Grand Canyon - Or How I Learnt to Love Back-Country US

Our trusty vehicle - it actually had two rows of seats in the back. Everything's
bigger in the US!

We were back in San Francisco late summer last year. Well it was really Sonoma Valley, but since we'd done a bit of Yosemite last time, and there are direct flights to Phoenix, we thought - Grand Canyon, why not. How can you turn down the Grand Canyon, it's like a wonder of the world. I always like hiking too, and camping. Waking up early in the morning, and there is always the possibility of a bit of fauna when you are camping. And the Grand Canyon promised all of that.

We found this awesome company - Wildland Trekking. We were actually going to the US for a wedding, so we thought it was easier to use a company. That way we didn't have to take a whole bunch of hiking gear with us - as well as wedding stuff. And that was such a good decision. It helped that the guide was just so good, and the other people in the party were also Australians which just made the whole experience so much better. I can see that if you were stuck with a bad group of guests it could get messy pretty quickly. But we had chosen the hardest route we could, so thought that should winnow out most of the chaff. And in the end there was quite a gap between our capabilities and the other two people with us, so it meant that we really were doing the walking on our own. But had the navigation, route planning, food buying and meal preparation all taken care of. It was like luxury camping. I would definitely use this company again, in fact we are planning a trip to Yellowstone for that very reason.

Fossilised animal prints

But before the Grand Canyon there was Phoenix, hmm what to say about Phoenix? Not sure I'll be back, I guess it's just a US city? I think I've figured out my strategy for the US, avoid the cities, and spend all my time out bush. Because their national parks are amazing. I thought Yosemite was something special, but then the Grand Canyon blows it out of the water. And if you camp or do anything involving a bit of physical exertion, there is nobody else around. Fantastic!

One weird thing is the incredibly poor transport links to the Canyon, you'd kind of think it would be super easy. Maybe everyone goes via Vegas, but I think that goes to the north rim, and the south rim is where it's at. I guess it is the land of the car. We managed to find this really weird shuttle bus, and when I say it's a shuttle bus it's actually a big SUV that's been converted to have 3 rows of seats. It's not even a van. And that is the only way to get from Phoenix to Flagstaff (which is the closest town to the Canyon). And even that is still a 2 hour drive away from the Canyon. It's incredible just how big the US is, it's much bigger than Australia.

Weird flora in the canyon - but check out those
rock colours!

With my southern American prejudices I was kind of expecting Arizona to be a real gun-toting state, I mean they do border Mexico and don't they have really weird paper checking powers there? But anyway I wanted to see how safe I would be walking around the streets, like is everyone going to be carrying a gun? Whilst they basically have no gun ownership restrictions, I'm talking assault weapons, concealed carry, open carry, it's all good in Arizona. They actually have only a median percentage of gun ownership. About 31% of people own a gun, that's 38th in gun ownership rates by state. So relatively low given how easy it seems to get a gun. I feel like I should have visited a Walmart whilst I was there now. I was a bit disappointed with my Walmart experience in California. Not a rifle to be seen, just military-grade crossbows.

Flagstaff was a much prettier town, much, much colder too. Phoenix was hot and this was at the very end of summer too, more autumn weather. I was expecting temperatures closer to London range, and it was high 20s. There were so many cacti too, I was not expecting that, it was really the west there, just driving along the highway and there are massive cacti, like ones you would see in old western movies. So cool.

Anyway Flagstaff was much cooler, but then it's at 2100m, which was another shocker. I really had done no research into this trip. Dave had done all the planning. I think I managed to find the shuttle bus and that was the extent of my contribution. Anyway 2100m is pretty high, that's almost higher than Kosciusko (which I think will always be my level for something being high). And you really felt the elevation, a little harder to breathe and crisp, clear, cool air. Really very pleasant. And the town was quite pretty too, with a nice main street. Not that we spent a lot of time there. Because the evening we arrived was the pre-trip meeting and then we were off again very early the next morning. This was exciting, a 2 hour drive and we would be at the canyon. And I really didn't know what to expect. I feel a bit bad now, I hadn't even checked out pictures on the internet. I guess I knew it would be big, that's about it. I was in for a shock I can tell you that!

So one teaser photo before the next instalment

2014 - A Year In Review

A weekend in Prague

I guess it's that time of year where you start thinking about what you have achieved in 2014, and maybe plan for things to do next year. I think 2014 has definitely been the year of travel. I get a bit exhausted just thinking about it. In 2014 I managed to get to both the US and Australia twice. That's a lot of loooong flights in one year. I've also visited Japan, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain. Inside the UK we've been to Cardiff, Cotswolds, the Lake District, Isle of Skye, Cambridge many times and the Brecon Beacons. That's also a good number of train miles.

My favourite trips out of all that lot has to be the one to Japan (skiing there was a revelation), plus the trips to the US (one because it was business class and the other because I visited the Grand Canyon). I also really liked the Isle of Skye and the Pyreneean adventures. I definitely want to do more things like that in 2015.

A week in New York

One of the other very exciting things is that we are in the process of buying a house!!! It's even got a backyard. But this is still early days, I am learning a lot about the strange English process of house-buying. It all seems very inefficient to me. You get all these surveys done, which I guess is common everywhere, one of which was a Radon report. Apparently Radon concentrations are quite high in England, though to be honest, London looks like it has the lowest concentrations of anywhere in the UK, you would not want to be living in Cornwall! I have to say it was a bit weird to be given this report from the lawyer, I honestly had not thought how radioactive gases would affect me if I bought a place.

Dominating Skye

Overall it seems that the process is very different from Australia, not that I've ever bought a place there. Here you get into these long chains, where we want to buy a house off someone who needs to buy a house off someone who needs to buy a house and so on, until you reach the point where either someone has died or is leaving the country. So as you can imagine they can be quite long. Luckily ours is only 4 people long, which we've been told is quite short, sounds pretty long to me though! It does mean though that once you've put an offer in and it's been accepted, you have to wait whilst all the other people along the chain put in offers that have been accepted. Bear in mind that no money has changed hands yet. Once the chain is finished you then get your lawyer and start getting all your surveys done.

Bagging Helvellyn

That's when we got the radon report, and a flooding report and a home buyers report. They even do a check on chancel liability. This is a good one. Turns out you can be liable for any repairs to the church in your parish, even if you don't go to church. Aaaah state religion, what is it good for? This all blew up kind of recently when a couple got a bill for tens of thousands of pounds to repair some church, took the church to court and at the end of everything they ended up liable and with a £100,000 bill. That panicked everyone and so to calm down the rabid lawyers the government told the churches they had to tell everyone whether they could be liable for a chancel repair bill by 2013. Up until this date nobody knew whether they were about to be hit with a £10,000 bill for some random church. After that date the only time the church can add liability to a house is between the exchange and completion period. You can get insurance to cover this risk. It's just completely insane.

Norway in Scotland

Family days in Cambridge

All everyone wants to do is just get a little bit of money from you. Oh you want to check for damp, that'll cost you, you want to make sure the roof isn't falling down, that'll cost you, you want to check if the church is going to whack you with a liability, that'll cost you. And all the while nothing is legally binding, it could all fall apart tomorrow. It's not until you actually exchange that you are sure that the sellers won't just change their minds. The joys of house buying. And don't even get me started on stamp duty!

Anyway I think the new house is going to be our main achievement for this coming year, if we ever make it to completion. Fingers crossed for a move in date in early Spring!

What else for this year? Hmmm maybe some more travel (though probably less than 2014), I'm hopeful for another trip to the US, maybe Yellowstone this time, another good 7 days out in the back-country with a few wolf, bear and moose sightings would be perfect, but no close encounters thank you. There was also thoughts of a week walking in Scotland and another week walking in the Canary Islands (that's for December to try and get us through another winter). I think that means no new countries visited this year. Hmmm maybe have to try and fit in some city breaks somewhere. I think I'd like to visit more of London, I feel like it was a bit neglected in 2014, so I'll have to try and make up for that. I guess we are trying to save a little money where possible to start paying off the house, so London visiting will be cheap. Aaah crushing debt, nothing like it to curtail holiday plans. Anyway I think this is going to be another great year, looking forward to it!

Tree on fire in the Lakes