground. We had expected warm weather in New Mexico - hence the week booked on that particular dude ranch

Calf feeding time
Morning and late afternoon we took alfalfa and hay to the livestock