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Rocks, Trees & Fault Lines: Back Into California
When you imagine temperatures of over 110F (43C), you picture blistering sunshine and the need to find shade, yet for a good part of our drive across the desert from the Grand Canyon to Joshua Tree, the temperature gauge is up there above that number yet the skies are consistently overcast. It even rains a couple of times. When we step out of the car for a break, we are hit by a wall of heat incompatible with the cloudy skies above. Leaving the Interstate 140, we drive south west through some extraordinarily barren country, miles of dead straight road through open land. Once past the salt flats at Amboy…
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The Grandest Of Canyons
It’s only ten days since we crossed off a bucket list item with the seaplane flight over San Francisco, and now here we are boarding our first ever helicopter with pen metaphorically poised to cross off another. Is there conceivably a better place to do this than here at the Grand Canyon? A brief walk to the Bright Angel trailhead on the day of our arrival has given us our first glimpses of this wonder of the world, so our excitement levels as we receive our safety briefings are absolutely off the scale. There’s a short delay to check the craft – a bird has hit the windshield on its…
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Nostalgia Trip #8: Peak District Weekend
The long drive from Aberaeron to our next destination at Ashford-in-the-Water in the Peak District takes us over the Welsh mountains and around Shrewsbury and Stoke and turns into a fairly tortuous journey with precious few major roads. It’s only 180 miles but it takes five hours. It’s fitting that this prettiest of Derbyshire villages should be our base for the weekend, and even more fitting that our planned walks include a hike through Monsal Dale. Growing up in Mickleover, on the edge of the city of Derby but within easy reach of the Peak, it was a common feature of my childhood to take off for weekend family walks…
