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Published: June 16th 2006
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Sorry that this has been a long time coming !!! Here's a quick run down.....
21 day camping tour.
Kicked off in San Francisco & after a bit of sightseeing hit the West Coast highway. We had seen most of the sights the day before - union square, china town, coit tower, financial district, north shore, fishermans wharf, golden gate bridge, alcatraz & the house from the series "full house".
Santa Barbara was our first destination. We check out the main drag during the day but the highlight is going back to "Sharkeez" bar for a few ales during the evening. It was International night & we fitted right in.
The highways got very busy as we entered LA. Crazy traffic !! All 5 lanes chockers in both directions. Walked the hollywood walk of fame, saw Rodeo drive (and ran into Goldie Hawn shopping at La Perle!), checked out Johnnie at the Viper Room, and used the same bathrooms as Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman (ala Beverley Hills Wiltshire).
Santa Monica was a highlight as we found a bar with a shuffleboard table. Kurt was stoked & the games began. Splitting the bill at the
First feed in San Fran
CHOWDER !!! with an ice cold Carona - nice end of the night proved a difficult task for the 11 of us - soon got the hang of it - add tax & tip first !!
San Diego was next & we got to spend two nights there which meant no packing up the tent for one morning - woohoo! There was a hottub there & we spent many hours chilling out & enjoying a few drinks. The 2nd night we escaped over the border into Mexico. Our driver dropped us at the border & we were on our own. We quickly headed to Tijuana & into the waiting arms of the locals. We were scammed as soon as we walked through the door but quickly learnt the rules. It was a crazy experince but definitely worthwhile. Di enjoyed many magueritas & her fair share of tequilla..... Got back to the campsite around 3ish & suffered the next day.
A hangover in the desert is not much fun as we reach temperatures of 50 degrees. It is soon worth it as we reach lake havusu. We enjoy a nice swim & some sunbaking in the afternoon. Kurt's banker-tan needs to disappear now that he is on holiday
Alcatraz
Yep we saw the prison & I tried to lock Di away..... !! No need for a tent that night as we sleep under the stars.
The excitement builds as we begin our drive towards the Grand Canyon. We stop on route 66 at around lunch time for some happy snaps. We get up at 4:30am the next morning, & after a quick look at the sunrise we embark on a trek into the canyon. The veiws are stunning & we are in awe of this place that we have heard so much about. Walking into the canyon is a must. Although the rim walks are nice, we found that walking into this massive thing was a totally different experience. The hike definitely tests your endurance & Kurt's training regime of 12 buds a night did not help the cause. We walked around 13km's in that 1st day & slept well that night. We spend two nights at the Canyon & in looking back it was definitley a major highlight of the tour.
Next stop is Utah where we stay at a really cool camp ground. It has a bar fully equipped with a pool table, fuseball, darts & stereo. We run into a few american college students from Idaho
San Fran view
What a lovely couple & what a better view. Coit tower. there & they challenge us to a game of pool. I can proudly say that the team from Holland (Steve) Australia (Kurt) beat the cocky yanks ! They didn't handle it well & promptly went to bed leaving us the bar to ourselves where we duely got smashed.
You have to be impressed by Monument Valley. The rock structures are stunning. We take a tour & take in its full glory. Our Navajo guides make the total experience even better. Our campsite it atop a nearby hill where we awake to the great veiws.
We couldn't wait to reach Moab where a a white water rafting adventure awaited along the Colorado River. But first we had to endure the magnificent views at "canyonlands" - another of the brilliant national parks. We did 3 small hikes before it was time to move on. The rafting turned out to be a bit of a fizzer though with the rapids that we saw being only category 1 & 2. It was enough to get us very wet though. In the afternoon we go to "arches" national park & as the name suggests, saw plenty of arches ! The pick had to
Full House
This one is for you Julie !! be "double o" but we a 2 and a half hour hike to enjoy it.
More canyons today, this time in Bryce national park. This place was very cool & the veiws into the canyon came 2nd only to those of the grand canyon. We spend the afternoon hiking & enjoying the views.
Zion national park is next on the agenda. Although pretty touristy it is well worth a look. We only got to spend 3 hours there & you could easily do a few days. The walk through the "narrows" looked awesome. Unfortunately it wasn't open due to high water levels. We settled for a great walk at the foot of the cliffs.
VIVA LAS LEGAS !!!
Yep that's right... we had to cut our zion experience short because we needed to get to vegas. We arrived in the early afternoon & it was evertything that we had envisaged. After a quick tour of the strip we put on our glad rags & hit the casinos. There was so much to see & so little time. We only had two nights & could have easily spent a week. Being able to drink & bet wherever
& whenever you liked was definitely a bonus. Although we didn't win our fortunes, we didn't lose too much so came out happy.
We leave Vegas with a bit of a hollow feeling - there was so much we didn't get time to see & experience. Definitely a destination to come back to. These negative feelings are quickly displaced as we focus our attention to the next stop - yosemite national park. But first.... a quick visit to Death Valley & a night spent in a little town called Shafter - later titled "shitsville" due to the lack of things to see & do there.
Yosemite is gorgeous. We do a half day hike into the mountains & see two awesome waterfalls. The temperature takes a plumit during the evening & we are faced with 2 & 3 degrees - not nice. The threat of bears is also ever present. We must lock all of our food up in steel boxes so that we won't be attacked in the night !!! There are a few sightings but the rangers keep us safe.
A quick drive through sacremento & a visit to Arnie's office "we won´t be back"...
On the road
Trying to catch a few zzzzz's & then onto sonoma valley for some wine tasting. Kurt isn't a wine person but he enjoyed the time spent there.
Our tour is over as we head back to San Francisco. It was a whirlwind 3 weeks but we enjoyed every minute of it. We met many great people, some of whom we will catch up with again as our travels continue.
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Zoe
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Awesome!
I am so unbelievably jealous cause I am looking at your photos while I am at work and want to just pack up and leave.... you guys look like you are having a ball...keep the photos up I am living through you now... wait my feet a itchy!