Day 1814 Saturday 3^rd October

We followed some very scenic roads to the Grand Canyon where at the entrance to the park we paid a grand price to see one of the largest holes in the ground.

While it was a must see place, for the money I thought Fish River in Namibia, Colca Canyon in Peru, was enough to satisfy my lust for canyons.

We had a great camp with Jess and Matt at the out of park camp ground, where we shared their fire and a bottle of fire water. The next day they went sub surface to hike the depths to the Colorado River, and we went on the road to Nevada, and found rain.

Day 1815 Sunday 4^th October

At a gas station I took the huge and always reluctant decision to don my waterproofs. On the negative, being both cumbersome to use the bike controls and uncomfortable, one the positive totally waterproof. Really don’t know I struggle to put them on, defeat maybe at bad weather??

We mostly followed I forty all the way to Kingman where we had an unremarkable camp….Although the camp was most accommodating, when we asked the owner if we pitch our tent under a covered school research desk area due to oncoming rain he said “no, there might be a group coming into night”. It didn’t rain, much, so we were ok.

Day 1816 Monday 5^th October

At four am I woke to more rain drops and moved the bikes under cover. Not sleeping after that at half five I gave up and made tea.

By seven we were on the road to Nevada.

Stopping of at the Hoover Dam to take pictures of a marvel of man’s determination to tame the wild things of this world was a must. And against a back drop of a dark rain filled sky was even better, given this is in a desert!! Not wanting to pay for a tour or go underground to stand next to a concrete wall with multi million tons of water next to me, least it gave way to concrete cancer we settled for riding over the top of it and marvelling at how low the water level was compared to the white high watermark, way above the waterline. The enormous spill drains could have had a coach driven down them they were so large. The shear grandness of the entire structure was mind boggling. Even more so as is it close to eighty five years old!

A local couple asked if we were part of the group scattering the ashes of a friend of theirs as we must be Australian too. Sorting out the confusion due to my bike stickers we talked of England and their visits to our homeland.