Arches National Park, Utah

Arrived in Utah from LAX on Monday last week. Rudi picked me up at the airport and we drove down to Draper, about 1/2 hour south of SLC.

Spent Tuesday in SLC looking at the Mormon temple square area and shopping.

Went for a 4-hour hike on Wednesday in Mill Creek Canyon area just west of SLC.

Drove four hours to Arches National Park on Thursday and spent the afternoon hiking to some of the arches. My nephew, Jo, and a friend of his, Malanie, came with. Slept over in Moab. Place booked out and had to pay $150 for a room! Returned Friday night after we spent the morning driving to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park.

BBQ Saturday.

Drove out to Mt Timpanogos area on Sunday for a look (half hour south of Draper).

Drove 1 hour north to Antelope Island State Park on Monday and spent 2 1/2 hours hiking up a hill to see the east side of the great salt lake. Good views. Also spotted the bison (introduced onto the island) and mule deer. Then went to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden (just north of antelope island area). Parked at 29th street trailhead, where I thought the trail started. No signs, so walked about 2km out of my way to end up where I started and headed up the canyon. Not much of a waterfall to talk of, but a steep climb to get to it.

Went back to Mt Timpanogos on Tuesday to go to Timpanogos cave. Steep climb up to cave then a 1hr cave tour. Very nice. Also go a good pick of a little chipmunk. Too cute. Lots of squirrle-like animals running around.

Much time was also spend shopping...

Packing now, leave for LAX this afternoon. Should be back in Australia on Friday.

Inka Trail done

I hiked the trail in two days. We went in at 88km and spend the first night just up the trail from there. Walked a couple of kilometers to the start of the race the next morning (that was yesterday). Set off at 6am. Left my gloves behind and my fingers were frozen for most of the day.

Dead woman`s pass was steep up and slow. I enjoyed the down runs (lots and lots of steps). The Red Arrow runs really helped with those!

Took me 9 hours to go the 27km for the first day - I´ll use the excuse that I was taking photos, lots of them... The winner, Roxanne, of the marathon did the entire trail in 6h12min!

Froze last night. Anne, from Adelaide, estimated it was about 6 degrees Celcius. I had everything that I brought with me on the trail on, and I was still cold.

Poured with rain during the entire night. Thunder and lightning too. Tents held up really well.

Today took me another 5 hours for the last 17km! Insane, but at least I know I did more than that as I went the wrong way (yes, impossible as it sounds, it´s possible for some of us), went back to the correct trail and then on to Michu Pichu.

Overall it was a fantastic few days. Hiked just about the whole way all on my own.

First run at altitude of about 4000m or so.

Arrived in Cusco yesterday. Had some coco tea. Ran 6km today. Did okay.

Visited some archeological sites today. Free time this afternoon. Needed to buy new sunglasses. Got some for S/. 26.00. Also bought some baby alpacha jumpers - beautiful and soft. And a pair of gloves for the trail. US$286! Oeps, shopping done for now.

I think I might be cold on the trail. Will need to get into my sleeping bag, at least that´s warm.

Gotta go, on free internet access and others want to get on.

Bundu Bashing

I miss Isabela Island life terribly. Been difficult to sleep in Guayaquil, Lima and Iquitos with all the road noise.
Been in the jungle the past 3 days- nearly exactly like the blue arrow, except there are lots of things that can kill you. My guides took me on a few different trails and on a couple of occasions we were just bashing our way through the bush. They always knew where they were, and so did I, thanks to my GPS watch.
Seen four types of monkeys, a squirrel, poison dart frog, lots of other frogs, sloth, pink dolphin and grey dolphin, nice big gecko, lots of different birds, including the hoatin bird, parrots, macaws. May sound great, but without binoculars it was pretty crap. But the tame monkey made up for it. She would sit only on my lap, to the disgust of the other guest that was with us. Visited three villages and had breakfast with one family (they ate their food, I ate mine). The food at the lodge was fantastic. I still eat my two cups of rice with each meal, even if there is a choice...
I`m now in Lima and fly to Cusco tomorrow to start acclimatising for the run. It`s on later this week. I`m looking forward to the trip. Tonight I`m in a very flash hotel, had a BATH with lovely hot water (then washed my clothes in it! Ha!). A bit different from the rainforest lodge where there was no electricity.