If there are a few things I remember from
our “holiday around the world”, one will be that holidays are not all about
sleeping in and room service. The simple
fact is we have squeezed the life out of almost every single day in the last 6
months and our day at Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon was no exception. We had to get up at the crack of a sparrow’s
fart and drag our bleary-eyed selves into the car for a fairly long drive over
to Page.
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| You'd never guess what was in that crack |
Only yesterday though, we were also
agreeing how no journey we’ve undertaken has been a waste of time. This one was no exception. The route was along an almost perfectly
straight road as the sun rose and shone down on an empty landscape of red cliff
and orange sands, green(ish) bushes and a long straight yellow line down the
middle of our jet black highway. It was
somehow a very peaceful drive and really helped pull us into the land of the
living…. slowly.
There isn’t a hell of a lot to see, until
you get to Page and then you’ve a hydroelectric plant and the great Lake Powell
over to your left. Then we were in town
and finding our way to the tour operator’s office. We sure as hell weren’t in Soho now!
When our man arrived we had another prime
example how flexibility and “going with the flow” (how I hate that expression!)
are key requirements on our trip. There
is certainly a lot to be said for planning and pre-booking, but sometimes plans
will go awry. As our man said we would
be kayaking the lake in the afternoon and visiting the canyon in the morning,
we were a little put out, but took it in our stride. After all – what was the net difference to
us?
As it turned out – a LOT. You see Antelope Canyon is truly an
astoundingly beautiful canyon. So good,
it attracts thousands of visitors almost every single day of the year, from all
over the world. It is also run by the
local Indian population as one of the grossest examples of a “cash cow”. Seriously, they literally could not squeeze
any more people in there without widening the thing! So arriving as one of the first groups in the
Canyon was a blessing in disguise. As it
was, our tour was made up of 3 cars of 8 people each and when we arrived there
were already 5 other vehicles there…..at 8.15am.
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So it became a slow procession (or
queue/line) through one of nature’s wonders, taking photos at just the right
points that our guide helpfully pointed out to us. On the one hand, it was nice to have her
point these places out, on the other hand, it just hammered home how many times
she must have done that precise same tour and how “unmagical” it was so close
to being.
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| the heart |
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| Sunrise over Monument Valley |
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| Kissing a Panda Bear |
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| the wave |
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| Reality |
However, all my cynicism aside over what
the ridiculous money the natives charge to visit the place is being used for
and whether or not the average native child’s life is any better for it, I am very
glad we visited Antelope Canyon; it’s stunning.
A visual delight, how the rock has been carved by water and wind over
time to create the waveforms and light traps that characterize this world
famous slot canyon.
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| All a bit of a blur in the crowds |
As we left, in some bizarre quirk of reality
that had me thinking I had slipped into another dimension, I found myself
completely alone in a stretch of canyon about 30 metres long. Given I had just forced myself past about 120
people, it was astonishing….so I managed to quickly take a bunch of photos that
showed us “Here’s what you COULD have won” …..had we been explorers in the
wilderness.
Back on the bus we met a Swiss couple and
had a typical tourist conversation.
You know the type:
How long have you been going?
Where did you start?
Oh yeah? Wow…would you recommend this…or
that?
Oh and you MUST visit this place!
Which was actually kind of cool in a
clichéd and eye-rolling way, because sharing our little gems that either we
have found or people have passed on to us felt nice. It was good to pass on knowledge that would
help other people for free.
We had time to kill and had been
recommended to take a trip to Horseshoe Bend.
Which is, basically, where the river does a U-Bend in the desert. I know…. it doesn’t sound that
impressive.
We travelled out there and yes, it was
pretty.
But once again, the volume of people that were
doing precisely the same thing as us was kind of annoying.
It was also weird, because as we parked up
all you could see was desert, then you hike up the hill and look down into a
canyon the river has carved and see the wonderful Technicolor display that
nature has put on for you.
There were pedaloes down on the river and
between the ridiculous heat, the volume of other people and Julia’s heat
intolerance….we took a few photos and walked as fast as her feet would let us,
back to the car.
With nothing to do for the next hour, we
just parked up outside the kayaking office and …..slept J Well, that is to say, I slept and Julia listened to me snore
happily.
With us we had a fairly large group; a
family of Scots, a family of Yanks and a Danish couple, who turned out to be a
lovely pair from Copenhagen. As the
Danes were driving a sportier car and we had a bit of off-roading to do to get
to the put in for the kayaks, we offered to drive them down and got to know
them a little.
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| "A Paddle Named Werner" |
Then it was onto the water in our kayaks
for two and we realized that it wasn’t quite the trip we had hoped for. Sure Lake Powell is lovely and there is
technically a canyon to be “explored”, but somehow I don’t think the great
explorers of years gone by would have been too impressed with our 200m gentle
paddle up a hole in the rock to find a dead end. There was a lot of tumbleweed in the water,
which kept me interested….for a few minutes.
We did a get a chance to swim around a
little, which was a nice break from the sun and was a big change from all the
desert action we had encountered over the last few weeks. So, though not an adrenalin-fueled,
action-packed adventure, our trip was fun enough. This was all to change though and very
fast. I’ve had my fair share of sailing
and such like to know that large bodies of water can turn nasty at a moment’s
notice and sure enough, Lake Powell obliged.
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| Not happy about that thunderstorm coming along |
In the space of 5 minutes a slow-burning
thunderstorm with the odd bit of lightening had whipped itself into a
wind-swept nightmare. The surface
currents and wind, combined with the waves large enough to wash over the open
kayaks suddenly became almost dangerous.
I say almost, because the water was warm and we were wearing life preservers,
so it would have been bloody difficult to drown. But still, there was certainly an element of
panic in the air from Julia’s end of the boat and our guides were taking no
chances.
Once we had acquired the relative safety of
shelter against a rock face (which frankly didn’t afford THAT much shelter),
Julia calmed a little and suggested we all raft up…..which I was a little
embarrassed not to have remembered myself!
Back in New Zealand we had been taught this technique as a way of
ensuring you didn’t capsize. So the 2
boats of the Scots and the Danish couple and us all sidled along to each other
and stretched out our paddles, taking hold of each other and formed a raft
which was a LOT more stable than each of us on our own.
Unfortunately the poor American family and
their 2 young boys didn’t have the strength to deal with the conditions so they
had to be towed back to a little cove and we all paddled over together as fast
as possible.
Standing on the side of the lake, in the
wind and wet to the skin was a little uncomfortable, but like I mentioned, no
one was going to die, so we just grinned and bared it. Then after a while it all died down enough
for us to quickly get back into the boats and make a dash for shore.
Whilst we did this dash Julia became
increasingly agitated at our inability to go in a straight line. This had caused an increase in panic levels
earlier when the storm had been raging, but now things had calmed a little, she
had a chance to point out (repeatedly) to me, the pilot, that I wasn’t doing my
job very well. Because I was heavier, I
got the back seat. Because I had the
back seat I was in charge of steering.
Because we constantly favoured our right had side I was clearly not
doing my job properly.
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| Paddling in a circle |
Until I stopped paddling altogether and
silently watched Julia paddle us in a circle.
Yes dear reader, it WASN’T my fault ….but I
shan’t gloat too much J
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| "Driving Miss Daisy" |
Though the wind had died down, the
lightening and thunder hadn’t and Julia was far from impressed about being so
exposed and on a body of water. So, as I
was in the back, another of my jobs turned out to be the “motor” of the
boat. I was put to work and we powered
home safely. Julia jumped out a
different lady, all smiles and joy, happy to be on terra firma once more.
It turned out that the Danish couple were
staying a couple of days in Kanab, so we jumped on the chance of entertaining
and asked them if they wanted to join us for dinner that evening. An invitation they accepted graciously (which
means they brought the booze!) and over a classy meal of buffalo wings and
sausages we marinated ourselves then repaired to the living room where we
continued discussing politics, religion, immigration and all manner of subjects
that a Dane, a Franco/Armenian, a German and a Dane of Korean descent should
probably not discuss.
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| Ditte and Lasse |
Happily Lasse and Ditte (both working for
the Danish Government) had just as many opinions as our friends know we have
and were not scared to weigh in with them.
By about 1am we were all a little tired and they left us. We were happy to have been able to share our
travels with another set of great people.
Tomorrow we had planned a trip to Zion
National Park and one of the most highly rated hikes in the world at Angel’s
Landing. Funnily enough, this meant
another early start! Fancy that!
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