Did I mention the Elk? I don't think I did.... As we were walking back from dinner on the first night at Grand Canyon we passed a family of Elk munching on the grass in front of the hotel! They were entirely unperturbed by us walking nervously past, or by the guy taking flash photos of them. They were back again the following morning and Stephen was taking photos. He said that people didn't notice they were there as they walked by - obviously focused on directly ahead and not looking left or right!
Notice I said Stephen was taking photos. I had been struck down with a little tummy trouble during the night so I wasn't up for taking sunrise pictures...any excuse for an extra 1/2 hour in bed!! I made it out of bed fairly early, enticed by the thought of a latte as promised on the promotional TV channel that had been running. What a HUGE disappointment! My latte was made first, then Stephen's Americano. He said that he knew something was wrong when he looked in his cup and the liquid was light brown as opposed to black. He said to the guy "you didn't change the coffee" and was told that the coffee was changed when it got "old". WHAT?? How often was that? Every hour? Day? Week? He re-made Stephen's with fresh coffee but mine was left. My latte can best be described as a "Vaguely coffee flavoured milk beverage" and the scones were freshly chiseled from the cliff face that morning. What a rip off! It cost us $17!
We did a portion on the Rim Walk round towards the East. It was beautiful. Absolutely stunning views! We were laughing at the total lack of Health and Safety. The path was paved, and at viewing points there were guard rails, but everywhere else it was just a few feet from the path to a very long drop! Given my vertigo and incredible ability to fall over my own feet I stayed well away from the edge.
We went to the nearby town over lunchtime to watch the Imax film of the Grand Canyon. It was great, even if I was beginning to drop off - darkened rooms are not good for keeping me awake! I had the beginnings of a headache so I was glugging water in an attempt to stave it off. We headed back to the Grand Canyon and began the rim walk to the West from Powell to Mohave Point. The first section was paved and an easy walk. The second section was just a well-tramped dirt path. It began as an easy walk around the rim. Granted it was a little closer to the edge than previous trails, but it was okay. It was about 3/4 of the way round that it began to get more than a little scary! It had snowed recently and with typical Spark luck, the only part of the path that hadn't seen the sun and thawed out was the bit that sloped steeply down to a sheer vertical drop!! It was a lovely combination of ice and mud practically guaranteed to tip us over the edge into a mile long free fall. I made Stephen go first... We inched our way down very carefully, knees knocking! By the time we got to Mohave point my head was pounding- probably from a combination of stress and dehydration - so we got the bus back to the village where I slugged another load of water and put my head down for an hour. I was no better after that so Stephen went out to get sunset photos whilst I had another sleep. When he got back I was dying and demanding painkillers before my head rolled off my shoulders. The shop was closed and the front desk told him that all shops in the Grand Canyon village close at 6pm on a Sunday for stocktaking. D'oh! I was going to have to suffer - and I did!!
We were woken at 1am by some woman along the corridor letting out a piercing scream. As we were 10ft from the front desk I thought we'd let them take care of it - and judging by the lack of doors opening I guess everyone else thought the same. Besides, she'd woken me up and made me realise that my head was still pounding and only tenuously attached to my neck! We figured that she'd found some wildlife - mouse, elk, tarantula....
We were still unable to get painkillers the next morning as the shop didn't have any. We were going to go for a walk until we got outside and found out just how terribly cold it was! Instead we packed up the car and headed to Flagstaff which is supposed to be a lovely little town. It wasn't terribly appealing in the howling wind and beginnings of snow so we hung around only long enough to find a Best Buy and buy another passport drive as we'd filled the one we'd taken with photos, and buy painkillers and water.
No comments:
Post a Comment