A year in numbers

It would seem appropriate that after a trip lasting nearly a year I should probably write some sort of review ; it should probably be deep and meaningful and use the words ‘magnificent’, ‘discovery’, ‘development’, ‘introspection’, ‘experience’, ‘growth’ and such.

But lets leave all that nonsense to one side for now, and start off with a few basic statistics, for those who are excited by such things… (and its easier to write!)

30,000

Approximately how much the trip cost me, in UK pounds.  This excludes the cost of the van itself  (about £3k), the conversion and fitting out etc which I haven’t worked out yet.

• £2,136 of this covers the initial flights to SA, to Canada, and back to the UK
• £3,670 of this was spent on shipping the van to and from Africa
• £1,140 or thereabouts was the cost of the carnet de passage for the vehicle
• £23,000 was everything else – accommodation, food, diesel, tours, park fees, etc etc.

Its hard to give an accurate estimate of a ‘per person, per day’ cost at the moment as for the first 3 months there were 2 of us on this trip and these figures include Africa and North America (quite different costs of living), but a quick calculation based on the £23k figure above comes to about £70 per day (about US$108).

If I were to remove the costs associated with the big safari trips and the diving excursions and so on, then split the spending up by region/country, this figure would come down quite a bit – but I haven’t got the patience for doing that just now.

16,222

How many miles I drove, or at least, logged – I know I forgot to log a few days here and there.

• 12,502 miles of driving in Africa – there were more, I just forgot to log them.
• 4,120 miles in the United States.

Now given that the ‘average’ mileage that people apparently cite when applying for motor insurance in the UK is somewhere around 12-15k per year, I would say that I was pretty much on par.  I think I prefer the idea of driving around Africa over sitting in queues on the M25.

326

How many days I was away for (10 months and 22 days).

292

The number of days I spent in Africa, making up approximately 90% of the trip.  The original plan was for a maximum of 6 months.

237

The number of nights I slept in the van – just over 80% of the time I was in Africa with it.

The first 3 weeks we were in a guesthouse, waiting for the van to arrive and clear customs (it was mistakingly offloaded in Namibia so we had to wait longer than planned), and I spent a couple of weeks in tents on organised safari trips etc.  Sleeping in the vehicle (or at least, camping) definitely helped to keep the costs down (or at least, freed up money to do other things).

117

Approximately how many different campsites I stayed at in the van during my time in Africa, which means I was staying a fraction over 2 nights at each place (on average).

My longest stays (either in one go or over multiple visits to the same campsite) were:

• Oppi Koppi (Kamanjab, Namibia) – 23 nights in total from 3 separate stays
• Jungle Junction (Nairobi, Kenya) – 15 nights
• Riverlodge Backpackers / Camping (Cape Town, South Africa) – 13 nights

45

The magic number in Tanzania.  This is the absolute maximum speed, in kilometres per hour, at which you should drive if is a building in sight (which seems to constitute a “built up area” in the eyes of the police).

The official speed limit in built up areas is actually 50kph or even 60kph, but even if you stay at 45kph, the police will probably still pull you over for speeding (showing you the reading on their speed gun that they took from someone an hour or so ago who actually was speeding) or make up some other non-offence and try to extort money out of you.

F*ckers.

23

The number of ‘game reserves’ I visited (rather than just passed through or alongside and barely noticed).

In the list below, [SD] means ‘self drive’ – all others were on 4×4 vehicles run by safari operators or the game parks themselves.

South Africa

• Hluhluwe-Imfolozi [SD]
• Tembe Elephant Park
• Kruger National Park [SD]

Swaziland

• Mlilwani Wildlife Sanctuary [SD + mountain bike]

Namibia

• Etosha National Park [SD]
• Erindi Private Game Reserve

Botswana

• Moremi Game Reserve and Okavango Delta
• Chobe National Park

Zambia

• Kasanka National Park [SD]
• South Luangwa National Park

Malawi

• Majete Wildlife Reserve [SD]
• Nyika National Park [SD + mountain bike]

Tanzania

• Mikumi National Park [SD]
• Ruaha National Park [SD ish – Fari took me there in his 4×4]
• Serengeti National Park
• Ngorongoro Crater and Convservation Area
• Lake Manyara
• Tarangire National Park

Kenya

• Lake Nakuru National Park
• Lake Naivasha National Park
• Masai Mara National Reserve
• Ambsoseli National Park

Rwanda

• Volcanoes National Park (walking – mountain gorillas)

12

The number of flights I took:

1. Heathrow (UK) > Cape Town
2. Cape Town > Durban
3. Okavango Delta scenic flight
4. Zanzibar > Dar es Salaam
5. Dar es Salaam > Mafia Island
6. Mafia Island > Dar es Salaam
7. Nairobi > Kigali (Rwanda)
8. Kigali > Nairobi
9. Nairobi > Amsterdam
10. Amsterdam > Vancouver
11. Seattle > Amsterdam
12. Amsterdam > Birmingham UK

Alas no, I don’t know what that equates to in terms of mileage, nor can I be bothered to try and find out.

11

How many countries I visited (excludes Holland as I was only there on a flight stopover):

1. South Africa (97 days on a 90 day visa – got banned for a year for overstaying)
2. Swaziland (5 days)
3. Namibia (62 days)
4. Botswana (8 days)
5. Zambia (21 days)
6. Malawi (30 days)
7. Tanzania (38 days)
8. Kenya (28 days)
9. Rwanda (3 days)
10. Canada (8 days)
11. United States (21 days)

6

Shock absorbers.  I replaced all 4 before leaving South Africa for Namibia, and the front 2 had to be replaced in Dar es Salaam, having wallowed my way all the way through Tanzania from Malawi over the course of a month.

4

How many times I got pulled over by roadside rozzers in Tanzania.  On 3 of those occasions, they claimed I was speeding.  I talked my way out of 2 of these.  One one occasion the police just asked for money, plain and simple, without bothering to make up an excuse.  I suspect he was the most honest of the bunch, frankly.

Also the number of punctures I picked up.  2 of those were fixable, 2 required new tyres.  Which leads me on to the number of tyres I replaced in total (4), replacing 2 of my existing UK tyres before entering Namibia as I knew the roads would be more dubious.

2

The number of times the van got stuck – both times in sand.  One took a few minutes to dig out, the other time took several hours.

Also the number of traffic fines I paid – one for speeding ($20 in Tanzania) and the other when  spot checks by the roadside rozzers revealed that my not-quite-self-adhesive-enough white reflective tape had come off my front bumpers in Zambia (another $20).

0

The number of times I wished I was back home and at work, even when I was running low on funds towards the end of the trip.

Journeys end

Having arrived back in Seattle with a day in hand, I decided to spend a couple of hours wandering around by the waterfront and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of Pike Street (Fish) Market before trying to find somewhere to get my hair chopped for my friend’s wedding…

Pike Street Market

Now, getting a haircut in a big city should be a relatively quick and easy task, but that appears not to be the case in Seattle.

Back in the UK, a guy can just wander unannounced into a barber shop (indicated by the barber sign outside rather than a hairdresser), sit down on the bench/sofa/chairs, wait his turn and pay maybe £12 ($20).

I tried this, and a ‘stylist’ came up and asked if I had an appointment.  “No, do I need one?” I said.  “Yes, sorry, we are fully booked today”.  I looked around ; there were 3 stylists and only 1 other person waiting.  Huh?

So I tried another place.  Who wanted to charge £40 ($60) or so.  Stuff that!  On I went to another place and, in disgust at them telling me they could fit me in sometime in the next few hours, on to yet another who could actually cut my hair there and then and wouldn’t charge me a fortune, although I still think $35 + tip (£22) was a bit steep for a few minutes in the chair.  But hey, needs must, and all that.

Seattle Wheel

Suitably shorn, I met up that evening with Marcus and Marie, along with their respective friends and families, for a pre-wedding meal at a nice place by the waterfront, Ivars Salmon House.

The next day was Marcus and Marie’s “big day”…

Congratulations, M&M 🙂

…which was a great way to end my trip!

Yes, sadly, the time has come for me to return home to the UK 😦

So the next day I took a taxi to Sea-Tac airport and spent many hours watching movies on a crappy small screen with headphones that did little to drown out the noise of the engines, whilst of course taking advantage of the free in-flight alcohol and every meal/snack offered, even if I wasn’t hungry.  Well, these flights aren’t cheap, so I had to get my moneys worth!

And so it was, 11 months after leaving home, I found myself standing by the baggage carousel at Birmingham Airport, waiting for my bag to arrive.

It didn’t. Bugger!

Ah well…   At least I was back home safe and sound, and the bag will hopefully find its way here in a couple of days.  Its just great to be back with my family and I am of course looking forward to catching up with my friends.

Now I just need to wait for the van to arrive (its still in transit, having been delayed in Kenya), find a job, find somewhere to live, fix the van, make a few changes to the interior, and start planning (and saving for!) my next trip 🙂

Seattle Museum of Flight

Having arrived back in Seattle a little earlier than intended, I decided to spend a few hours wandering around the Museum of Flight this afternoon, which is situated a few miles south of central Seattle at King County International Airport (aka Boeing Field).  If you thought Seattle Tacoma (Sea Tac) was Seattle’s international hub, you would be partly right – Boeing Field doesn’t really ‘do’ passenger services, but freight/cargo/leisure.

Now I should warn you – if you aren’t into aircraft or space exploration, then this is probably not the blog post for you.  I’m not a plane spotter myself, but it would seem rude to spend a few hours amongst some of the classics and not post a few photos 🙂

Lockheed 1049G Super Constellation (1954)

The first ‘gallery’ I visited (just because it was next to the entrance) was dedicated to space exploration, dating back to the origins of rocketry including the development of the V1 and V2 flying bombs during WWII through to the space ‘race’ in the 1950s and 60s between the USA and USSR (think ‘Sputnik’, ‘Yuri Gagarin’, ‘Mercury’, ‘Apollo’, and so on up to and including the ISS).

McDonnell Mercury Capsule (1962 – Reproduction)

Boeing Lunar Roving Vehicle (1971 – Engineering Mock-up)

North American Aviation Apollo Command Module 007A (1965)

My next stop was the ‘Great Gallery’ which plays host to a wide variety of aircraft, both civilian and military.  Some of them have open cockpits so you can sit in them should the fancy take you…

Lockheed M-21 Blackbird (1963)

Lockheed M-21 Blackbird (1963)

Boeing 80A-1 (1929)

No, I don’t know which plane this wheel was on, sorry!

Front to back: Northrop YF-5A (N-156F) Freedom Fighter (1959), Bowers Flybaby 1A (1971), Stinson Model O (1933 – Reproduction), and Aeronca L-3B Grasshopper (1941)

Bell UH-1H Iroquois “Huey” (1970)

Top to bottom: Northrop YF-5A (N-156F) Freedom Fighter (1959), Bowers Flybaby 1A (1971), Lockheed F-104C Starfighter (1959), Sikorsky (USA) HH-52 Seaguard helicopter, (at rear, in blue), Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II, (1966), (bottom left) McDonnell F-4C (F-110A) Phantom II (1964), and bottom right – Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 PFM (1967). Phew!

Close up of Lockheed Model 10-E Electra (1935) – same sort of aircraft Amelia Earhart was flying when she disappeared

Another close up of Lockheed Model 10-E Electra (1935)

R-L, top: Douglas DC-3 (1940), Lear Fan 2100 (1980), Northrop YF-5A (N-156F) Freedom Fighter (1959), Beech C-45H Expeditor (1942). Bottom row, L-R: McDonnell F-4C (F-110A) Phantom II (1964), Lockheed M-21 Blackbird

Wright 1903 Flyer (Reproduction)

Next up were the WW1 and WW2 exhibitions – all military aircraft, as you might expect…

Messerschmitt BF 109E-3 (1956)

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX (1944)

Of course its one thing to see a Spitfire in a museum ; its quite something else to see it doing acrobatics over your head…

(mind drifts back to a music event I attended back home in the UK a few years ago)

But I digress…

Now, being a Brit, when I think of WWII aircraft, I think of the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Messerschmitt, Junkers and so on.  Of course, there were other ‘theatres’ during the war and I’m in America, so its only right and proper that they feature many of their aircraft…

Curtiss P-40N Warhawk (1944)

Republic P-47D (F-47) Thunderbolt (1942)

North American P-51D Mustang (1944)

After WWII, came WWI.  Ok, not exactly chronologically correct, but it just happens to be the way it worked out as I walked around…

Caproni Ca.20 (1914)

Apparently the Caproni is considered to be the first ‘fighter aircraft’ ever developed.  Clearly they hadn’t figured out how to fire ‘through’ the propellors at that time.

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a (1917 – Reproduction)

Sopwith Pup (1916 – Reproduction)

After WWI I was brought bang up to date (ish) by walking outside to view a couple of very well known aircraft and Boeing’s latest offering…

Hopefully needs no introduction! Concorde, 1978

Concorde, 1978

Boeing 787 Dreamliner (2009)

Air Force One – Boeing VC-137B

This particular incarnation of Air Force One (which is only its call sign when the president is on board) was in service during the time of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.  It was replaced in 1962 but remained in service until 1996,

Having pretty much run out of time, I headed off into town to check in to my hotel (Belltown Inn, same one I used when I was here a few weeks ago) and dropped my car off back at the Enterprise rental office…

Heading into downtown Seattle

And that, as they say, is that – the end of my ‘road trip’ around the United States, or at least, a small bit of it…

But fear not!  Its not quite the end of my entire trip, as I’ve got 2 days left in Seattle and a wedding to attend, so I might just manage to squeeze another blog entry out of this 🙂

Salt Lake City to Seattle

The past 2 days were, for the most part, spent behind the wheel, making the long slog from Salt Lake City back to Seattle – 840 miles or so, or, to put that into context (at least for Brits), the same distance from Lands End to John O’Groats – the entire length of Great Britain, from its most south-westerly to north-easterly extremities.

I don’t really have much to say about the journey so will just post some stills taken from my GoPro footage to give an idea of the road and scenery…

Fairly serious traffic accident – fortunately on the opposite carriageway…

Ominous clouds ahead!

Lots of RVs and these 5th wheelers – some ridiculously big like this one!

In the UK you might get a Smart car or something being towed behind a ‘RV’. But not in America…

After 8 hours or so I had covered enough mileage for one day so stopped for the night in a small town called Pendleton in Oregon.  Once again I found myself staying in the local ‘Motel 6’ on the outskirts of town, and ate that night at the rather quirky ‘Virgils at Cimmiyottis‘ – lovely food, albeit a bit pricey, and nice waitresses 🙂

Some pics from the 2nd day:

Yes, they do exist outside of the movies 🙂

Snow on the way to Seattle

Crossing from Mercer Island to Seattle on the I-90

Having arrived in Seattle early in the afternoon, I decided to stop off at the Museum of Flight -more on that in my next post 🙂

Salt Lake City

Continuing my slightly-more-rushed-than-I-would-have-liked journey back towards Seattle, I drove the 130 miles or so from last night’s stopover (Green River – not a whole lot to say about that other than that the food was good) to Salt Lake City – the capital of Utah.

Lots of miles on dead straight roads… {yawn}

Quite a few of these – large RVs towing other vehicles

Scenery improved as I got closer to Salt Lake City

Distant snow-capped mountains – my first destination today

Another RV – 5th wheeler with a motorbike in tow

Before getting to Salt Lake City itself, I stopped off to have a quick look around the ski resort of Snowbird, nestled on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains,  and took the gondola to the station on top of Hidden Peak (11,000ft or 3,353m).

Snowbird ski resort

View from ‘Hidden Peak’ in Snowbird, Salt Lake City

I was a bit gutted to be up amongst the snow without a snowboard – bad planning on my part really, should have maybe planned a couple of days here and hired some gear.  Ah well… Nice views but a bit sparse on the white stuff…

After milling around for a bit up top and taking the obligatory photos, I took the gondola back down to the carpark and headed on to Salt Lake City itself, starting off with the rather impressive State Capitol building…

Utah State Capitol

Council Hall, Salt Lake City ; aka the tourist information office

From there it was a very short drive down to ‘Temple Square’, a 35 acre area dedicated to buildings belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormons) ; Salt Lake City was founded by them when they fled from persecution on the east coast in/around 1847.

Deuel Pioneer Log Cabin

The first building I went into was ‘Assembly Hall’, which was the first church the Mormons built when they arrived and settled here.  Here I was ‘picked up’ by a couple of ‘sisters’ who offered to take me on a free guided tour of the complex, and presumably (I thought) to try and convert me in the process.  Well, they were going to be sh*t out of luck on that front, but hey, a free guided tour is better than a kick in the teeth 🙂

Assembly Hall – the first church built in what is now Temple Square

Next up was the ‘Tabernacle’, a conference hall with one of the biggest organs in the world (fnah fnah) and some pretty impressive acoustics to go with it – so much so that a couple of ‘sisters’ were demonstrating this by talking normally at the front of the hall (without microphones), yet were easily heard from the back.  Another demonstration they performed was to tear a sheet of paper – again, clearly heard at the back of the hall, and to top it off, dropping a pin onto the lectern – again, easy to hear.  Its reputed to be one of the most acoustically ‘perfect’ buildings in the world.

Inside the Tabernacle ; two LDS ‘sisters’ demonstrating the acoustics

We then moved on to view the outside of the ‘Temple’, which is very much the most sacred building in the complex and ‘outsiders’ aren’t allowed inside ; in fact being a member of the church doesn’t guarantee you entry – you have be proven to be of ‘good standing’.

The temples are used for certain ‘ordinances’ including induction to the priesthood, weddings and baptisms for the dead (the idea being that you might have wanted to be baptised into the church when you were alive but didn’t, so you can have it done posthumously, even if you didn’t ask for it – sounds a bit odd to me).

Salt Lake Template – the heart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)

After this we moved on to one of the visitors centres, where I was shown a model of the inside of the Temple and my guides explained the functions of the various rooms – some for prayer, some for ceremonies, and so on, including a room where the Quorum of the 12 Apostles meet with the head of the church (the First President, or President Prophet), who the church consider to be the spokesman for God.  The Quorum have their own President (who leads the Quorum) and when the First President (the head of the church) dies or steps down, its usually the President of the Quorum who is ‘chosen’ to take his place, and the next longest serving Quorum member becomes President of the Quorum, and so on.

Or, as the ‘sisters’ put it, when the First President dies, the Apostles pray until the choice of the next First President is revealed to them by God.  That person (conveniently) usually happens to be one of the Apostles.  Their place on the Quorum of the Apostles is taken by another member of the church who (conveniently) happens to be a high ranking member, after, of course, much prayer.

Its basically the same as the Catholic church and how they choose a new Pope, without the smoke.

I asked about marriage outside of the church (ie: can members marry outside the faith) and the sisters said it was possible but certainly not encouraged, or, perhaps more accurately, that the person from outside the faith was encouraged to join.  Obviously if its an inter-faith marriage, it can’t take place in the Temples.

The sisters asked if I ‘believed’; I told them ‘no’ but, like most people in the UK, I had been  baptised as a child but and was officially ‘Christian’ (well, CofE) but didn’t actively participate in religion (see this article for some interesting stats).

The sisters didn’t try and change my mind about all this – I guess they know not to flog a dead horse.

It was around now that I parted company with the sisters ; they had other people waiting to be shown around and I was left to just wander around the visitors centre, and the rest of the Square, on my own.

Inside the North (?) Visitors Centre

The Angel Moroni, a key figure in the Mormon faith

Zions Bank – founded by the church leaders and mostly sold off in 1960. Worth a few bob…

The Tabernacle with the Temple in the background

Another shot of the Temple

New Conference Centre – last one (Tabernacle) was too small

Office Building – the rather large administration centre for the church

And that, as they say, was that – Temple Square, heart of the LDS church and, arguably, Salt Lake City itself.  The place was full of ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, usually walking around in pairs grasping their copies of the Book of Mormon, and acting as tour guides, and all of them were annoyingly pleasant people.  They were polite, well dressed, enthusiastic, and cheerful – and it did make me wonder if I was perhaps missing something.

As a confirmed atheist, I am always quite dismissive of religion.  I am very much a scientist at heart and cannot understand how some people stick to their belief about creationism etc despite all the evidence to the contrary.  I tend to think that people who believe in God (of any flavour) are just avoiding having to make decisions for themselves about life, morality and so on.  Meeting these Mormons though, made me wonder if I’m being a bit harsh ;  they seemed genuinely happy in themselves and that is in no small part due to their beliefs.  So  maybe I should be a little less judgemental about that.

That said, I continue to firmly believe that organised religion is all about wielding political power and controlling the masses, and of course, raking in money.  Oh and killing people who don’t agree with your views.  Mustn’t forget that minor detail.

Anyhow – another night in another Motel 6 which was pleasant enough, and a lovely meal in a nearby Cajun restaurant with a couple of beers to end a good day…  I think I had ‘Gumbolaya’ which their menu describes as ‘ Jambalaya smothered in Gumbo’ ; it was bloody good, whatever it was.

Monument Valley

Instantly recognisable, largely due to the number of times its featured in movies over the years, Monument Valley lies in the heart of the Navajo Nation and straddles the Arizona/Utah border, about 100 miles north east of Tuba City.

If you’ve seen any classic ‘westerns’ (particularly those by John Ford) you’ll have seen the now iconic sandstone ‘buttes’ – “Stagecoach” (John Wayne), “My Darling Clementine” (Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp), “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (John Wayne again), and so on.  Throw in a few scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001 – Space Odyssey”, Clint Eastwood’s “The Eiger Sanction”, “Back to the Future III”, “Thelma and Louise”, “Forrest Gump”, “Mission: Impossible II”, “Vertical Limit”, “Cars”, “The Lone Ranger” (Johnny Depp) and “Transformers 4 – Age of Extinction”, and the chances are, you’ve seen Monument Valley.

But its far more impressive when you’re actually there 🙂

Along the road to Monument Valley

Valley Drive – 17 miles of dirt road winding through the buttes (these formations are the ‘mittens’)

The area was home to the Anasazi, who settled the area sometime around 1200BC ; the Navajo came next and still live in the area, which is a vast ‘reservation’ called the Navajo Nation covering some 16 million acres.

At many of the viewpoints around the Drive you find craft stalls set up by the locals selling a variety of jewellery and souvenirs, dreamcatchers for example – all, you are told, hand made locally.  I have no reason to think they aren’t (I asked how one particularly piece was made and the answer sounded reasonable) but I guess I’m just cynical after all my time in Africa.  I bought something anyway.

Three Sisters and Mitchell Mesa

View from John Fords Point (I think)

Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei

My hire car and a big rock

Great view over the valley from Artists Point

Yours truly with some big rocks

Eventually it was time to move on, though I will definitely have to come back and explore the area more, in particular to see some of the Anasazi ruins.

Looking back along the road from Valley Drive

Driving north from Monument Valley takes you past Canyonlands National Park – something I’d had to drop from my plans due to a lack of time.  Guess I’ll just have to come back here as well!

Church Rock – on the ‘191 near Canyonlands National Park

Wilson Arch

Eventually I arrived at Moab, which is clearly home to the ‘off road’ community here as there were hundreds of pimped up Jeep Wranglers with massively oversized tyres etc milling around the town – guess there must have been an ‘event’ on?   Fortunately I wasn’t planning on staying in the town that night – I doubt I’d have found anywhere!

Instead, my bed for the night was in Green River, in yet another Motel 6, and my very tasty meal that night came courtesy of the restaurant next door – Tamarisk.

Tomorrow – on to Salt Lake City…

Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon

Vegas signified something of a turning point in this journey for me – no, I didn’t get married in some kitsch chapel ; no, I didn’t ‘discover myself’ and no, I certainly didn’t win a fortune, but it is about as far south as I was planning on going.  From there I was turning north (ish) and starting to make my way back up to Seattle for my friend’s wedding in a week…

So with an early start behind me, I headed off to the nearby Hoover Dam, which conveniently sits between Las Vegas and my next major destination, the Grand Canyon.

Hoover Dam (or Boulder Dam, as it used to be called) is only about 30 miles from Vegas and as such its a major tourist attraction in the area which means, as you might expect, it was very busy.  Very very busy in fact.  Still, I guess it gives people a break from losing their money in the casinos.

Parking spaces on the approach to the dam (from the ‘downstream’ side) were few and far between so I decided just to follow the road over the dam (which incidentally straddles the border between Nevada and Arizona and was, up until 2010, the main route for traffic) and parked on the Arizona side – where there were plenty of spaces but meant a slightly longer walk.

Of course you can always opt to pay for a ‘premium’ space if you are so inclined.

As always – clicking on the photos will show them full size…

Upstream side of the dam, showing the intake / penstock towers

Upstream side of the dam, showing the intake/penstock towers and the bypass bridge

And the downstream side…

Looking downstream, showing the Hoover Powerplant

The Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (Hoover Dam Bypass)

Having walked across the dam in both directions I was now back at my car, so headed off in the direction of the Grand Canyon, stopping briefly at a small carpark near the ridiculously long named ‘Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge’ that now carries traffic between the two states to walk up onto the bridge and grab one last photo:

The downstream side with the power station, taken from the bypass bridge

Having told myself that I would spend a maximum of 30 minutes taking some photos, I ended up taking about 90 minutes there.  Which wouldn’t be such an issue if the Grand Canyon wasn’t another 4hrs drive away.  As I may have mentioned before, America is big.

I could see now why the manager of my motel suggested doing the dam one morning, then going into Vegas that afternoon/evening, and then heading straight on to the canyon the next.  Sound advice, I would say.

Anyhow – the drive itself was pleasant enough but unremarkable, and I eventually arrived at the main visitor centre’s carpark on the edge of the southern rim.

Which was rammed.

After driving around the car park a few times I managed to grab a space, wandered down to the first viewing point, and yes, surprise surprise, it was also rammed.  Mostly with people wielding those annoyingly ubiquitous selfie sticks.  I really hate those things.

But leaving that all to one side for a moment – what a stonking view!

Grand Canyon – its a canyon, and yes, its pretty grand!

See the little specs on the rocks on the left? Those would be people…

Having grabbed a few pics where possible, I jumped back into the car and headed off (east) along the rim in search of a quieter viewpoint.

Well, everybody else was doing it, albeit with selfie sticks.  My GorillaPod worked fine.

Sun really starting to dip now

And so it went, I would get out, take some photos, admire the view for a few moments, look at my watch, and jump back in the car and speed off.  I would typically make it a couple of minutes down the road before stopping at another viewpoint to take more photos.

The views were stunning – especially as the sun was starting to go down by now.

Eventually I parked up, climbed over the barriers (which are really pointless as everyone ignores them) and scrambled down to a ledge where I could set the tripod up and enjoy the last few minutes of daylight and the, well, ‘grand’ views.

Tripod definitely required in this light…

Last one!

With the sun now tucked up safely in bed, it was time for me to try and do the same ; the first motel I happened across outside the park wanted over $100 per night so I decided just to carry on – I wasn’t desperate enough to pay that sort of money just yet!

The next obvious settlement, Tuba City, was a bit out of my way, but my TomTom assured me there would be lodging there, so I took a chance and headed off in that direction.

I think someone was being a little optimistic when they named the place.  Its not really big enough to be classified as a large town, let alone a city.  And I didn’t hear a single person playing the tuba.

They did however have a few motels and the first one I came to (Dine Inn) only wanted $45-50 so I stopped looking at that point.   A sign in reception pointed out that the whole area is Navajo land which apparently that meant that you couldn’t have alcohol in your room, which was a pity as I had a couple of beers in the boot (trunk, whatever) of the car which I had been planning to consume that evening…

Ah well…  can’t win ’em all eh?

Vegas by night

Whilst waiting for the sun to go down, I took some time to explored the vast interior of Caesars Palace – which like the other casino interiors, was quite something to behold…

They must have spent an absolute fortune building them and fitting them out, but they are surely bringing in many times what it cost…

Caesars Palace – lobby

The less glamorous side of Vegas – someone removing coins from a fountain

Eventually I popped down to the gaming area and gambled away my life savings (or at least $2 of them), then spent a whole lot more on a couple of drinks at one of the bars (ouch!).  To avoid spending any more money, I decided to head out and try to catch the next ‘fountain’ show at the Bellagio…

Bellagio – waiting for the fountain and light display

Yeah, pretty impressive really 🙂

From here I just wandered back down the strip which was even more heaving than earlier in the day, with lots more street entertainers and people dressed in Superman/Batman outfits.  I couldn’t quite figure out if they were tourists or, more likely, people just charging a few dollars for photo opportunities.

Eiffel Tower all lit up

Planet Hollywood

Looking south along the strip towards the MGM Grand and the NYC area

Looking north, Bellagio and Caesars Palace again

Looking north, MGM Grand on the left

Back to Excalibur and off to find my car – somewhere in one of the many carparks!

So that was Vegas!  I didn’t know what to make of it at the time and frankly, writing this many months later, I still don’t, although overall I think I quite enjoyed it.  This is odd as I generally dislike cities, and anything brash/gaudy, but I think with Vegas you arrive expecting it to be like that, so its ok.  You certainly won’t be disappointed, although even if you don’t gamble, you’re bound to leave with a lot less money than you came with!

Surprisingly, I would go back…

Vegas, baby!

Ah…. Las Vegas…  Where do I start?!

Well, with the mundane practicalities first, I guess – I had to go to the car hire place as the crack in my windscreen was surely illegal in a big way by now.

The local depot couldn’t help but pointed me in the direction of the main (Enterprise) office by the airport, which apparently deals with ‘swap outs’, who were very accommodating (and so they should be considering how much I have paid for the insurance cover!) and replaced the car with a slightly bigger Focus…

From there I popped back to my motel in Fremont to drop off the paperwork and pick up my stuff for the day (I was in typical ‘big city tourist mode’ and left all my usual camera gear behind, taking just my small discreet Canon S90 – in hindsight I would have been fine with the usual stuff but hey), then heading down the road to the Fremont Experience.

Welcome to Vegas! The Fremont Experience

As you enter the Fremont Experience you can’t really miss ‘Slotzilla’ – a big zipline which has a steady stream of people flying down it, some in a seated position, other more adventurous ones going prone (as per the ones below).

I was tempted for a couple of milliseconds.

People on the ‘Slotzilla’ zip line

This is the ‘low end’ of Vegas – its brash, its glitzy and its definitely gaudy but makes no attempt to portray itself as up-market.  Or if it thinks it is, its failing miserably.  But its cool, and full of tourists and street entertainers, some wearing the ‘traditional’ skimpy cabaret outfits, a few old guys wearing mankinis (I will need therapy) and the usual assortment of people wandering around dressed as Batman or Superman etc.

In amongst all that you have the odd busker (one guy playing an electric guitar was particularly good) and magicians etc with big crowds around them, and plenty of disabled people begging for money for food, or so they say.

From there I took the short (in distance) but long (in time, due to volume of traffic) journey to ‘the strip’ itself (a section of South Las Vegas Boulevard where all the famous casinos and hotels are to be found).  My route took me past the Stratosphere (a big tower/observation tower) and a bunch of wedding chapels, all looking quite tacky, as you might expect!

The Stratosphere – tallest freestanding observation tower in the US

In an attempt to bypass the traffic issues on the boulevard I took a side turning and ended up bypassing the whole area and found myself on the southern extent of the strip, near the Luxor / Mandalay Bay ‘resorts’, so dumped the car in the first available parking space I could find, of which there were very few!  The place is rammed – utterly rammed.

Delano Hotel and the Mandalay Bay casino/hotel/resort

My Lonely Planet US guide book suggested it took a long while to cover any distance on foot and that driving from one casino to the next was the best approach.  I have no idea what planet they were on when they wrote it, but struggling to find parking every 30mins or so wasn’t high on my list of things to do today, so I just dumped the car and did the rest of the day on foot.

The Luxor casino/hotel

Inside the Luxor

To be fair, seeing the strip on foot is probably the best way to do it, and many of the casinos are linked by monorails; I didn’t use them, but if you were tired and wanted to rest your feet for a bit, it would seem to make more sense than driving.

Excalibur casino/hotel

Excalibur, with one of the monorail sections

So we’ve had ancient Egypt and middle-ages-Britain, what next?

A slice on the Big Apple in the Nevada desert…

Yup, all the main sights of NYC in a few hundred metres of each other.  All on a much smaller scale, of course!

I was now directly opposite the MGM Grand casino so decided to pop over on one of the many bridges to poke around inside…

You don’t have to pay an entrance fee for the casinos (or at least, the ones I went into) – they wouldn’t want to put people off, and the more people they have wandering around, the more money they’re going to make from those people having a dabble on the numerous slot machines etc.

The Centrifuge Bar in the MGM Grand

The gaming floor – MGM Grand

The gaming floors are odd places – people wandering around in swimwear (heading to, or coming from, the pool areas which themselves were heaving), others like me in ‘normal clothes’ and a few dressed to impress in suits and cocktail dresses, even early in the day.

The machines are all electronic – I don’t think I saw a single ‘one armed bandit’ style machine in any of the casinos.  Most casinos seem to have the same machines, or variations on a theme at any rate.  I was expecting more tables (blackjack, poker etc) but they seemed to be off in separate areas – possibly with more restrictive dress codes?  The great unwashed, if you like, were to be found in around the ‘slots’.

Anyhow, having wandered around and managed not to spend a dime (when in Rome and all that) I headed back to NYC (you get the idea) and carried on up the strip…

Back in the Big Apple apparently

And having left NYC behind, it was time for Paris (of course!) ; dominated by the Eiffel Tower…

The Eiffel Tower

Eventually I came to two of the most famous of the casinos – the Bellagio, and Caesars Palace.

The Bellagio with Caesars Palace in the background

The Bellagio

As with all the other ‘major’ casinos, these are huge, huge places.  They are self contained resorts really, with shops, restaurants, the casino, pool, theatres, cinemas, conference facilities, and of course, rooms.

Both the Bellagio and ‘Palace’ have just under 4,000 guest rooms each.  A quick look on the Bellagio’s website suggests that the minimum you’ll pay for a basic room is $200 per night – typically 2-3 times that.  Some rooms were over $2,000 per night.  They are raking it in…

The Bellagio is famous (other than from Oceans 11) for the fountain/lights/music display that kicks off every 15 or 30 mins, depending on the time of day.  I caught one as I was walking past and decided to pop inside, have a drink and maybe a flutter, and wait for the sun to come down a bit and catch them when they were all lit up (because it was a bit disappointing during the day, frankly).

More in my next post…

Through the Badlands to Vegas

Continuing my journey south through Death Valley, my next stop was a scenic, one-way road loop through the Black Mountains in the area known as ‘Artists Palette’, named after the colourful rocks which, apparently, get their colours as a result of oxidation of the metals/salts they carry.  Wikipedia will tell you all about it…

Heading along Artists Drive

Artists Palette

If you can’t be bothered with the Wikipedia link, the colours are caused by:

• Red, pink, and yellow – iron salts
• Green – mica
• Purple – manganese

Artists Drive

Definitely a worthwhile detour 🙂

And from there I had just one more stop – Badwater Basin, a salt flat with the lowest elevation in North America (85m below sea level) .

Badwater Basin

Salt deposits, Badwater Basin

And from there it was just a case of getting to Vegas as quickly as I could, with of course the occasional stop to admire the view and take a pic 🙂

Saying goodbye to Death Valley and on my way to Vegas

Windscreen well and truly cracked!

The road to Vegas

That’ll be the sunset then…

I arrived in Vegas well after dark which gave me a great view of the city lights (mostly from the huge casinos and hotels) ; it was a world apart from last night in Beatty!

My home for the next 2 nights will be Ponderosa Motel in the Fremont ‘district’ ; off the main strip by quite a bit but a lot cheaper!  Seems nice enough, clean, tidy, decent sized room, and plenty of takeaway joints nearby which, after a long hot day, is all I can be bothered with right now!