White Knuckle Rafting

But they were only white from the cold, not the ride! Our smooth water canyon rafting kicked off about 8 am, and the sun had not yet risen high enough to radiate it’s warmth (and it actually wasn’t forecast to get very warm today anyway) down to the Colorado River. Fortunately we were fairly well prepared, unlike some of the other passengers, with their shorts and thin long sleeves - poor buggers! Can’t have been much more than mid fifties. It was a pleasant enough few hours, but doesn’t even begin to compare with our last few days - let’s face it, it did have a lot to live up to! 

We did get to see some Native American petroglyphs carved into one of the canyon walls, but it appears that not much is understood about what they mean - could just be ancient graffiti for all we know! Nice drawings of sheep and antelope, though! 
Needing some substantial sustenance before our drive to tonight’s accommodation, we found a little Mexican restaurant offering lunch specials for a very cheap price, which tempted us inside. I don’t know why but we didn’t even ask about the specials. No matter, what we ordered was still cheap and really, really good - warmed us up nicely from the inside. 

Steve reckoned we’d need to drive with the top down for a while - those refried beans really get to you! And he was, as he usually is, quite right! We couldn’t hack it for long though - too bloody cold! Surprisingly we were gaining altitude and at 6000ft it was a nippy 58˚ - Softy Walters had to stop and put the top up.

Before we left we went for a look over the edge of the canyon walls down to where we’d been rafting. 

Horseshoe Bend is really very lovely looking down, but the lengths some people will go to just to get that perfect picture; I couldn’t look at some of them. One girl I noticed sitting with her legs dangling over the edge of an outcrop! - it’s a 1000ft drop for goodness sake! I had to look away, but as I did her boyfriend, who was taking ‘the photo’ put out his hand to help her up - she slipped and sat back down, only inches away from the edge. Any closer, and both would, for the few seconds it took to reach the river, have seriously regretted taking their perfect photo. Steve, on the other hand was less cavalier and crawled on his belly to the edge, having first checked out that there was actually solid rock beneath him. I stood well back - and took a photo of him!

On the way back to the car, we saw a snake!! Only a really little one, about 18”, not an exciting one, but it was still a snake - Steve was pretty happy :-)

So, back to the ride over to Monument Valley. Can I be honest? It was really pretty uninteresting. Maybe if we’d done this journey some days ago we might have been rather taken with the rocks and their strange colours and layers, but after some of the places we’ve driven through, it really just couldn’t cut it. And we’re a bit over miles - they take far too long to drive! We stopped for a coffee in MacDonald’s in Kayenta - you can always trust they’ll have good coffee - and it was busy as, with mainly Native Americans. We really are in the Wild West now! 

Our resting place for the next 2 days is Firetree Inn; we’re sleeping in traditional Navajo hogans - built of logs and covered in mud. Really warm and cosy. There are only 2 hogans and we share a bathroom unit with the other hogan occupants, rather like glorified camping, but we have been allocated our own toilet and shower within the unit! Really cool! I wonder if I’ll say that when I have to make my way over there in the night - it’s not quite Mangawhai Heads; no snakes or tarantulas there!