H: Miles driven in total: 11,096
No of beds/camps so far: 20/34
No of showers since our road trip started 73 days ago: 29 (that’s one every 2.5 days)
No of showers since our road trip started 73 days ago not including those in cities: 15 in 62 days (that’s one every 4 days)
Average no. of miles driven per day in the last 73 days: 152
Most miles driving in 1 day: 795
Best and worst mpgs in our gas guzzling SUV: 23.6 and 17.6
No nights slept not in a bed in the last 73 days: 56 (77%)


We are home! We were pretty sad to give back our Trailblazer – it’s done us over 11,000 miles, has helped us spot all but 1 of the American State number plates, and has been our home for the last 2 ½ months! We somehow manage to scrape in just under our luggage allowance – we have collected a lot of camping stuff (like a tent and deckchairs!) since we flew out.

This trip has yet again been amazing. Swine flu and the threat of Guatemala jail aside, it’s been much easier than travelling through Asia. We have met some lovely people, and met up with some even lovelier people. This is our second trip through North America now and there’s still so much more we want to see. America and Canada are beautiful countries and the freedom of being able to drive, stop, walk, camp and cook where and when we please is really liberating.

We’re back in the UK now in time for my Dad’s retirement tomorrow, Sharon’s hen do and wedding, and holiday to Wales with my family. After that is unknown, but at the moment that’s half the fun :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 11,033
No of beds/camps so far: 20/34
Days without ice cream in the last week: 1

Now it was time for the 1,000+ mile, day and a half journey to Chicago. This involved driving across the entire states of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin on very boring and busy interstates. The scenic bit of our trip is definitely done! We did however get to stay at the posh-est campsite yet; it had steps up to a walled patio where you put your tent, it had its own porch light and a posh site number on a metal stand. A different world from the very basic campsite last night!

We had a lovely few days in Chicago with Lou, an old friend from school. We walked miles on Lou’s tour of downtown Chicago, spent a day trying to pack everything from our car into rucsacs and boxes to fly home with, cheered the Cougars on against the Dragons at a baseball game, learnt about American recycling/energy saving policies (or lack of), raided Lou’s money tin for the 5 state quarters I was missing, searched for a Delaware plate and ate far too much. Thank you Lou for having us to stay!

H: Miles driven so far: 9,857
No of beds/camps so far: 19/32
Size of the Montana sky: Massive

Perfect! We found a campground in the grasslands, just over the border in North Dakota. It cost £4 a night, it’s beautiful and open, there are no trees, there’s no running water and most importantly there was absolutely no-one else there. We spend 3 days relaxing and reading under huge blue skies – we really don’t want to leave.

H: Miles driven so far: 9,857
No of beds/camps so far: 19/31
Possible 3 digit combinations on a 5 digit toilet lock: 120

We left Banff pretty late, went to Boston Pizza for a “goodbye Canada” pizza and crossed the US border into Montana just before midnight. We wanted to stop at the first campsite we could to get some sleep before trying to find somewhere beautiful and perfect for our last few days of the trip. We found a campsite easily, but not so easy was getting into the toilets which were security coded. Not wanting to forgo the luxury of a real toilet and running water, we persevered with guessing the code and were soon inside having a lovely warm shower :o)

The drive the following day through the state of Montana is definitely ranked very high up my list of ‘beautiful drives’... We spent the day driving through amazing scenery where you could see all around for miles - huge open spaces, big blue skies and small towns. Finding the perfect spot for the last few days shouldn’t be too hard :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 9,020
No of beds/camps so far: 19/30
No. of tourists no longer in the way once we got 1km away from the car park: 5,497

Having been allowed two days in the mountains but without a proper walk, today I had to put on my horrible trainers and we set off for a 10 mile-r . We started at Lake Louise, a pretty lake where nearly every tourist in Canada seemed to be, and climbed up into the mountains at the side, past some beautiful lakes and to a valley full of glaciers. We were even lucky enough to see an avalanche. Fortunately the path was good so I changed into my flip flops pretty quickly and G was left to carry my trainers – as punishment for making me walk so far again.

From there we went to Moraine Lake which was much prettier than Lake Louise and had half the number of tourists :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 8,925
No of beds/camps so far: 19/29
% recovery after Skyline: 68%

I managed to wangle one extra “rest day” – today we went to see 2 waterfalls, a lake, and only walked 5 miles. I am aching a lot less, but the pain is still a vivid memory...

Yoho NP borders Banff and Jasper parks but is much much quieter. Field, the main town in Yoho is a really cute, tiny town that would be a perfect place to stay if it wasn’t for the 100 mile long cargo trains that pass through the town and alongside the valley 20 hours a day. Infact, it’s virtually impossible to get into the town itself without being stopped in at least one direction by a passing train.

We are not very good at getting relaxing time when we travel. I know your hearts are going to bleed for us, but we don’t get that much time just sitting and reading, and any time we do try, something goes wrong. We’ve attempted a couple of nothing afternoons this last month and both were ruined by either gale force winds and/or mozzies. Today’s was ruined by rain – the first proper rain shower we’ve had in weeks, and one which lasted from about when we tried to sit and read, until bed time...

After Banff we are going to try and find somewhere beautiful and sunny to stay for a couple of days before we get to Chicago and come home. Chances of success??

H: Miles driven so far: 8,925
No of beds/camps so far: 19/28
No. of muscles in our bodies that don’t ache right now: 0

I woke feeling like I’d been beaten up, run over and left for dead. Every muscle ached –not just my legs but my shoulders/back from carrying the bag, and my arms from walking with the poles. To cap it all off I woke with a migraine (my body’s way of hinting that I don’t put it through that pain again?) so I spent the day slumped in the passenger seat while G (who is also feeling the pain but is up to driving) drove us along the very scenic Icefield Parkway, into Yoho National Park. I did manage to get out of the car a couple of times, and even made it up a steep slope (which felt like a mountain) to see a glacier, and up an even steeper slope to a viewpoint. I am hoping I will be in working order again soon. G is talking about a walk tomorrow – but at the moment that is just making my head throb even more.

H: Miles driven so far: 8,811
No of beds/camps so far: 19/27
No of days sensible people take to do the skyline walk: 3 or 4

My favourite walks are always the not-too-steep ones with big views and no trees. Unfortunately unless you’re in the desert (where mercifully trees don’t grow), most of the big views are got after walking up a steep, tree-covered mountain.

Therefore when G suggested walking the Jasper Skyline- “one of the most amazing walks in Canada with ¾ of it above the treeline”, I agreed – not really taking its length into account. We didn’t really have the right walking equipment with us – our rucsacs are just small day hike ones, our roll mats are bulky and our tent isn’t designed for walking with (read: its heavy). But that was nothing that a rented rucsac and some ingenious ideas of ways to cram stuff into bags couldn’t solve. We lucked in on a cancelled tent site at the middle campground for the next day and I spent as much of the rest of the day before the walk trying not to use my feet. It was only after we’d booked it that the distances were starting to sink in. 30 miles, 2 days, a 1,300m elevation gain (which is roughly the height of Ben Nevis) and a pack that weighs far more than my shoulders were made to carry.

Cramming everything we needed into our rucsacs was a pretty tough task, and one that was finished on the shuttle bus that dropped us the start of the walk after being distracted by the bear that plodded alongside the car park and over the road. I’m not sure we really looked the part of serious overnight hikers – I had a roll mat attached to my bag with bits of string, and everything that we couldn’t fit in the bags (lunch/jumpers/flip flops/the tent) were tied somehow or other onto the fronts of the bags (which may not look big in the photos, but believe me they would have been lighter if they’d been filled with bricks).

I managed the first 10kms through the woods in pretty good spirits, and safe in the knowledge that the hired pepper spray was close at hand in case of bears. Life was sweet once we reached the tree line; the views were brilliant and for a change, instead of turning round and coming back down, we had at least 26kms to walk above the trees over the next two days, before the long hike down. Another 5kms on though and the beautiful views were starting to become a wee bit overshadowed by the pain of the soles of my feet. Another 4kms and I was ready to stop. I was not at all impressed when we got to 20kms (supposedly the stopping point for the day), to find our campsite was a full 1km detour DOWN a steep slope.

By the time we reached the campsite my muscles were still coping, but after 8 hours on the go, my feet had long since reached severe pain thresholds. We set up the tent, and I found a spot at a picnic table from which I didn’t move unless I had to. I had been trying not to think about how long we had to go the next day and how I was going to manage it but the throbbing in my feet wasn’t helping me to put it out of my mind. We’d walked 21kms today (13 miles), and had another 26kms (16 miles) to do the following day. I couldn’t understand why none of the other people at the campsite looked in pain. However having talked to a few of them, it turns out only people with a feet-death wish do it in 2 days, most take 3 or 4...

We woke up to clear blue skies on the second day, and set off in good spirits. I drugged myself up on Ibruprofen in an attempt to stop my knees from giving in too soon. The walk was stunning – up to a saddle and along a ridge with really beautiful treeless mountains all around us. The sun was out, and I put my flip flops on – which was like walking on a carpet compared to the concrete of my trainers. By the time we’d done 10kms, I was thinking maybe I could do it after all.

Which tempted fate - the skies opened, the trail got muddy, my flip flops became skis and I slid over in the muddiest bit of mud around. We weren’t even half way and my attempts at staying positive completely vanished. I was tired, my pack was heavy, my clothes now very muddy and I was going to have to put my trainers back on. Shortly after my slide we had to cross a river, which with my wet muddy flip flops was pretty easy – I walked straight though it and washed my feet at the same time. At the other side it was time to change into clean clothes, put my trainers on and have some lunch – and about 40 mozzies kindly decided to join us. This didn’t do much to improve my spirits and was a big drain on G’s (who thankfully somehow had managed to keep a straight face during my fall).

Chocolate however did – even though it was Canadian rather than UK Cadburys. Which, for the other Cadbury lovers out there is a close 2nd to UK Cadburys along with the NZ stuff (all miles and miles ahead of the Aussie and US rubbish - I still don’t understand why Cadburys would want to put their name to it – it shouldn’t even be called chocolate). It boosted our morale just long enough to finish the last section along the tops, and for my flip flops to dry. We were now at 18kms and feeling the burn.

I kept telling myself that when we walked the Lyke Wake Walk, we walked 42 miles in 17½ hours. Therefore 30 miles in 2 days really shouldn’t be that much of a problem. However instead of that providing me with much energy, it just made me even more sure that I was never going to do the LWW again! I am also convinced about not doing the PCT – 15 miles a day for 6 months just doesn’t bear thinking about! Somehow even with the pain he’s in, G is still considering it.


The last 8kms was down an old fire road through the trees. It wasn’t too steep, I put my flip flops back on and we convinced ourselves we could finish it pretty quickly. But we should have learnt by now that the last few miles of any walk take much longer than you expect – especially after 2 long days of walking. The excruciating 8kms seemed more like 16, and after 9 hours on the go we finally collapsed in a big heap at the car. I am never walking more than 5 miles again.

G: I’d heard and read brief mentions of the Jasper Skyline walk. “One of the great walks”. “Not to be missed”. But I didn’t really know too much about it when we arrived in Jasper town.

Somehow I’d got it in my head that it was a tough 26km day hike. On a whim I decided to drop into the local bus centre and ask about trail head transport. “Yep, no problem, we can do that for you...” and then “...have you booked your campsites yet?” Ah. What campsites? Oh, it’s a multiday hike. And its 45km. Right. I see.

Having broken this news to H and not been knocked back, I persevered with the information gathering. Just a couple of hours later we had a campsite booked, transport arranged, an extra rucksack and a can of bear spray rented from the local outdoors store, and plenty of chocolate purchased.

We’d not previously done any multi-day hikes where we had to carry a tent with us. We’ve done multi-day hiking in Peru with porters, in New Zealand staying in huts, but never the real thing with everything on your back. It’s good thing then that we picked a nice short walk (45km in 2 days) over easy terrain (The Rocky Mountains) to get us into it.

The first half of the first day was pretty cruisey. We made short work of the first 10km to get up and out of the tree line. The skies weren’t amazingly clear but the rain thankfully held off. The views were good and getting better by the mile.

After about 6 hours and still with a few Ks to go to the campsite both of us were starting to suffer. Neither of us are used to carrying quite so much and certainly not for this long. The next 2 hours were a lot harder as our progress slowed and the campsite didn’t seem to be getting any closer. You can imagine how “happy” we were to discover that the actual camping area was a full kilometre down a steep track off the main trail.

Finally at out campsite, we rested and even found the energy for a few games of backgammon (its lighter to carry than books). The campsite was fully equipped with bear safety rope (to hoist your food up overnight) and a joyfull open air toilet – check out the photos to see what I mean. It might not look much, but it had an amazing view down the valley!

We woke on day 2 to amazingly clear blue skies. Just the tonic we need to get us going for the day. And if we’d thought the views on day one were good, it did nothing to prepare for some truly amazing sights to come.

The day started with a pretty tough climb back up to the main trail and then up up up to a spot called “The Notch”. At around 2500m it was the highest point on the trail. From there the track followed a high ridge for about another 5km before dropping down into a wide open valley with a few lakes thrown in for good measure.

For about 4 hours we walked under clear blue skies enjoying jaw dropping scenery in all directions. This is why we’re here. And this makes the heavy pack well worthwhile. Mountains never fail to make me happy.

Unfortunately at about the time the weather broke, so did H. As the track got a little muddy and the rain started to fall, the size of the task ahead started to hit home. We were both pretty tired by that point and we’d only just made it to the half way point of the day. H had changed into Tevas to try and ease the pain on her feet... that seemed to be working ok until she took a bit of a slide in the mud. I think that really was the breaking point. Given a helicopter she would have been out of there right then. We couldn’t even stop and take a break as we’d dropped down slight below the tree line at that point... in Jasper with trees come mozzies! So we pushed on, probably for another half hour, by which time the rain had subsided and we’d climbed back out the trees.

The break and some 2 day old sandwiches did us a surprising amount of good. In better spirits and under bright skies again we pushed up the last incline and reached the top of the long road down. The last 8km down through the trees on an old fire road were a bit of a slog and started to get monotonous towards the end... not that we knew we were near the end, nothing but trees in sight!

Eventually we made it. Battered and bruised from two very long days hiking we were finally back at the car. The walk had been incredible. Its good to push yourself to the limits both physically (with the pack) and mentally (the long long long descent) to see what you can accomplish. When you are rewarded with such amazing memories it all seems very worth while.

H: Miles driven so far: 8,806
No of beds/camps so far: 19/25
No. of tourists in Jasper : too many

An 800 mile drive in 25 hours (with a night’s sleep) across Western Canada took us to Jasper National Park, in the Northern Canadian Rockies. We found a campsite in McBride to spend the night, and went to sleep to the sound of wolves and coyotes howling...

The mountains we left in Western Canada were replaced by rolling hills as we crossed BC, and then we drove into more stunning mountains as we crossed into Alberta and into the Canadian Rockies.

We have had some beautiful campsites on this trip, but they haven’t come without their ‘issues’. We heard coyote’s howling in the distance in Death Valley and have just had about 3 weeks of campsites in bear/mosquito territory. Fortunately we haven’t come across either actually in the campsite (mozzies excepted). The campsite we found tonight in Jasper however had wildlife maybe a little too close by.

As we drove round the campsite trying to pick our perfect spot, we saw a wolf/coyote (not sure which) in the middle of one of the sites. Hmm if I need the loo in the night here G is definitely going to have to come with me!

H: Miles driven so far: 8,011
No of beds/camps so far: 19/24
Total hours waited in the mozzie infested cold to see one bear: 2

Having arrived off the ferry in Prince Rupert (which is in Canada) at 5 this morning, we stocked up with groceries and decided to go back to Alaska... We drove the start of the Cassiar Highway and then headed down the Glacier Highway to Stewart/Hyder; a very scenic road passing by, you guessed it, lots of glaciers.

Stewart is a tiny Canadian town a mile short of the end of the road. The last mile took us back to Alaska, America – to Hyder. There are no US customs, and the paved road stops dead on the border and turns into a dirt track.

We had come here to hopefully see bears catching salmon in the river at Fish Creek. Unfortunately though we were a week early, and there weren’t enough salmon yet to attract many bears. We stayed an hour before giving up and falling into bed for some much needed sleep. The two nights on the ferry had been comfy, but on both nights the ferry had pulled into ports at 4am and were rudely woken up by tannoy announcements...

Sleep didn’t last for long however – by 7 we were up and off to try and see some bears again. Again we waited about an hour but with no luck. Just as we were leaving one bear did come – but didn’t seem to want to get his feet wet. He walked by the side of the creek and then wondered off into the bushes so we called it quits and set off for the long long drive to Jasper National Park in Alberta.

H: Miles driven so far: 7,715
No of beds/camps so far: 19/23
Consecutive days G has wangled fish take-away out of the budget “because we’re leaving the coast soon” : 6

After being worn down by days of Gs continuous angling to book ferry tickets to take us down the Alaskan coast back to Prince Rupert, I finally gave in and we booked the tickets. After all, when faced with comments like “it’s a once in a lifetime thing”, “there’s no point driving all this way and then not seeing it properly” and “the glaciers might melt” what else could I have done? He seemed content with the threat of bread and pasta for the rest of the trip, but since then has been eating fish and chips daily “just while we’re by the coast” and “it won’t be so good inland”... I think I need to get stricter...

To be fair however, the 33 hour ferry journey was brilliant. It wasn’t as scenic as the first leg to Juneau, but pretty beautiful all the same. We went budget class – which meant no cabin for us, but plastic sun loungers on deck as our beds. Which was exactly what we would have chosen to do, even if money was no object. From our “beds” we saw two sunsets and sunrises, saw mountains pass us by, and saw pods of humpback whales breaching. And safe in my 3 layers of sleeping bags, I didn’t feel any cold.

The ferry made a few stops on the way and we had a bit of time in both Wrangell and Katchikan. Wrangell was a very cute, sleepy seaside fishing town – and will remain so while it stays off the cruise ship radar. Katchikan however is a little larger, and could have passed for a sleepy fishing town apart from for the 500m square block around the cruise ship terminal, which was full of jewellery shops again...

H: Miles driven so far: 7,562
No of beds/camps so far: 19/22
Walking speed of average cruise ship passenger: 0.3 mph

Given on average it’s meant to rain 2 in every 3 days, we have been incredibly lucky. It feels more like we’re in the Mediterranean rather than Alaska, the skies are continuously blue and the sun is hot. Juneau is a small and pretty town, which should be very remote as it’s not connected to anywhere else by roads. Unfortunately however it’s on the cruise ship path and on any day, there are about 4 absolutely colossal cruise ships, the size of small mountains, docked metres from the town. They sort of ruin the skyline. Plus half of the town seem to either be jewellery or fur shops - which maybe sums up the average cruise ship passenger.

To escape the cruise ship crowds, we drove over to Douglas Island and up to the ski area base. It’s closed for the summer but you can walk up the slopes. Intent on having a relaxing day we took our books with us, and set off up the track in shorts and flip flops in search of a good reading spot. However, soon the thought of making it to the top and seeing over to the islands the other side of the ridge made us forget the books-in-the-sun option, and got us trudging up a big ole hill again (in fact more accurately, up a 500m mountain). I am in Tevas and shorts and there are no trees. Greg is also in flip flops, which he never normally walks in.

We got within spitting distance of the top when we came across the first of a few big patches of snow. We attempted this first one; in slippy flip flops on a steep hill which resulted in a few slips and very freezing feet. We decided maybe we had come far enough and decided to head back down.

Which is when the moaning started. This time, by G not me. His flip flops are thin and he’s feeling every stone and his poor feet are aching. By the evening, he’s pretty stiff and his feet still hurt. Oh how good it feels for the flip flop to be on the other foot :o)

The following day we rented Kayaks for the day and paddled round a little island nearby. It was all very relaxing apart from the few stretches across the ferry path where we paddled as if our lives depended on it. That added a bit more stress and strain to G’s ageing achy body and he slept like a log for the 2nd night running. I feel fine and am feeling pretty smug...

G: Wow! We’ve been to some incredibly scenic places on our travels, but I’m not sure we’ve been anywhere that can compare to the last few days of our journey (South Island New Zealand aside of course). Since leaving Whitehorse nearly a week ago the breathtaking vistas have been coming at an overwhelming rate.

First stop was out picture perfect campsite on the shores of Dezadeash Lake in the Yukon. Ok, so a few minutes after putting it up we had to flatten the tent and cover it with large logs to stop it blowing away, but once we’d re-pitched it a few yards away with a little more shelter the view was still incredible.

Next was the hike up the King’s Throne mountain in Kluane National Park. Now this view we had to work pretty hard for... battling (read walking as fast as fast as we could without running which might trigger predator instincts in a grizzly bear) our way along 2 km of the most mosquito ridden place I have even been (no joke, they were everywhere – at times we’d brush them off each other’s backs and legs and there would be 20 or30 on each of us)... then up a very steep switch back path to the seat of the throne before tackling the last 5km of near vertical (only a slight exaggeration) rock and shingle to the top. But it was worth every bead of sweat and every mosquito bite (and every moment of itching since then). The view from the top was priceless. As far as you could see were snow capped mountains getting bigger and bigger into the distance. Closer to us was a beautiful emerald coloured lake with steep sided mountains climbing straight out of it. We really could have sat there for hours and just soaked it up...

The following day we drove the Haines Highway south, over the border and into Alaska and then on to Haines, a small village perched on the edge of a long fiord and towered above in all directions by snow capped peaks.

I managed to persuade Heather that despite her muscles still screaming from the King’s Throne that it’d be good to climb Mt Ripinsky the nearest mountains to Haines. This time at least the hike was more or less mosquito free. But it was pretty steep and a large part of the climb was all in trees. Any of you who have ever hiked with H will know she is not keen on hiking in trees... uh-oh. An hour or so of ear-bashing later we emerged from the trees onto the summit ridge where the ear bashing soon receded and was replaced with some very welcome silence and yet more amazing views. Once we reached the peak the view was 360 degrees of awesome! Snow capped mountains and gorgeous blues fiords disappearing into the distance all topped off by an incredibly blue sky. Once again we didn’t want to leave the summit, H because she knew she had to descend into the trees once more and myself because I knew H had to descend into the trees again!

Then came judgement day. Time to catch the ferry south. It had taken a lot of persuasion from me that we should take the ferry instead of driving. Not that H didn’t want to do it, just that she is a little more guarded with the money than me (thankfully – her money stretching ability is beyond compare). It seems my luck was in - the sun shone and the scenery was yet again incredible. 4 blissful hours sailing down the fiord to Juneau with snow capped peaks either side (there are a lot of those in Alaska). There was even the occasional whale sighting.

At some point this scenery will have to abate... but for now I’m loving every minute of it. Life is good.

H: Miles driven so far: 7,562
No of beds/camps so far: 19/21
Miles of unimpressive scenery witnessed since entering Alaska: 6 (the trees on Mt Ripinsky)

Another blue sunny day in the high 20’s - you couldn’t get more perfect weather for a 4 hour ride down the coast to Juneau. Just to make a change, the scenery is beautiful – the fiord is wide, the mountains tall, with a pod of orca’s and at least one humpback whale in the distance (very distant). Life is very good.

H: Miles driven so far: 7,492
No of beds/camps so far: 19/21
No of trees ruining the view on the first ¾ of the climb: 3,345,252

Ow ow ow. G doesn’t seem to be listening to my complaints, but I can still hardly walk after the vertical climb of 2 days ago. My quads have in no way recovered and the simple task of getting in and out of the car is pretty painful.

But I was still made to climb Mt Ripinsky today, another 1,000m mountain. What made it worse, was that about ¾ of it was in trees – boring boring boring... However, the views from the top I must admit were pretty amazing – the mountains are all around, you can see the different colours of waters of the rivers and the glacial melts joining, and you could see miles down the fiord (called the Lynn Canal).

Then it was time to go back down and into the trees. Boring ow boring ow boring ow... I just tried to focus on the treat that we don’t get so often that was to come once we were down – a shower.

H: Miles driven so far: 7,492
No of beds/camps so far: 19/21
% of floats in parade that were local emergency vehicles: 87%

From the border we continued down to Haines just in time for the Independence day parade. Which was remarkably similar to the Whitehorse Canadian Day Parade with all the fire engines/police cars – just with American instead of Canadian flags.

Haines is a really cute little town, mercifully missed by all the cruise ships that sail the Alaskan coast, and so a very ‘real’ town. It’s set on the edge of a massive fiord, completely surrounded by huge snow-capped mountains that tower the sides of the fiord and the town.

We found an out of town campsite, a beautiful 8 mile drive further inland along the side of the fiord to a big lake. Which is where we stumbled on the “mad raft race” – a race where about 15 teams set off down the river on boats they have made from anything that boat’s normally are never made from. Our favourite boat was the one on 2 barrels, a few bits of wood, 2 garden chairs, and 2 snow shovels and poles as oars.

A few broken boats, some capsizing, lost oars, lots of swimming, and some rescuing by the safety boats later, they made it to the finish line. In fact a few went a bit too far in the increasingly fast river and had to get rescued...

A few hours later, at 11pm came the fireworks. Now as much as I love fireworks, I’m really not sure they really thought it through. It doesn’t get dark at all, and the half hour long firework display got a bit lost against the light skies – what a waste!

H: Miles driven so far: 7,492
No of beds/camps so far: 19/20
Official-ness of the border crossing: Low

A really beautiful drive through increasingly treeless scenery took us over the border, back into America, to Alaska. We weren’t sure we’d have the time to get as far as we have, but are very chuffed to have made it!

The border crossing was the easiest yet, which was bizarre given we’re going into the US. The only question was a simple “what brings you to Haines”. Our answer of “vacation” was met with a near smile, no further questions/interrogation and a “have a great day”. It was a bit different to our crossing into Canada where they searched our entire car!

H: Miles driven so far: 7,327
No of beds/camps so far: 19/20
How many mosquitoes encountered in a 2km hike to base of mountain: 27,432

Having had a bit of rain these last couple of weeks, and having not managed many long walks due to all the driving, we were very happy to see the blue skies this morning as we set off to the climb King’s Throne mountain in Kluane National Park.

It was a 20km walk, 1,300m ascent to nearly 2,000m, on a mountain surrounded as far as you could see by lakes and mountains. We make it up in 4 hours and the views from the top are extremely beautiful. It all should have been pretty blissful.

But it wasn’t. For a number of reasons.

I hate walking through trees, but often it’s necessary before you can get to the views above them. Today however it was even worse than normal. The first 2km was through the forest alongside the lake. Which is where mosquitoes love to live. G gets eaten alive by them, but normally they don’t bother me. There were swarms of them, so many that G didn’t have enough blood for them so they started on me.

Added to this was the risk of bears. We couldn’t afford to buy our own bear spray so instead we just brought a cooking knife with us. That didn’t do all that much to make me feel any better. We made it through the first 2kms in record time and up out of the forest – extremely hot and very grumpy about all the mozzies.

The next 8kms were basically just up – up near -vertical slopes and then straight up the ridge of the mountain – all on very slippy gravel. We were knackered by the top.

At the top, we saw a storm in the distance, that when we looked again seemed to be not so distant. Worse – there was thunder and lightning. Not good at all – we are up a bare mountain, the tallest things around and carrying metal walking poles. So the 8kms back down to the forest were also done in record time, on very loose gravelly near-vertical slopes, in an attempt not to become lightening conductors. Then it was time for the mozzie forest. G had a brainwave and figured they’d struggle to bite through our rain coats. So in the boiling heat of the sun, we donned our rain jackets for 2km back to the car, that we walked as fast as we could while still heeding the advice of not running in case bears thought that we were prey... I reckon we must have used as much nervous energy as physical!

H: Miles driven so far: 7,327
No of beds/camps so far: 19/20
No. minutes it took to go from 30° sun to 30mph winds: 2.5
Another beautiful morning’s drive, this time in blue skies and a hot sun, and things look even more beautiful. We drove to Dezadeash lake at Haines Junction, and thought we’d struck gold when we found a secluded tent site, right on the edge of a big beautiful lake. This we thought, merited a relaxing afternoon in the very hot sun. We put sun cream on, got settled in our deckchairs and the winds picked up. And they blew and they blew until things were falling over and our tent looked pretty beaten up. Too scared to risk losing tent no 2 we very quickly had to collapse it and weigh it down as best we could until the storm passed.

Once the storm passed and the sun went behind a cloud, the mozzies came out. It’s been incredibly hot, much hotter than I expected this far north. Which means that the usual method of having a fire to keep the mozzie’s away doesn’t work so well. You can either be free of mozzies and melting by the fire, or keep cool away from the fire and be eaten by mozzies. So now our perfect campsite is still very pretty, but maybe not so perfect.

H: Miles driven so far: 7,069
No of beds/camps so far: 19/19
Pieces of cake a G can eat at a parade: 5

We made it to Whitehorse, a tiny town in Southwest Yukon, in time for the Canada Day parade – their Independence Day. Greg’s favourite part of the parade seemed to be the amount of cake he could get his hands on. Even after nearly 10 years he still seems to be able to feign surprise when I say “I don’t like it” (meaning my dislike of all things gooey) and he acts all martyr-ish by eating mine...

The Yukon seems to be one big wilderness area, right on the edge of Alaska, another great wilderness area. Greg is talking about moving here for a year so we can go and explore. I am trying to explain that 22 hours of night in the winter, and 22,000 mosquito bites in each of the 22 hours of the daylight in the summer may hamper the enjoyment of a year here, but he doesn’t seem too convinced yet...

For the record, I am still getting less than 8 hours sleep a night, and just because the sun gets up at 3, doesn’t mean that I have to...

G: We’ve had a fairly chilled out day today. I think we’ve earned it after our long drive north.

After a lazy start - Heather is still managing to lie in until all hours despite the sun coming up at 3am - we headed into downtown Whitehorse to check out the Canada Day (Canadian Independence Day) parade. This is a small town (although it’s by far the largest in the Yukon – 20,000 of the Yukon’s 33,000 inhabitants live here) and so the parade was quite a small town affair... it seems that anybody could join in... all businesses great and small... in fact I think if we’d thrown a couple of Canadian flags on our Chevy we could have had a “H and G On Tour” float.

After the parade we dipped into the visitor centre where we stumbled on free cakes for Canada Day. Then we headed down to the main festival area and queued up for some more free cake. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, it turned out H didn’t like her piece so I doubled up... I wish every day had this much free cake!

Tomorrow we’re heading further west to Haines Junction, where we’ll base ourselves for a couple of days exploring Kluane National Park before finally crossing the border into Alaska! After that we’re going to spend several days heading down the Alaskan Marine Highway (read ferry route), stopping in Juneau and then spending two nights heading through the famous Inside Passage to take us back into Canada...

I’m not quite sure how I snuck the ferry trip past the accountant. I’ll just put it down to persistence in the form of days on end of “you know that ferry would be pretty good”, “we’re only going to be here once”, and “we really should do it now before all the glaciers melt”. I really hope it lives up to its billing or I am going to have some explaining to do!

H: Miles driven so far: 7,069
No of beds/camps so far: 19/18
Moose to people ratio in the Yukon territory: 1.8:1

We woke to pretty heavy rain, which then continued non-stop for the next 36 hours. This meant that the netting in our tent inner (which meant we could see the moose right next to our tent last night), now makes it virtually impossible to take it down without letting in rain. We have perfected a technique of trying to collapse it – and more impressively erect it - inside the fly sheet, which has been met with varying success. Hopefully we won’t have to practice it many more times...

After heading to the Liard hot springs and very bravely shedding most of my layers of clothes to get in, we continued along the highway. Today we were treated with a few black bears, a moose and then a big ole grizzly with 2 cubs. We stayed safely in our car, with the car in drive ready to go just in case...

We stopped at the Watson Lake signpost forest, where after searching for what felt like hours, we determined that there’s at least one plate from each of the 50 states EXCEPT for Delaware. We’re starting to think maybe they either don’t have their own plate, or that maybe they have this funny rule that they can’t take their cars out of the state...

We have learnt a few facts of life since being in North America...

Firstly is it seems that a small yappy dog seems to come as standard with most RVs, which confuses me a wee bit as these RVs are so massive they could easily sleep a real dog, as well as 101 Dalmatians.

Secondly, is that sleeping bags work in a very clever way. Since topping up my duvet supply at Marlene and Richard’s, I’m now sleeping in an inner, in my bag, in then a big overbag and am managing to stay pretty snug. But the main reason for this is that by the time I’ve got in all 3, moved the bags round so I’m not sleeping on any zips, got too hot, tried to take off a fleece and one of my 3 pairs of trousers because I’m too hot, which makes me even hotter – I’ve then worked up such a sweat (and frustration) I’m warm for the rest of the night :o) Maybe this is what I need to do every half hour in the evenings to keep warm...

Greg still seems to be coping without any extra layers which I must admit I am a bit upset about. Admittedly I’m quite pleased it’s not so cold here (I think because we’re not at altitude), but I have really been looking forward to hearing plenty of grovelling before he’s allowed to share any of the extra sleeping bags :o)

G: The Alaska Highway – 1400 miles from Dawson Creek in British Colombia, via Whitehorse in the Yukon to Delta Junction (just short of Fairbanks) in Alaska. It is an amazing road through some breathtaking scenery and with an incredible history...

The road was built in the 1940’s during WWII. Prompted by the attacks on Pearl Harbour and the start of war in the Pacific the Americans approved funding for the road and the US Army set about building it. Aided by the long daylight hours the road was completed in just 8 short months. Building from both ends, they met in the middle at what is now known as Contact Creek on the British Colombia / Yukon border.

It must have been quite a challenge to build the road. Large sections of it pass through what would have been dense forest rife with mosquitoes and none too friendly grizzly bears. There’s also the small matter of crossing the northern Rocky Mountains and several rivers – including the Yukon.

We’re now in Whitehorse, 900 miles from Dawson Creek and still another 500 miles from Fairbanks. Unfortunately due to time constraints we’re not going to make it to the end of the highway. We’re planning on going maybe another 100 or so miles up the road, as far as Kluane National Park before we take a turn South and head for Haines and Juneau in the “pan handle” of Alaska.

It’s been a fantastic journey to this point though. The highway starts off pretty tamely, heading through some quite uninteresting scenery for the first 300 or so miles, but as soon as it hits the Rocky Mountains the views go up a notch or two. The road starts to wind and there’s a new vista at nearly every turn. Heading further North into the Yukon the roads enters bear country proper and true to form we have seen black bears, grizzly bears, moose, caribou and bison all from the comfort of our Trailblazer.

H: Miles driven so far: 6,673
No of beds/camps so far: 19/17
Hours of darkness since starting on the Alaskan Highway: 0

We made it to Dawson Creek by tea time. The Alaskan highway starts here; a 1,390 mile road stretching across BC, the Yukon and into Alaska. After the obligatory ‘Mile 0’ photos, we refuelled with a Boston Pizza and continued for another 5 hours on the road to Fort Nelson.

The Alaskan highway is unusual in that instead of you overtaking the lorries – they overtake you. In fact, the moment when you look in your rear view mirror and see a lorry charging up behind you, is one of sheer horror and makes you floor it to the next pull-in in record speed so you can let them past! They travel way above the speed limit, take the corners twice as fast as most people would, and don’t slow down at all for rain (or animals).

We knew as we got further north that it would stay lighter for longer but hadn’t realised how much longer – the sun didn’t go down until 11! It doesn’t get dark at all here unless it’s a really cloudy night. Instead it stays a lovely twilight until the sun comes up again around 3. Sleeping is going to be hard... However it does mean even more daylight hours for seeing the wildlife – we’ve already seen a couple of bears, reindeer and moose :o)


After a stop in a horrible campsite in Fort Nelson, we continued on to Stone Mountain where we found an amazing campsite right on the edge of the lake. We set up our tent, had an early tea and set off at about 5pm for a 4 hour walk up the mountain. Honestly, the sun was high in the sky and our walk was done not only in daylight, but in sunshine! The couple in the site next to us loaned us a can of bear spray (pepper spray) which both made us feel safer, but made the threat of a bear encounter feel more real...

G: From William’s Lake we did a monster drive North – 15 hours in total – which saw us through most of British Colombia and onto the Alaska Highway... still some 1000 miles from Alaska, but at least onto a road which bears its name!

Our luxury living out of other people’s homes ended with a bang last night at a horrid RV park just outside of Fort Nelson. We’d driven long enough and despite it being daylight it was nearing midnight. We’d hoped to make it to Stone Mountain but that would have been at least another 2 hours drive and we were pretty beat after a very long day in the car... so Fort Nelson it was.
RV parks are never really our cup of tea with everyone crammed in, generally poor views, often quite busy and always over priced for tent camping. Add to that, at this particular site, a lot of mosquitoes, very grim toilets and our first encounter with zero hours of darkness... it didn’t make for the best nights sleep... why are we camping our way around North America again?

Ah, this is why... a couple of hours drive north and we finally make it to Stone Mountain Provincial Park, complete with a gorgeous state run campground on the edge of Summit Lake and a couple of great hiking trails. The camp ground is deserted and the toilets are perfectly clean. There’s also a nice breeze so no mosquitoes! Camping, and life, is good again.

We’re now a long long way North and it really doesn’t get dark here at this time of year. The sun goes down about 11pm but its back up by 3am and you never really loose the twilight.... which has its pros and cons. The pros... you can go for an evening stroll which takes you up a 2000m peak and not worry about getting down before it goes dark. The cons... sleeping in a very light coloured tent with windows is somewhat tricky.

H: Miles driven so far: 6,299
No of beds/camps so far: 19/15
Miles driven in 2½ days - 985

From Vancouver we set off on the long journey north to Dawson Creek, the start of the Alaskan Highway. We detoured slightly to meet up with a friend we met in Cambodia last year. She lives in Kelowna which is a really really gorgeous lakeside town where we could happily have spent a few days.

Rebekah took us to a mountain bike movie, and thought it would be funny to put us on a tandem bike to get there. We just about made it there without hitting any cars, helped by Rebekah cycling ahead (while laughing) to make sure there was nothing coming at any junctions. What was more problematic was trying to leave the theatre - in front of masses of serious bike riders, we wobbled off down the road...

We spent the next 2 days driving though lots of pretty countryside and little towns – 1,000 miles went very quickly!

G: We left Reno about 10 days ago... heading North we spent a couple of days in Lassen Volcanic NP, still in California. Then we suddenly realised we only had about 5 weeks left, and we were nowhere near Alaska. We always said we might not make it that far, and that it didn’t really matter, but I think privately we both had a strong pull to get it done. 10 days over 2000 miles later we’re still not in Alaska. But we’re getting close... very close... only another 1000 miles to go!

We knocked off Oregon and Washington in single day... despite Oregon’s best efforts to stop us with its relentless interstate maintenance and 50mph speed limits.

We made it across the Canadian border without too many problems. They seem very strict at the Canadian customs. They do a lot of full car searches, including our car. I feel very sorry for the customs officer who had to go through our entire vehicle which is stuffed to the brim with gear- although not the sort of “gear” he was hoping to find! We have things in every single nook and cranny – just like a home... we have a kitchen (the box on the back seat with pots and pans in), a pantry (the box in the boot with most of the food in), a fridge (the cooler), a bathroom cabinet (the front passenger door with tissues, wet wipes and hand sanitizer), a double wardrobe (the two $5 Wal-Mart plastic boxes with all of our clothes in – Ikea may be furnishing the World, but Wal-Mart furnished our car!), and then we have Heather’s extra closet space – i.e. the rest of the car!

After two lovely days – one sightseeing, the other planning our trip North – in Vancouver with Heather’s Dad’s friend Marlene and her husband Richard (who luckily for us used to live in Alaska and was a great help with information – and some extra winter kit for H... perhaps she will finally be warm... although we will be heading worryingly close to the arctic circle... I’d better dust off the ear plugs!) we hit the road again...

Next stop Kelowna, for an evening of catching up with half of Rebekah and Jeff (Jeff was away working), some friends we made in Cambodia before Christmas. That’s now four nights in a row in real homes, which might have started to make us a little soft, and when Rebekah kindly lent us the keys to her place in William’s Lake (about 6 hours North and the route we were taking anyway) to crash for the night, camping seemed like a distant memory...

H: Miles driven so far: 5,314
No of beds/camps so far: 17/15
No of Richard’s breakfast pancakes G has consumed in 3 days: 10

We spent two days in Vancouver being spoilt rotten by friend’s of my dads, Marlene and Richard. We slept on a real mattress, in a warm house, ate food cooked in an oven rather than on camping gas stoves, we could brush our teeth under running water, and even have daily showers :o) Simple things eh?

Richard, who used to live in Alaska, has set me up with plenty of warm clothes, and a couple of sleeping bags to go around my own rubbish one. So with any luck I might stay a bit warmer once we head ever closer to the Arctic! Unless I can persuade G to go back to the desert that is...

Vancouver reminded us a lot of Hong Kong with all its high rises and with it being built around water. We spent a lovely day around Vancouver; Marlene got us into the aquarium where she works to see the 16 day old and very cute Beluga whale, Greg found heaven in the food market on Granville Island, and we went up Grouse Mountain, where there’s a surprisingly hilarious lumberjack show and 2 cute Grizzleys safely in a pen (I’ve got a horrible feeling we may get a bit closer than we’d like to these in the wild in the next 4 weeks). We finished the day off with a trip to Boston Pizza which I think Greg is going to be hunting down wherever we go for the next month (a new addiction to add to his Dairy Queen one)...

H: Miles driven so far: 4,472
No of beds/camps so far: 16/15
Best MPG on any tank so far: 23.68

We had planned to continue north at the pace we’d been going, but after realising we only had about 5 weeks left to see the whole of Canada and maybe even Alaska, we thought we’d better get a wriggle on. So in 2 days, we drove from the north of California, through Oregon (where it rained lots and there were new road works every 5 miles of motorway), by Mt St Helens (which we couldn’t see because of fog), through Washington (where it rained still) with a drive-by of the Space Needle in Seattle, to Vancouver where we got caught up in bridge closures and horrendous rush hour traffic.

We still haven’t seen a Delaware plate and are wondering about a mad dash to Delaware before we fly home to make sure we get one. We are even starting to wonder that maybe they don’t have their own plate... We have however now seen numerous Hawaii and West Virginia plates in the last few days, even though we saw none during our first 8 weeks in the US!

H: Miles driven so far: 4,357
No of beds/camps so far: 16/13
Minutes of accordion playing required to force H&G to seek solace in s’mores: 0.34

Once again we managed to find a lovely, not too busy, but very cold at night campsite. We’re in Lassen Volcanic NP which has a lot of dormant volcanoes, mud pots and steam vents. We had a lovely day touring around, and came back to our campsite for a nice relaxing evening in the cold. Not long after we got back, a car arrived with 2 guys in the front and a cheerleader-lookalike (big blonde hair) in the back, and drove round looking for a spot. We crossed everything that they wouldn’t choose the spot next to us, but unfortunately they did.

We spent the next 15 minutes trying to work out if the cheerleader really was a girl, or if maybe it was actually a guy. We decided on the latter.

The first thing they got out of the car was the accordion. An instrument of torture outside of the few occasions where it can sound OK. This was definitely an instrument of torture. Goldilocks was the main culprit – he serenaded his 2 friends while they put up their tent and we wished we were in a different town.

Then Goldilocks and his two husbands started skipping into the woods (I’m really not kidding) and we were treated to a continued serenade, but from a mile away – this thing is really loud.

By nightfall we had had more than enough, and would have asked them to stop apart from one of the husbands had a pretty big knife on his belt (probably to look cool but also maybe to stop anyone complaining about the noise).

By breakfast they had started up again, and we were incredibly relieved to see them packing up. At least tonight we should get some peace.

So you can imagine our complete dismay to arrive at the car park of Lassen Peak which we were climbing that day, to find the three of them just setting off up the track. We joked about Goldilocks having the accordion with him.

We set off about half an hour later, and felt very smug to overtake them part way up. Then to our horror, not much later we heard the sodding accordion start up again. Honestly – the campsite was bad enough but halfway up a volcano? It sure made us walk faster to try and get away from it!

H: Miles driven so far: 4,152
No of beds/camps so far: 16/12
Compact cameras so far this trip: 3

Reno is like the Skegness of the gambling world. It’s really not that big and pretty run down. However, it does mean a $27 hotel room, chance to do the mountain of washing we have in our boot, and have our first shower in far too long to mention.

It also gave us chance to go shopping for our third compact camera of this trip. Our first one had a little accident in Belize. The replacement we bought in Houston turned out to have a mark in the lens, that is now on most of the photos we’ve taken with it. So now we have sent that back, and have bought camera no 3, that we are REALLY hoping will at least do us the next 6 weeks!

G managed a full 2 days work without any sign of man flu, we joined 2 more players clubs for the free slot play, and walked away $50 richer, half of which G lost on blackjack... We’re still a couple of nights at a campsite richer though!

H: LakeTahoe and Washoe Lake
Miles driven so far: 4,113
No of beds/camps so far: 15/12
Inches of Lake Tahoe shoreline not ruined by trees: 5”

Since living in NZ we have become pretty spoilt when it comes to lakes, and so weren’t all that impressed with Lake Tahoe. It’s too busy and commercialised, and half the time you can’t see the lake for the trees.

We did however manage to find a free campsite in the woods which was a bonus, but the views were rubbish (due to those horrible big trees again ). We woke up to rain, and all the walks we wanted to do were either too snowy or too muddy.

So we gave it all up as a bad job and drove to Lake Washoe, a tiny lake just north east of Tahoe, that scored high on the lake criteria. It was big and open, no tress to ruin the views, and surrounded by mountains and scrub hills. Plus it was really sunny and hot, the first time I’ve felt really warm in days. We celebrated with half a bar of English Cadburys... We’ve still got 1 left, but am going to need a lot more to survive 6 weeks of arctic conditions...

H: Miles driven so far: 3,792
No of beds/camps so far: 15/10
Miles walked in the last 4 days: 22

Proof that the moaning option works – I got to camp at 5,000ft for the next two nights which was bliss. And I managed to prove to G that camping low doesn’t mean bad views - this is one of the prettiest campsites yet, with 360° views of the mountains and valleys around. I still needed my Michelin Man outfit to stay warm in the evenings, but managed to get very snug in my sleeping bag with only 1 layer on.

Plus the sun was out all day today and we did a beautiful walk past lots of lakes to a pass where it was warm enough to stay at the top for lunch before freezing again... Life is good :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 3,739
No of beds/camps so far: 15/9
No layers that failed to keep me warm: 4+blanket

Having only just survived the temperatures at 6,200ft, tonight we camped at 8,100ft. I had managed to convince G to let me buy a duvet, but having not been able to find one we can afford, I had to settle with what my sisters call a Granny Blanket which cost a whole $10. I had told G I didn’t think it would help that much at this altitude but he keeps saying it’s all in my mind.

The weather was bad, so by mid afternoon when we got to the campsite, the sun was long gone and it was already freezing. So I put on my normal cold weather clothes (4 tops, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, leg warmers, hat and gloves), and was still freezing (and now feeling like the Michelin Man).

We managed to get a strategically placed campsite on a hill with mountains all around us, and no other tent or RV in sight. But then this big horrible beige RV arrived and drove round looking for a space. We might have been a bit mean and put some music on – not too loud, but hopefully loud enough to make them think that they should go at least 2 spots away.

By 6 I was so cold the only option was to get into my sleeping bag and try and keep warm that way. I opened a packet of hand-warmers at 9 which I’d been saving for emergencies – and this was one of them. Then I tried to get some sleep. I’d like to point out that G is snug in bed and feeling pretty toasty at this point. I am moaning as much as I can so he realises that these temperatures and H don’t go together too well.

At midnight we get our radio-playing comeuppance. Two sites worth of plebs arrive, set up camp a few sites down, and spent the next 2 hours sitting round a campfire with their music playing VERY loud. Which made sleep impossible, and therefore made me realise even more how cold I was. And it was definitely too cold to get out of bed and ask them to shut up!

Once the sun was up (but still hidden by clouds), we ventured out of the tent for a walk. In the snow. Bring back the desert!

I hope that no-one reading this is ever made to camp in these horrible cold conditions. But if you are, here are some tips I’ve read about.

Firstly is to not go to bed cold (pretty hard not to when the sun doesn’t show itself all day). Never put cold clothes or gloves on – warm them up first (also hard if there’s nowhere warm to warm them up).

Sleep on as much padding as possible, to stop the cold coming up from the ground. Then put a jumper (that’s if you’re not wearing them all) under your feet, which are the bits that get coldest. Also pad your sleeping bag full of clothes to fill the gaps in the bag.

Keep some chocolate by your bed to eat when you get cold as this makes your body warm up (this tip I would love if we weren’t in the US where you can’t buy chocolate worth eating).

The best advice I can give you however is to moan as much as you possibly can so you’re not made to be that cold again.

G: After the city buzz of Vegas we're now back in the wild. This time in the Sierra Nevada mountains (confusingly in California, not Nevada). Yet more incredible scenery. This is a truly stunning range of mountains. To the North is Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. To the South is Mt Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 States. In between lies the John Muir Wilderness area. Its a huge mash-up of granite peaks, steep valleys and beautiful lakes. We haven't even hit the tourist hot spots of Yosemite and Lake Tahoe yet, but we are finding amazing views, camping and hiking at every turn.

Two days ago we hiked up to the Kearsarge Pass. At nearly 12,000ft it enjoys some awesome views over an area called the John Muir wilderness, but you have to work for your sights. 5 miles continuously rising hitting more and more snow as we climbed into thinner and thinner air.But it was well worth it at the top. A breathtaking view and a gorgeous lunch spot awaited.

Now we're camping at Bishop Creek, a little higher than last night's camp site... and don't I know it. Heather, bless her, can be a little susceptible to the colder weather. Actually that's a slight understatement - she would probably feel cold in the Sahara! We did try to find a duvet to make the camping in the mountains a little more comfortable, but had to settle for a $10 fleece blanket in the end. Perhaps this will be the placebo she needs to realise the coldness is all in her mind!

Unfortunately we didn't get the best of weather at the campsite. No sun in sight and Heather was feeling cold by 4pm. So with most of the clothes she owned safely on her she set about keeping warm. It didn't seem to work. By 6pm she was into her sleeping bag trying to get warmed up. By 9 pm, I was still hearing "I'm cold" every other sentence so I heroically dug out the hand warmers we'd been saving for such an emergency. It worked for a while, and maybe would have done the trick if we hadn't been woken late at night by music from a neighbouring camp.

Somehow, by some miracle, Heather made it through the night. Amazing I know. She's such a trooper!

Hopefully no one reading this will ever have to endure such endless moaning and whining, but in case you do, here are some tips...

Firstly, ear muffs, not to keep her warm, but for your ears. They won't block out all the noise, but you might get a few extra bits of sleep.

Secondly, food, particularly chocolate. Keep her occupied with something she really loves. It won't make her any warmer, but will give you a chance to slip away for a few minutes peace and quiet.

Unfortunately, the best advice I can give you is to give in. Take her back down to a sensible altitude and you might just get a peaceful nights sleep!

H: Miles driven so far: 3,633
No of beds/camps so far: 15/8
Gain in elevation on yesterday’s campsite: 6,500ft (nearly 2,000m)

From the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere, we headed straight into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. We headed first up Independence Creek, and for the sake of a stunning view, I allowed G to persuade me out of the campsite at a warm 4,000ft, for one at 6,200ft with stunning views all around, of the mountains behind and the valley in front, but with pretty cold temperatures at night. I survived – but only just.

We walked the next day to Kearsage pass. Yesterday we were dealing with sub sea level temperatures and coyotes. Today we’re dealing with high altitude and bears. Our walk today went up to nearly 12,000ft (4,000m) and we were both staring to feel the effects by the time we reached the pass. We also were pretty aware for bears, which we have heard will follow you all day, until you camp at night and then they try and get your food. Fortunately we were just walking for the day, and all our food and toiletries were safely in bear bins. It seems that the bears down here are a bit more eager for your food than the ones up North. When we were in Yellowstone we just had to make sure everything that smelt was either in a bear bin or in the car. Here it says it all must be in bear bins, because the bears will break into a car if they can smell something they fancy...

11miles and an ascent and descent of 3,000ft later, we were feeling pretty virtuous as we arrived back at our car. Which is when a couple of guys caught us up who looked completely knackered. They said they had had a 10mile detour when they got lost and really needed to get back into town. We said we’d take them and on our way back down into town, it turned out that not only had they had a long days walk today... they actually had had a long days walk for the past 6 weeks.

They were doing the PCT (the Pacific Crest Trail). A 2,900 mile walk stretching the length of the US, from the Mexican to the Canadian border. It normally takes about 5-6 months, doing about 20 miles a day. Whenever there is a road intersection with the trail, they hitchhike to the nearest town to shower and stock up on food. The bit where we met them however, is a 250 mile stretch without a road intersection. So to add insult to injury, they have to hike a long way off the trail, over a pass and then hitchhike into town, where they’ll spend a couple of days recharging, and then do it all in reverse to rejoin the trail.

We didn’t feel quite so tough after that. But we both did wonder whether maybe it was something we should try. I quickly changed my mind when I heard it was 20 miles a day, and when I felt the weight of one of their packs. And when I realised how cold they must be at night up in the mountains. G however is still talking about it...

H: Miles driven so far: 3,405
No of beds/camps so far: 15/7
Altitude of Furnace Creek Campsite: 186 ft below sea level

Death Valley is one of the few dry places in the world that is below sea level. It is the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere, with a low point at 252 ft below sea level. Which means it’s very very hot! Having struggled to get camp spot at a lot of places this trip, we were surprised (and very pleased) to find the 100+ site National Park campsite nearly empty.

The day we spent in the valley was definitely hot, but nowhere near as hot as it could have been. With the average temperature for June somewhere around 40°c, the lady at the visitors centre told us they were having a cold spell, with temperatures in the early 30’s.

The temperature at night was perfect (for me, not for G). It was finally warm enough to not have to put jumpers on in the evening, and could even sleep on rather than in our sleeping bags. Perfect :o) The only not quite so perfect thing was seeing a couple of coyote’s in the day by our campsite, and hearing a pack of them howl not too far away in the night...

H: Miles driven so far: 3,209
No of beds/camps so far: 15/6
Time to win $47 at a lemmings slot machine with free credit: 18 seconds

Vegas is great. For many reasons, but most importantly because we finally saw a Hawaii number plate. Well, actually we saw a few of them.
We have discovered that number plates work in the same way as buses do. We don’t see the ones we want for days, and then suddenly we see loads of the same one. I was out doing my chores and saw a car with a Hawaii number plate. It was a very very exciting moment which quickly turned into a moment of despair when I thought that I didn’t have a camera with me. I even went into a store to buy a disposable one but couldn’t justify the cost (even for a Hawaii plate). As I despondently left the store I wondered about driving back to our hotel to get ours when I saw the owners get into the car. Fortunately in a flash of inspiration I remembered where the little camera might be, found it, stopped the car from leaving and begged for a picture. They looked confused but said fine (actually the guy looked confused; he was probably doing a G and taking an eternity to process my request. Fortunately his girlfriend understood and laughed). I think actually my returning to the hotel with the picture might have played a big role in Gs getting better (will explain in a minute). But then over the next day we saw another 3 Hawaii cars. How does that work?! We still have 2 to get though, Dellaware and West Virginia...

Having been a month short of 21 the first time I came here and therefore not even allowed to stop and watch people gambling, I made up for it this time. We joined our casino’s players club and got $5 each of free slot credit. Having never played slots before I chose the cutest machine I could find (a lemmings one). Greg played his $5 and lost it fast. I played mine and within seconds lights were flickering, lemmings were flying across the screen and G was jumping up and down saying I was winning. Given I was pressing the buttons at random I think I was pretty lucky – I won a whole $47 :o) I followed this up with another free $5 credit and won $7. I tried a couple of real dollars in the $11m and $200k machine but my luck didn’t hold. In the meantime G gambled a significant portion of our luxury budget (which to be fair is pretty small anyway) on craps and poker and lost. He did win some back at blackjack however...

And then he got sick again. £150 at the doctors later and he’s in bed shivering, but with a fever and full on muscle aches. There was talk of malaria but actually they think it’s just a bug he hasn’t been able to get rid of. You’ll be pleased to know they tested him for flu again and this time he doesn’t have it - of any variety. So that kind of ruined his chance to work, but also kept him away from the casino tables so maybe it wasn’t all bad.

We did get some time to walk the strip though, and plenty of time to watch the lovely Bellagio fountains and the eruption at the Mirage. It must be one of the busiest, and the best places to walk the streets, especially at night; there’s so much to see and so many awesome buildings and lights. It’s definitely a city that doesn’t sleep. It has got its seedy sides (and pretty bad ones at that), but it’s easy enough to look past them if you want to.

We celebrated the start of Gs recovery with tickets to Le Reve at the Wynn, a Cirque de Soleil type show with a stage of water. I arrived at the casino in style, with blood gushing down both legs, and skin missing from my knees in the shape of metal grates. I’d run (thinking I was late) to get to the theatre and meet G, after watching another fountains and slipped. Some kind man did stop to help me, but this being Vegas and all then asked what I was doing later. Time for a quick exit - I then had to run the rest of the way before my feet and the sidewalk were covered in blood, avoiding everyone’s eyes in case they saw my knees and wondered why I wasn’t doing anything about them.

All patched up, we go into the theatre. The theatre is round, with a stage of water in the middle. Within seconds of it starting, it had been worth every cent and more of our ticket price. I’m not sure I can explain how amazing it was. The music was loud and powerful, the fake roof is ripped away, a lady on a bed in the middle is submerged, it’s raining over the stage and there are people everywhere; in the water, around the theatre seats and on wires in the air. The next 80 minutes flew by with dancers, acrobats, synchronised swimmers, divers, comedy and a brilliant soundtrack. The stage was constantly changing; to be deep enough for someone to be dropped in 20m from the top of the theatre and then shallow enough for them to walk on. Completely breathtaking, and well worth a detour to for anyone who happens to be in the USA (if not this continent).

G: Talk about contrast! 2 days ago we were camping at 8000ft on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, one of the world's largest and most remarkable natural wonders. Fast forward a days journey through Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Zion National Park and we find ourselves in the world's most surreal man-made desert oasis - Las Vegas, Nevada.

This place has to be seen to be believed. The 1/3 size replica Eiffel Tower outside Paris, the indoor canals and sky coloured ceiling in the Venetian, the Bellagio fountains and Skyscrapers that make up New York New York... its all incredibly elaborate and showy architecture... built using the millions of dollars that are taken in gambling revenue everyday here.

But its not all about the big winners (and losers). Heather's face was a picture when she won nearly $50 with her free $5 slots play at the casino we stayed at. She was almost too concerned that the machine was making too much noise to realise she was winning! But when I pointed out the number of dollars just counting upwards you'd think someone had just given her a lifetime supply of Cadbury's - she was so happy. And for "just" $50. Walking the floors of the casinos you see people losing 10 times that on one spin of a roulette wheel, or one turn of a blackjack card... scarily rich and/or stupid people hang out here... some get stuck - they say most of Vega's permanent resident's were once tourists here who never quite managed to leave. We can understand that, we only planned three nights, but stayed 5 in the end!

Last time I was here, 9 years ago now, I got lucky. I left with more money than I arrived with. I wasn't expecting the same to happen again... good job, I managed to lose $50 and then $60 at two different craps tables within about 30 minutes at each... not good value. I had slightly more success at the Blackjack, making about $40 in total, but then spent most of that entering a poker tournament I couldn't really afford to play in. Not a good move. I sat in the corner like a scared rabbit, not pushing all in on the two occasions I should have, and then limping out feebly, beaten by a better pair. Mental note - take some guts with me next time I play with the big boys!

With my hard fought gambling budget nearly gone - it wasn't easy to get, but then H is an accountant - I put the rest of it, along with Heather's winnings into the pot to go and see Le Reve at the Wynn Casino. We'd heard great things about it and were pretty excited to see a real Vegas show. If the buildings were anything to go by, the acrobatics had to be good. H's addiction to the Bellagio fountains meant we decided to meet at the show. I arrived first, and knew Heather was going to be cutting it slightly fine to get to the show on time following the fountain display. I had visions of some calamity, perhaps she'd lose her ticket en route, or maybe just be a few minutes late and miss the start... to my surprise, a good 15 minutes before curtain up I saw her walking towards me - great, no calamity. But no, wait, she doesn't look too happy - oh dear, perhaps her ticket is missing after all. Nope, not that, as I see her look down to her knees I see the problem... she really did "cut" it fine! She'd decided to do some of her own acrobatics on the way - she just couldn't wait for the show - and had a slight mishap with an escalator whilst presumably performing some sort of cartwheel or back flip.

With Heather all patched up by the very helpful lady at the box office we still made the show on time. And what a show. It was pretty sensational. The opening sequence was enough to blow anyone away. The stage is made of water, with sections that can be lowered and raised to make the water deeper. Within minutes of the start there were people swimming and diving all over. Couple that with the ceiling being ripped away, rain falling from above and an awesome soundtrack and you have yourselves a Vegas show! 90 minutes later, although it seemed like only a few moments, the final curtain fell and we'd both witnessed one of the highlights of the trip!

H: Miles driven so far: 3,209
No of beds/camps so far: 14/6
Combined total of red, white and coral pink grains of sand now in car: 14,456,943

Given the change in time zones, we’re now waking obscenely early. Sunrise is at 5.15 so I’m now not being allowed to sleep much past 6. Today was no exception, we’d had breakfast and packed up the tent and were on our way by 7...

Which meant we had plenty of time to stop at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and then Zion NP in Utah on our way over to Sin City... We drove miles through really stunning desert scenery and the thought of being cold at the Grand Canyon is long forgotten – it’s absolutely boiling now. Nevada is the only state where gambling is allowed state wide and they certainly make the most of it – there’s a casino right on the State Border with Arizona.

We have either come at a great time or have got very lucky – we have got a very swanky room in a big casino a block off the middle of the strip for a whole $30 a night (only $5 more than the horrible commercial RV park we stayed on in Moab). We are going to make the most of it and stay a few nights, which I know is dangerous with G’s penchant for poker, but it means we can get some washing done, enjoy daily showers for a while and so G can earn us a bit more money for the rest of the trip (from programming not poker unless he gets very lucky).

H: Miles driven so far: 2,833
No of beds/camps so far: 14/6
No hours it takes G to get a fire started: 2.9

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Last night we were camping in the red desert. Tonight we are camping at nearly 3000m on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and it’s absolutely freezing. I’m wearing nearly everything I own again and am still shivering. I am now thinking we should rethink our route to spend longer in the desert and not much time in Canada...

We had to pay a full $17 for a campsite – nearly 3 times what we paid last night. The extra $11 has paid for some very un-welcome things: a roof on the toilet, next door neighbours and noise from the road next to it. We want to slum it again soon... We consoled ourselves with making our own s’mores (once G finally got a fire going). G stuck to Hersheys but I tried it out with a Crunch bar instead – we're going to get fat...

Time zones have been causing us a bit of confusion. There are four main time zones in America. We have been in Utah and today crossed into Arizona, which is in the same time zone (Mountain Time). However Arizona is the only state in this time zone that doesn’t recognise daylight saving. So actually it’s in the same time zone as Nevada and California at the moment (Pacific Time). However, that doesn’t hold true if you’re in Apache land in Arizona, because they do recognise daylight saving. Confused? So were we. Fortunately we have little need to know the time at all at the moment so it doesn’t really matter :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 2,575
No of beds/camps so far: 14/5
Distance a man can run in flip flops: 3.5m

By 6 this morning , G was up and on the rock watching the sunrise. By 6.30 he was packing up the tent, with me still in it. If the noise hadn’t woken me, the extra light let in from the removal of the fly sheet did. I am thinking of mixing sleeping tablets into his drink at tea times.

Having crawled out of the tent before I was rolled up with it, we headed South towards the Grand Canyon via Monument Valley, a Navajo reservation of iconic buttes, mesas and rock formations. The area has been used in heaps of films, from John Wayne westerners to Vertical Limit and Mission Impossible.

The road leading away from Monument Valley was used in Forrest Gump where he runs across America. G tried to re-enact this and didn’t have to put on a limp. After waiting for the road to be clear enough of cars so he could run on it, he very tripped out/over his flip flop, meaning the limp was very real!

G: By 6 this morning I was up on the rock watching sunrise and finishing off my summary blog (see below). By 6.30 I was packing up the tent with Heather still in it. After several polite attempts to wake her, and knowing we had a long journey ahead, I was left with little choice but to remove the fly sheet and force her out of bed. I am thinking of mixing caffeine into her drink so she doesn’t need to sleep so much.

Having eventually got Heather out of bed and awake, we started the long trip South to Grand Canyon. Our route took us straight through Monument Valley, an other-worldly landscape of red sand and rock formations on the border of Utah and Arizona (although it feels more like Mars).

The road leading away from Momument Valley was used in Forrest Gump in one of the scenes when he runs across America (several times if I remember correctly). After much cajoling from H, I begrudgingly agreed to re-enact Tom Hanks’ Monument Valley moment. A word of advice... never run in flip flops!

G: Wow, this trip is already 7 weeks old, careering towards the half way point, and I haven’t blogged since before we left. I thought I'd my side of the story to Heather's very dedicated blogging... so much has happened since we set off, that I don’t even know where to start. How about the beginning?

Central America already seems like such a distant memory... those were the days, when we were young and swine flu wasn’t even invented yet!

We spent most of the first two weeks of the trip following in the footsteps of the Mayans. We saw 7 different Mayan sites in all: Ek Balam, Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum in Mexico; Lamani in Belize; Tikal in Guatemala; and finally Palenque back in Mexico. All impressive in some way, but Tikal was by far my favourite. The Mayan temples there tower above the jungle and are steep enough to cause a little dizziness from the top... especially when you climb one only to get caught in a tropical down pour, huddled under an umbrella, and clinging to the walls at the top. Lamani was also amazing for me. Our guide Wilfred was part archaeologist and part tour guide. He spoke English with a European tilt and carried a briefcase with him as he showed us through the ruins and the jungle... quite surreal at times!

Part way through the Mayan adventure we took a little time out to catch some rays (both sun and sting varieties) as we chilled out in the laid back island of Caye Caulker off the coast of Belize. Neither of us realized before arriving that Mexico, Belize and Honduras can boast the World’s second largest reef (they are all quick to point out that it is the Northern Hemisphere’s largest). We hooked up with a snorkel tour and spent a few hours exploring the reef, including a stop at “Shark and Ray Alley” where the local fisherman clean their catch on the way back to shore... the sharks, rays and turtles discovered this some time ago and now just hang out there waiting for the fishermen to appear. What they make of all the other boats turning up and throwing large mask and fin clad tourists into the water I’m not sure, but they seemed happy enough to ignore us and wait for feeing time. The sharks are of the harmless variety, although the sting rays... well I think we both assumed they would be different to those that accounted for Steven Irwin, but we now know that they weren’t. Ignorance was bliss!

After Belize it was on to Guatemala. We spent a few days in Flores to see Tikal and then headed back to Mexico to start moving north towards the USA. What should have been a straightforward bus from Flores to Palenque became more interesting just after my passport was stamped out of Guatemala. As I waited for Heather outside the roadside shack in the middle of nowhere (this type of border crossing has somehow become part of our normal existence these days) I began to wonder where she was. I poked my head back into the shack to find the “official” thumbing through her passport repeatedly. Uh oh. A few days earlier we had crossed into Guatemala from Belize and had made the mistake of only going to the Belize side of the border crossing. As we know full well, land border crossings usually consist of two parts, the exit of one country and the entry to the other country – separated by a no-mans land where you can buy snacks, t-shirts and souvenirs or change money at laughably bad rates. Somehow, after exiting Belize – and I blame this on Heather needing the toilet (as usual) and the fact that we were the last people from our bus to come through (because Heather had needed the toilet as we got off the bus) and thought the bus might leave. Fast forward to trying to leave Guatemala and as I head back into the roadside shack I head “you are basically illegal in Guatemala”. Oh dear, this is not good. Technically I was illegal too, but the border official that stamped me out was a little less thorough. So what should I do now? Run? Hide? Pull out as many US dollars as I can find? Fortunately, this being Latin America, the border official is corrupt enough not to need offering a bribe, he just asks for one. “You really have to go back to Guatemala City to sort this out”. “But maybe we could sort it out for you”. “If we sort it out it will cost you more”. Yadder yadder... luckily just $30 later we were back on the bus and safely out of Guatemala, the stupid man was so busy collecting a bribe from Heather he didn’t even think to re-check my passport as I stood next to her helping her out.

From there we went on to Palenque our final Mayan ruin and then on to San Cristobal, a very pretty little town in the mountains of southern Mexico, with lots of pastel coloured buildings and paved streets rolling up and down the hills. Not that we had much chance to enjoy it... within a few hours of being there, and having seen a few people oddly wearing masks we started to catch wind of the swine flu outbreak... having read the news on the internet a few times, and scared ourselves with talk of border closures, we decided to take no chances and cut short the rest of our Mexico trip and head for the safety of the US ASAP. 48 hours later, having spent a night on a bus, 24 hours in self imposed quarantine in Villheramosa and a few hours on a plane we landed at Houston airport to surprisingly no health checks at all. Within a few hours we were safe and sound in America’s Best Value Inn about 15 miles from downtown Houston the edge of the North West Freeway. Not the most picturesque setting, but with little public transport to speak of, and no rental car it was the best we could manage.

I spent the next two weeks working on bingo. The whole thing actually didn’t work out too badly for us. We’d always planned that I would have to work on this trip, both for money and because the bingo project needs to keep moving along towards its August release date. This way, at least I could do most of the work I needed to before we got hold of our rental car and without too many distractions. The biggest downside was that Heather had to spend a lot of time watching chick flicks on HBO, which in turn meant I had to spend a lot of time listening to her tell me how bad they were!

Two weeks later, having just about avoided going stir crazy in the motel room, we caught a bus into downtown Houston, picked up our Chevy Trailblazer, and headed out of Houston. At last!

After a short stop at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston we headed north to Dallas Fort Worth to hook up with some friends we made three years ago when we volunteered in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. After a few days there, doing a bit more work and relaxing with some old friends we finally hit the road proper. We topped up the Trailblazer with a tent, rollmats, camping chairs and a few kitchen essentials and then hit the Interstate west bound for New Mexico. Finally our American Adventure was underway.

Since then, the trip has been a non-stop rollercoaster of tent based disasters and awe inspiring scenery. The highs are completely and utterly out weighing the minor catastrophes!

The American West is an incredible place. The roads are long and straight, the distances are huge but the driving is anything but dull. So far we have spent two separate days driving for 12 hours through the deserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah; first to get from Dallas to White Sands, and then from White Sands to Moab. You’d think it might be a little mind numbing or slightly gruelling, but I can assure you it’s not... Firstly, the scenery is stunning. The large open expanses of rolling scrub land or desert and the sharp edge of red stone cliffs carved out by wind and water are all very easy on the eye. And secondly, Heather has devised the most complicated state number plate spotting game known to man... mark the sheet with an “S” for seeing a number plate and a “P” for getting a photo of it – that sounds simple doesn’t it? Sure, until you bring in “P” in pencil for “got a photo but need a better one” and there’s also a “P” in pencil with a little line through it – I’m not sure what that is for... and don’t forget P with a question mark, again not sure on that one yet. I can only assume it’s along the lines of “got a photo but not during a full moon”.

Anyway, back to the scenery... check out the galleries below for some photos of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico – some uber cool white sand dunes that are great for running off the edge of and giant-striding down the slopes. Then it was onto Canyonlands National Park – Island In The Sky District followed by Arches National Park before arriving where I sit right now...
This is definitely one of the coolest places I’ve ever camped. Hamburger Rock Campground, just outside Canyonlands National Park – Needles District. All I can see for miles in every direction is open expanses of desert. Not your typical sand dune desert, more like Australian desert with red rocks jutting up all over the place and short scrub bushes growing in the red dust. Hamburger Rock is a small outcrop of rocks, with a few basic camping spots scattered around the base. The only luxury is the pit toilet, complete with throne to sit on, and surrounded by a high fence. Yep, that’s right, no roof. You can actually sit on the toilet and look up to the stars. Toilets don’t get better than that!

Well that was one monolithic catch up... anyone who has read this far deserves a medal. Applications to me by e-mail, there will be a test to prove you’ve read it! From here on in, I’ll try to keep the blogs more frequent and slightly shorter.

The sun is up now, so its time to go and wake Heather, take the tent down (probably in that order) and point the Trailblazer in the direction of Grand Canyon...

H: Miles driven so far: 2,364
No of beds/camps so far: 14/5
No days without a shower: 3.5

I slept for 7 hours straight last night – the longest I’ve slept for in one go (I don’t know why my sleep’s been so bad). It looks like knackering myself out by walking is the way to go.

We have been waking up with the daylight – lie-ins aren’t so easy in a tent. G gets up to watch sunrise and lets me try and get a valuable extra hours snooze in. But by 7 I’m normally being bullied to get up.

I got up this morning and it was clear straight away that the soles of my feet still hadn’t gotten over yesterday. The lady at the visitors centre had kept telling us that there was world class walking here. It turns out that “world class” means that walks are either well over 10 miles, or less than 2. So today meant another 11 mile walk and my poor feet were made to set off again through the desert; again over, under and up rocks, with the added bonus of miles of sand.

It was really beautiful again though. The walk took us through the desert and canyons, to a big green expanse, surrounded by steep red rock formations. It was worth the feet ache.

H: Miles driven so far: 2,331
No of beds/camps so far: 14/5
No hours a cheese and ham sandwich remains edible in desert heat squished in a backpack: < 4

It’s time to put our feet into good use. Today we walked up and over what seemed like 5 huge canyons to an outlook, looking over the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers. It’s not clear on the photos but you can see a slight difference in water colours where the two rivers join. It was an 11 mile walk all in, and by the end our feet and muscles were complaining. I’d even been kind to mine and worn flip flops but they still thought it was a few miles too long. We’ve not walked 11 miles in a long time, and certainly not in the desert and under the heat of the desert sun.

H: Miles driven so far: 2,303
No of beds/camps so far: 14/5
Combined total of red and white grains of sand now in car: 10,578,476

We went back to the visitors centre in Moab to ask about campsites in the Needles area of Canyonlands, where we were heading to next. Unfortunately G got to speak to the same negative woman we had spoken to when asking about camping spots at Island in the Sky a few days earlier. This time, she said there were only 2 campsites in Needles we should go to. Greg had found another one on the map and when he asked whether we could use this one she said she wouldn’t advise that. G asked “from what point of view”, to which she replied “from every point of view”.

Given her previous bad advice we took this to mean it was probably a very great campsite and set off for it. We turned off the main road, and 6 miles later down a red dirt road, we arrived at the $6 a night campsite. It’s beautiful and so remote - set right in the middle of the red desert, with 10 “sites” (picnic bench and fire grate) based around a massive rock. There’s no water, and hardly a toilet (there’s a loo with wooden walls round it but no roof) and more importantly, it’s incredibly peaceful with hardly anyone else here. It’s perfect. There are red buttes in the distance and we’ve had stunning sunsets every night. The only downside is the amount of red sand that is getting blown into our tent!

H: Miles driven so far: 2,135
No of beds/camps so far: 14/4
No people of disturbed by midnight screaming incident: Unknown

We got up at 5 this morning so we could go see sunrise at Mesa Arch, which we’ve heard can be beautiful. I’m sure it would have been if it weren’t for the 15 paparazzi photographers standing inches in front of the arch waiting for the perfect shot.

However it did mean we could be at the visitors centre by 7, to queue up for a site at the very popular Devils Garden campground in Arches NP. Luckily we were 9th in the queue and there were 11 sites, so after treating ourselves to our first shower in 3 days and doing some laundry, we headed up into the park.

The campsite is beautiful, completely surrounded by red slickrock. Then the daily thunderstorm came through which ruined our plans for tea – gas stoves and rain don’t mix. This meant we had to have a sandwhich, and I had some cheese in mine. Which I’m hoping is the only reason why in the middle of the night I dreamt that we were in our tent and a jeep was about to drive into it. The next thing I knew G was sounding pretty panicked, and telling me to calm down and be quiet, and asking what on earth was wrong. Apparently I’d screamed in my sleep pretty loudly and I have no idea how many people I managed to wake up, but we left the next morning before we could find out!

After we each graduated, G and I both went on similar trips around South Western US. That was 9 years ago for G and 7 for me. Arches NP is the first place that we are re-visiting from that trip. We had both loved it then and it didn’t disappoint this time around, especially Delicate Arch, a massive natural arch perched on the side of a steep cliff.

H: Miles driven so far: 2,092
No of beds/camps so far: 14/3
Number plates we needed seen today: 5

We are pleased to tell you that our new tent survived both wind and rain last night and didn’t let a drop of water in. It did however let a wee bit of sand in, as there are ventilation meshes near the bottom and we were camping on sand. Never mind, a gritty bed is better than a soggy one!

We are staying at Island in the Sky, in the northern part of Canyonlands. It’s very pretty and contrary to what the lady in the visitors centre said, there’s lots of very good walking. We managed 8 miles today, got 5 more number plates (have got about 40 now), marvelled at the couple opposite who are camping on a site with no running water with a 4 and a 2 year old, and a 3 ½ month baby, and ate “s’mores” with them round the campfire – graham crackers, toasted marshmallows and chocolate – very yummy but ruined slightly by the inferior quality of the chocolate (Hersheys not Cadburys).

H: Miles driven so far: 2,074
No of beds/camps so far: 14/3
No tents so far: 3

We spent the first couple of nights in Moab, on a horribly crowded campground where even though there was a row of tent sites free, a car pulled up and set up right on the site next to us (we are trying to collect the 50 states on number plates and they didn’t even redeem themselves by having a rare number plate). This means it’s time to move on and find a quiet campsite – we’d rather have a bit of space than showers!

So we set off to Canyonlands – but not before chasing a jeep with a Maryland number plate around town twice to try and get a picture. It’s serious stuff this number-plate thing – G ran into the road after it twice and we still missed it. We gave up and went to the supermarket and found it parked next to us when we came out :o)

It’s Memorial Day weekend this weekend so we knew a lot of the campgrounds would fill fast. The lady at the visitors centre said there was no way we’d get a site at either of the 2 campgrounds in the park itself (there’s only about 10 pitches at each), and there’s no proper hiking there anyway... We ignored her advice, drove into the park to the campsite and luckily had the choice of 3 sites. It’s really pretty and on the edge of the canyon. There’s a pit loo and no running water so we’ve got a few gallon bottles in our jeep and are just going to have to smell for a few days.

All is going very well until the late afternoon when the hot sun is suddenly covered by very black rain clouds. Within minutes there are gale-force winds and we hurriedly make sure our tent has lots of rocks inside so it doesn’t blow away. The tent over the way however isn’t doing so good – in fact it’s doing pretty badly. It’s pulled all but one of its pegs out of the ground, it’s not looking tent shaped anymore and is up on its end pulling at the remaining peg. We try to rescue it but one of the poles has snapped so we just put rocks on it to stop it blowing away. We feel very sorry for the people when they come back to see their tent collapsed...

Now the heavens have opened and the sky filled with lightening so we retreat to our car – apparently better to be in a car than in a tent in a thunderstorm on a cliff top! The rain stops long enough for us to have tea, and then we head to bed in a tent that we were feeling very proud of, given that it’s now stood up to two big wind storms.

We soon change our minds – apparently you get what you pay for with a tent, even one that claims in big letters to be “EverDry”. There’s water dripping in from nearly every seam possible and puddles around the sides. We empty our boot of everything waterproof to try and prop the edges away from the middle, and we snuggle in the middle dry bit and get some sleep.

Figuring that maybe the $30 tent wasn’t the way to go, we head back into town the next morning and have to spend 5 days budget on a new tent, this time with a fly sheet that covers more than the top few inches of the tent and even guy ropes. So now we can sleep easy, but eat nothing but dry bread until we pay back the tent splurge!

H: Miles driven so far: 1,871
No of beds/camps so far: 14/2
Hours craving Dairy Queen Blizzard with not a DQ in sight: 7.5

Today we spent another 14 hours in our car/home. Most of them on dead straight roads through the desert. We stopped at the monument at the corner of 4 states, the only place where 4 states meet. We’ve since heard that apparently they got the monument in the wrong place but never mind...

We’ve done 2 long days in the car now, but the scenery is so amazing it’s not yet getting boring...

H: Miles driven so far: 1,220
No of beds/camps so far: 14/1
Grains of sand in car: 5,467,213

Having been back to White Sands to watch a very pretty sunset, we got back to our campsite in the dark to find very strong winds and the front of our tent completely flattened with the wind.

Not good, there are no guy ropes, the pegs don't go far in to the ground because the ground's too hard and I don't think our $30 has paid for poles that will take much more than a gentle breeze. Fortunately G had put rocks inside the tent before we’d gone out - just in case.

We took the poles out, left boxes and rocks on the flat tent so it didn't fly away, and went round the campsite trying to find a more sheltered spot. We did find one with a concrete shelter and reckon this must be better than our open site.

So while holding on to the tent very tightly, we unpegged it and bundled it (with our sleeping bags and mats still inside) into the boot of the car and drove round to the new spot. The tent just about fit in the shelter, but even with the car and the walls now shielding 3 of the 4 sides, it's still getting blown about pretty badly.

Fortunately we’d just bought some string to make our own guy ropes with. So we fixed this to the poles, wrapped it round the wall and emptied most of our boot into the tent to hold the corners down. Other than this there’s nothing more we can do!

Sleep was pretty hard because of the noise of the wind - we both managed about 4 hours before the sun came up and we packed up and headed off for another 12 hour drive through the desert :o)

H: Miles driven so far: 1,167
No of beds/camps so far: 14/1
No of inches of available space in jeep: 0 (still room for more sand though!)


We’re broke our feet in to hiking again gently today with a 4 mile walk up and into a really pretty canyon... It’s really really good to be in the countryside and walking again. We have heard too much highway noise recently!

H: Miles driven so far: 1,124
No of beds/camps so far: 14/1
Grains of sand in car: 3,056,752

Wow! White Sands National Monument is a bizarre area of white gypsum, blown into vast white sand dunes in the middle of the desert! It’s quite other-worldly, knackering on the legs but very fun to walk/run/jump through!

H: Miles driven so far: 1,081
No of beds/camps so far: 14/1
No tents so far: 2

First stop - New Mexico.

We knew we had a long drive today but had assumed once we got there setting up camp would be easy. After 12 hours on the road, we arrived within 5 miles of our campground. It then took us about 25 miles and 40 minutes in the dark to actually find the turn off to the ground.

The campground looks lovely, and apart from hoping our Wal Mart tent is easy to put up (considering it's already dark), everything seems good.

That was until we got the tent out. We opened it out and it just kept on unrolling. It's massive, and a second look at the tent bag showed it could sleep 6. Why were we so focussed on getting a tent we could stand up in? It was far too big, and given we got one of the cheapest we could find, we figured it wouldn't stand up to much wind.

So without much discussion, we jumped back in the car and drove the half hour back to the nearest Wal Mart where we exchanged it for a smaller (and even cheaper) one and headed back on our way. Fortunately it was very simple to put up (there's no fancy technology for such a cheap tent) and by midnight, 14 1/2 hours after setting off, we were snug in bed (well, trying to get comfy on our $10 rollmats).

H: Finally we are on the open road :o) Life is good.

H: Miles driven so far: 419
No of beds so far: 14
No of dogs H can fit on her knee at one time: 2.5

Before starting our road trip proper, we headed to Fort Worth to meet up with some friends that we met when we volunteered in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina 3 years ago.

It was really really great to see so many of the group again and thanks very much to Lori and her fab 3 dogs for letting us stay :o)

After a big shop at Wal Mart for the cheapest tents and camping gear we can find, we’re about ready to hit the road.

H: Miles driven so far: 100
No of beds so far: 13
Weeks living at the side of a freeway: 2

After a week in quarantine when we couldn’t go out at all, and then another week where our adventures were limited to the movies and Wal Mart (because we were stuck on the edge of a freeway without a car), we were really pleased to finally pick up our car and leave Houston.

But we didn’t leave before visiting the Johnson Space Centre, a really interesting place where they take you through the actual NASA buildings, and show you the old mission control room. They had just launched a shuttle the day so we were able to see a briefing and live footage from the shuttle.

H: Backgammon score: H 64 - 78 G
No of beds so far: 12
Dollars spent on combating swine flu: $1,079

Well it was nearly all fine.

We land at Houston and there’s absolutely no health checks, not even a questionnaire. I don’t understand this, it’s clearly spreading very fast and given they don’t know the dangers yet, surely it’s cheaper now to check people on entry than it is to let the disease in and try and fight it once it’s spreading in the country?

We meet another fine example of an anal US immigration guard. We are here 2 weeks earlier than planned. The visa limit is 90 days and they want to know we’ll leave before then. Our flight home is in 92 days. But we are going to go to Canada in the middle of the next 3 months so we won’t be in the US anywhere near our 90 days. But the officer kept asking how long we were in the US for. We first tried explaining what we were doing, that we didn’t have a date but were going to Canada for a bit and then flying out in 92 days time, and so on this entry to the US it would be well under 90 days. But he was on a big power trip and repeated the same Q over and over. In the end we just said 3 weeks. What’s the point in us giving a date when we really have no idea? If he’d been bothered to listen he would have understood what we were doing. Idiot.


The bus from the airport drops us in downtown and we join our first library of the trip (last time we were here we joined about 20 so we could use the internet) so we can let everyone know we’re out of Mexico and find some digs for the night. We take it in turns to go into the library as they won’t let our big bags in. The other waits outside with the bags while fending off the Houston loonies.


Finding somewhere to stay is not fun. Everything in town is expensive (even the Hilton car park costs $25 a night) and we need to find somewhere nice that we can afford to stay in for 2 weeks. We can’t pick our hire car up for 2 weeks but it’s all working out well because G will use the time to do some work to fund our next bit of the trip. In the end we have to hire a car for a day so we can drive out of town and find a motel. By now it’s pouring with rain, there are tornado warnings on the highways, the roads are flooded, we’re in rush hour and everyone seems to have taken their driving lessons in India or Asia.

We find somewhere, still above our budget, but it’s lovely. There’s space for G to work, internet and we feel in need of recouping somewhere! The rain is torrential and sideways. We put our key in the lock, open the door. And there’s a power cut. We eat takeaway pizza in the dark, and go to bed using candle-light. A good night’s sleep and the flu stress will be over.

It’s not. In the middle of the night G wakes up with diarrhoea and spends the next few hours on the toilet. He’s feeling really achy and has an awful fever. Having come from Mexico this is especially not good. We ring the swine flu hotline which says to get to the doctors in the morning.

So once G feels he can leave the loo long enough, we head out to the nearest clinic. We tell the receptionist the problem and she asks us to put masks on. There’s another guy there who is pretty annoyed; he went in with a problem with his neck, coughed and sneezed and is now also wearing a mask and told he needs a flu test.

The doctors say they can test for flu, and if that comes back positive then we have to have a culture taken for swine flu. This is fine by us. Two assistants bumble through a flu test for each of us (they did Gs twice cos they got the first one wrong). We both come out positive. I’m not surprised G did as he has a really high fever. But I just still have the sniffles. Still, we’d rather come out as positive than a false negative…

They leave us and we are fairly bemused to hear lots of conversations outside which implied they had no clue what to do with us next… In the end they came back to tell us they didn’t know where to send us for a swine flu test, but that they were going to treat it as swine flu. Sounds scary but actually we’re quite pleased with this. It means they’ll prescribe us the Tamiflu which is the meds that everyone’s using for this but is running out in the US. They’ve told us to quarantine ourselves from other people for 5 days.

£125 each at the pharmacy (I really hope we can claim this on insurance) and we’ve got the meds. We’ve bought enough food for a week and a laptop so G can work. We’re now self sufficient and can spend the next 5 days cooped up in what is fortunately a very nice motel room!

Our bed is the size of our whole room at Tulum. We’re sleeping like a couple very much in love; each right on opposite edges of the bed so we don’t pass any more germs between us :o)

I’m not sure yet whether we’ve been lucky or unlucky. We’re lucky that even if this is swine flu, that we’re not really that ill with it. However added on top of our food poisoning and Gs dengue fever from our last trip, we’re starting to wonder if we’re too old for this… I’m sure that feeling will pass once we get our jeep and start on our road-trip though!!

H: Backgammon score: H 63 - 77 G
No of beds so far: 11
No minutes spent in Villahermosa and not in the hotel room: 20


We have 24 hours to kill before our flight and want to keep away from everyone. Knowing we are going to be spending most of the day inside, we want a clean comfy hotel room. So we completely splurge and get a room 3 times our budget at a Best Western. We went to the supermarket as soon as it opened (so there wouldn’t be many people around), stocked up on food, and spent the next 20 hours in a nice clean hotel room that we couldn’t quite get cool enough. We watched trashy films, and played backgammon, although am going off this game. Either G has started cheating, or my cold is affecting my play…

We check the news and get regular updates from our families. We hear Mexico City has basically shut down, and airports receiving flights from Mexico are checking passengers and putting some in quarantine. I am more than happy with this, just so long as we’re not in Mexico anymore. We just don’t want the airports to close…

It’s not over yet though. Our flight is at 7. We want to be there early incase there’s extra security/health checks. We get there at 4.20 and the airport is closed. At 4.30 the gates open and we entered a completely deserted departure hall. There was no-one else there (I mean no one, not even staff) until well past 5!

Another hurdle… because we left Mexico and re-entered by land, we need to pay a departure tax. We should have paid it at a bank but we have left in such a rush we haven’t. I’m worrying that they won’t let us pay it at the airport and they won’t let us on our flight. I was worried for nothing; the girl checking us in says she doesn’t think we need to pay as have been back in the country for less than 5 days.

We go to immigration and a very grumpy man with charms rivaling those of US immigration sighs lots and looks through our papers 100 times. He mumbles something in Spanish about having to pay. Fine, we were expecting to anyway, and we went back to the girl at the check-in desk to pay her. But she says we don’t have to pay and goes to talk to the immigration guy again.

At this point we really don’t care about paying, we just want to get through security and on the flight! I’m still worried if they are asking Qs about flu symptoms I’m going to have to say I’ve got some, even though it’s just a cold, and they might not let me on…

She comes back, digs through her drawers, finds the paperwork she was looking for and marches back to see the immigration guy with us in tow. There’s also another immigration officer there this time, a much friendlier-looking lady. The 3 of them discuss it in Spanish, and the voices get louder and crosser, especially the grumpy guys. But that’s just cos he’s loosing. He grudgingly stamps our passports and we’re on our way.

We get on the plane and feel a big sense of relief. It’s all going to be fine :o)

H: Backgammon score: H 59 - 71 G
No of beds so far: 9
Hours enjoyed in San Cristóbal before the swine flu nightmare: 6

What should have been a few days in a beautiful little town in the hills, turned out to be a 24 hour nightmare!

After our first two nights in much-needed aircon in Palenque, I wake with a streaming cold. This coupled with 2 weeks of very broken sleep (no idea why), an 8 hour bus ride in sub-artic (air-con) conditions, San Christóbal being at slight altitude and I’m not in a good way. We take it easy for the afternoon, we’ve got a few days here so we’re not in any rush to see the sights. Or so we thought.

By tea time I still have a runny nose but am feeling less wobbly. We use the internet and see on the BBC there’s an outbreak of some sort of flu. We go to bed not too concerned.

I didn’t sleep overnight, my nose is still streaming and I’m a bit achy. Never mind, G caught something when we first got to Mexico, I’ve probably just got that and it’ll go in a few days.

We re-check the BBC and suddenly this swine flu is looking pretty serious. And it says look for signs of flu, including a runny nose and achiness…. We go out for a hot chocolate and cake to decide what to do. We know we can’t carry on with our planned route (via the beach and surfing in the Mexican Pipe Line, gutted) as it goes through the infected areas. We’re thinking maybe we should get to the US early. We start to see a few people wearing face masks.

We return to our hostel and read the news again. This time there’s not even a discussion – we want out of here, and fast. It’s spreading and there’s talk of shutting the borders.

We’re not near an airport, we’re 8 hours from the nearest one. There’s a direct flight to Houston leaving the next day, but the overnight bus won’t get us there in time. There are other flights leaving for the US the next day but they all connect through Mexico City which we really want to avoid. If they’re going to close any airport, Mexico City will be the first. The next direct flight we can catch is 2 days away. We’re so torn between wanting to get out fast and risking Mexico City, or waiting an extra day and risking the borders closing. We decide to wait for the direct flight.

We’re still assuming my runny nose is a horribly-timed cold. We’ve not been in any of the bad areas, and no outbreaks confirmed where we are.

We catch a fairly sleepless overnight bus to Villahermosa (the city with the nearest airport). We have bought some masks but don’t use them yet, we’re saving them for the airport. There’s no-one in masks at San Cristóbal, but lots of people in masks when we arrive at Villahermosa…

It’s hard to know whether we’re being too cautious. But this thing has changed so much in 24 hours and there’s no knowing what’s going to happen in the next 24. We’ll be happy once we’re on the plane.

H: Backgammon score: H 54 - 66 G
No of beds so far: 8
Mayan templos climbed so far: 10

Our last Mayan ruins of the trip and for me it was by far the best. The ruins are huge and impressive, and are backed by beautiful jungle-clad mountains. A must-see for anyone doing the Mayan rounds in the future!

H: Backgammon score: H 47 - 51 G
No of beds so far: 7
No of days illegally in Guatemala: 3

This was the first mishap of what was to be a somewhat difficult week or so.

For the second day running we were on a bus by 5am, this time heading for the Guatemalan/Mexican border. I don’t think I’ve ever driven for so long through countryside that I’ve thought was so ugly. The landscape was trashed; slashed and burnt and churned up.

Our first problem started when we got to the Guatemalan border post to leave. We have crossed numerous border posts and consider ourselves reasonably well traveled. But we still somehow managed to make a mess of this one!

When we crossed the border into Guatemala from Belize, we cleared the Belize departure desk and the officer there pointed to a desk behind him at the back of the room with “immigration” in big letters over it. Behind this desk were signs of what you weren’t allowed to import into Guatemala (which bizarrely included toilet roll). We handed our passports to a very grumpy girl, who handed them back and we carried on to our bus.

It was when we were nearly in Flores that we realised we hadn’t got a Guatemalan entry stamp in our passports. We were a bit uneasy but given we’d been to what was labeled the immigration desk, we just figured that maybe they just didn’t stamp your passports in Guatemala. We also figured that if it was a problem, then a few US$ would see us right.

So now, at the border post trying to leave Guatemala, there were two desks. We went to one each. The officer G went to stamped his passport in 5 seconds flat and he was on his way.

Mine was leafing through my passport page by page and with a sinking feeling I realised he was trying to find the entry stamp. Uh oh. G noticed what was happening and came back in. The guard sighed and tutted and then sighed some more. He said it was a problem, and I could have been put in jail if anyone had noticed while we were in Guatemala (probably true but I reckon also a scare tactic). To be fair he did say that the border where we’d crossed into Guatemala was terribly signposted and there was a whole other immigration building that we’d completely missed. What the immigration desk that we went to was I don’t know…

More sighs and he says I have 2 options. There’s a fee to pay. I can either go to the bank to pay it (where the government probably will get the money we pay), but is 3 hours away on a road in the middle of nowhere in Guatemala where hitch-hiking is really not a safe option), or we could pay the fee here at the border. We said we’d do that, knowing there was no way the money was going to go any further than their pockets, but that was fine with us. He said the fee would double if I did it again. I assured him I wouldn’t. We paid, I got my stamp and we got on the bus, over the river on a boat and entered Mexico.

Here we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We had got into Mexico safely before the Guatemalan guards realised that if I didn’t have a stamp, that Greg probably didn’t have one either… And here it was that G let on that he’d given the guard a ripped $20 note which can be very difficult to change in many countries!

H: Backgammon scores: H 38 - 41 G
No of beds so far: 7
Countries visited so far: 3

We crossed the borer into Guatemala and travelled to Flores, in the north east. We´ve seen quite a few Mayan ruins but this was the biggy. A giant complex of ruins scattered over the jungle. The armed guards were a bit unnerving but they´ve had some problems with robbery on the trails around the site.

We paid to go on a guided tour which in my experiene can range between being great and awful. This one was great, he knew such a lot about the history and put it in simple terms, rather than talking about the post/late classic era, the mere mention of which tends to turn both of our brains to sleep…

We climbed as many as we were allowed, including Templo V, a 40m temple with near vertical rung of steps up its side. We climbed up trying not to think about coming down. What less perfect timing could there be for the first rain (I mean proper-jungle-rain-rained) we´ve seen since leaving England. Drenched to the bone, we stepped back over the edge and slowly made our way down what seemed like an endless stepladder. I think our heart rates might have been quite high…

Unfortunately we don´t have time to see anything else of Guatemala as we only have 3 weeks left to get to the US border. But it´s maybe not a bad thing; I´m sure chances are slim but Guatemala has a real problem with armed robberies of buses, and travelling on 1st class doesn´t decrease the risk they way it did in Bolivia. It´s pretty sad it´s like that still. To give you an example of how bad it is, there´s a ruins just over the border in Belize where all tour buses go to in an armed convoy to stop the robberies that have taken place there.

H: Backgammon scores: H 37 - 34 G
No of beds so far: 6
Raindrops so far: 0

The barrier reef that runs along the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico down to Honduras is the second largest in the world. Thanks to my Gran and Grandad we were able to go snorkelling for a day at Shark Ray Alley and Hol Chan Reserve which was amazing.

At our first spot we saw a turtle nearly the size of me and heaps of huge rays. I now realise these were sting rays but am pretty relieved I didn´t know that at the time given that we got within inches of them swimming below us. Plus our guide even fed one to keep it busy while we touched it … 3 more stops and lots more turtles and nurse sharks, rays and spotted eagle rays and a whole heap of other fish whose name I missed…

The sun burn wasn´t so good, both of us managed to get burnt in places we most certainly definitely put sun cream on. We´ve eaten our first bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk as a commiseration and have tried to avoid the sun for 5 days since…

H: Backgammon scores: H 33 - 29 G
No of beds so far: 6
No of cameras broken so far: 1

We still haven´t managed to find our little hut on a deserted beach yet but this is a pretty close second. Caye Caulker is a little island in the Caribbean Sea just off Belize. There´s no cars on the island, only golf carts (for the lazy people) and its motto is ´go slow´, which we are getting pretty good at doing now given the heat.

After seeing one hovel, we found a lovely room for the same price, with windows on two sides that meant the constant wind that the island gets cooled our room down pretty good.

Which worked brilliantly until night-time when the winds continued to howl, the shutters rattled and the door banged. But at least we weren´t as hot and sticky as we normally are :o)

H: Backgammon scores: H 28 - 26 G
No of beds so far: 5
No of temples seen so far: 5

We took a boat along the river today to another impressive ruins hidden deep in the jungle. Our very knowledgeable guide carried a briefcase which made me think he was even more knowledgeable. He also seemed to want to point out that he was taking us to a stone carving that no other tour guides take their group to. This was all very well but in the heat of the sun, and with his accent a little hard to follow, I soon lost interest. So the 30 minutes spent at said carving I could have done without! G on the other hand is a much better pupil than me and listened to every word…

H: Backgammon score: H 25 - 23 G
No of beds so far: 5
Appealing places to eat in Orange Town: 0

A bus simply signed ‘Belize’ took us over the border and on to Orange Walk Town in Northern Belize. This temperature on this bus must have been nearly 40 which made a lovely change from the freezing conditions on the air-con’d bus from Tulum to Chetumal that morning. The Belizean border officials are by far the nicest we’ve ever met. They were more interested in chatting and discussing yesterday’s football match with G than they were in checking we were OK to enter Belize.

The people here so far seem really friendly, they smile and say hey in their lovely Caribbean-like accent as they pass you in the street which is a nice change from the heads-down approach of the Brits. There's a massive range of ethnicity, (including Chinese, Carribean and Mennonites descended from Russia) which makes for a really interesting country.

The main language here is English which takes some getting used to given that most of Central and South America speak Spanish or Portuguese. I am regularly making a fool of myself by either trying to use my poor Spanish, or by saying just key words like “where launderette’ in the hope they know a few words of English, before realizing that they speak English just as well as I do… Both are being met with varying degrees of confusion.

H: Backgammon score: H 20 - 17 G
No of beds so far: 4
Floor area of our room tonight: G²

More ruins today, this time set on a cliff over an amazingly blue sea… We’re now very keen to find a deserted beach somewhere for a few days…

Our accommodation at Tulum wasn’t so pretty… Think of a prison cell, halve it and bolt a metal bed onto one wall. Add a mattress (of sorts), a fan and a small window, a few splodges of paint onto the concrete wall and that was our room.

Width-wise, I could nearly reach both walls and that’s saying something. G could reach both walls with plenty to spare. In fact he wasn’t that far off reaching both walls length-ways either! It was hot (we’re not even close to being able to afford a/c on this trip) and mix that with the small window, crappy fan and saggy mattress and it doesn’t make for a good sleep!

G: Times H has fluked her way out of a nasty backgammon corner: 20


I think Heather is being a little mean about accomodation. Yes it was small, but completely functional. More over, I think I had my best nights sleep so far...

H: Backgammon score: H 13 - 11 G
No of beds so far: 3
Days without nachos and tacos: 0

Another day, another ruins… This time the tallest ruin on the Yucutan Peninsula.

H: Backgammon score: H 5 - 4 G
No of beds so far: 2

Today we woke early and set of to Chichén Itzá, recently voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. Leaving early was more due to the fact that we have no air-con and our fan sounds like Heathrow on a busy day than our eagerness, but we were well rewarded as we arrived at the amazing ruin before the hoards of day trippers from Cancun. I was slightly upset though to find we had been beaten by one tourist coach, and a Thompson Holidays one at that. Fortunately we walked a bit faster than the tour group and got to experience the huge and impressive ruins in peace and quiet.

The main ruin is linked in many ways to the Mayan Calander, one of the world´s most accurate calendar and believed to be more accurate than the Gregorian calendar that we use today. Without modern technology, Mayan astronomers calcuated a year to be 365.242 days. They were 17.28 second out. Not bad eh?!

The coach park when we left was not a pretty sight, there was more tour buses there than we have seen in a long time! We managed to hitch a ride home with the local bus...

H: Our second day in Mexico we spent at Ek Balam, the first of many Mayan ruins we´ll probably see. There´s a lot of similarities with the Angkor and Inca ruins we´ve seen, but also a lot of differences. After seeing so many temples, I am still amazed at how beautiful and intircate the buildings are, built many centuries ago and without vehicles or complex tools.

H: We have just had another another fantastic few months at home and it has been so lovely to see everyone again. But given that we have BOTH (I know most of you think I have just been bumming since I got home but I haven´t) been working so hard for so long recently (by long I mean at least a couple of months), we thought we really should make ourselves take a break. A massive thank you to my parents for putting up with us for so long (again), which has meant we have been able to set off on what hopefully will be yet more amazing experiences :o)

Having changed our mind 101 times, we finally decided on flying to Mexico and making our way through the North American continent until our time runs out. We both haven´t quite yet recovered from our manic trip in Asia, and felt Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the US and Canada would be less stressful. If only because of decreased time in Mozzie areas (and so less risk of another bout of Dengue Fever), and no visas to worry about!

We went to the doctors a few days before we left to update our rabies shots, and she was less than impressed that we had been so slack as to leave it so late. She didn´t look like she believed us when we said we had only booked the trip a week ago...

Having learnt some pretty horrible lessons when packing to leave for Asia, we were packed, ipod synched, and made sure our passports were most definitely in our hand luggage well before we set off to the airport.

We flew into Cancun and instead of being greeted by tens of taxi drivers telling us there was no bus into town and the only way in would be to take their expensive taxi, we were pleasantly surprised to find a bus counter selling tickets for a not-at-all rickety bus!

We spent just one night in Cancun (G still had time to find a Taco) and caught a bus to Valladolid, a small town with lots of life but peaceful at the same time, two hours west of Cancun. I know we said we wanted an easier trip, but the tourist mecca of Cancun didn´t appeal just yet... plus our budget wasn´t going to last very long there.

The bus journey was blissful, in that the roads were tarmacced and straight, the bus had probably been serviced within the last few years and there´s less traffic on the roads and so far less emergency stops. Infact quite the opposite – they drive very calmly and slow down almost to a stop for speed bumps. I quite enjoyed whizzing over them at 100´s of miles an hour in Asia, but safety wise I think this is probably better...

Apart from one currency-muddle issue where we paid nearly a fiver for a small bottle of water, they´re not out to rip you off here. Either that or they do it very cleverly and we are falling for it... It´s very refreshing and I think we both have felt immediately relaxed here.

G: So, another trip is approaching fast. Very fast... it's just 6 hours until we're set to leave, and we still have to fit in a nights sleep before then.

After much deliberation, cogitation and general fickleness, we finally decided on Central and North America this time. As some of you well know, We toyed with India, Nepal, China, Mongolia, "The Stans" and even eastern Africa before we eventually booked this trip.

Following on from our recent trip through Asia I think we're both ready for something a little more "sedate". Asia is undoubtedly amazing, full of life, culture, taste sensations and incredible sights. But it can, at times, be frustrating, tiring and, if you catch Dengue Fever, down right aching.

We're not completely playing it safe though. We have bitten off a small chunk of Central America to whet our appetite for adventure. The basic trip outline goes something like this... One month of beaches, jungle, Mayan ruins, tortillas and tequilla in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala; followed by a monster two and a half month road trip from Houston to Chicago via Canada and maybe even Alaska!

Packing up our bags the last couple of days has brought back a lot of memories. Its not that long since we landed back from Asia. We've packed a lot in since then though... meeting my niece, The Martin Wedding, Christmas and New Year in Solihull, 10 days at the 5* Chez Jackman in France, some great times in Nottingham and London, and Bingo! It's been fantastic to see everyone again and to spend time catching up with you all. Thanks to everyone who's given us a couch, an air bed, a sofa bed, or even (praise the lord) a real bed to sleep on. Special thanks to Heather's mum and dad for putting us up, and putting up with us, whenever we haven't been couch surfing.

I promise one day we'll get our own place and return all the favours... but no promises as to which continent you'll all have to get to in order to take us up on that offer! Antarctica anyone?