Arrived at the canyon very early, now there is a surprise right????? After yet another breakfast in a car park...it was time for Amy and Neil to go their separate ways for a couple of days (Boo Hoo).
Amy's story
Since Neil had decided he was going to walk for 9 hours down and back up the canyon, i had complete freedom for 2 days! After seeing Neil off about 9.30am, god knows what he would get up to, specially with him being in charge and being with his new friend Torston!, us girlies decided we would take a nice liesurely walk around the rim of the canyon. So we jumped on a lovely leisurely bus and drove to the edge of the canyon, then strolled back having a lovely girly chat all the way back. The rim views were pretty impressive...it was not how i expected...i thought it would be a huge hole, but its a big wide gap, wih lots of lumpy rocky bits in it! Waved at Neil from the rim, not that we could even see the bottom, never mind Neil!!!!
Next was Amy's big birthday treat! Neil had said amy could fly over the canyon as a birthday present, as i coudn't be arsed to walk down it! (No the reason i didn't walk down was because i was full of a cold, there was also the fact that i hate bloody hills...oh yeah and the fact that im not insane!). So off we went to the airport, 6 of us i n total.
On arrival at the airport we realised what dumn arses we were and that we didn't have national park re-entry passes, tried to get hld of Jimmy but couldn't, oh well....we were sure they would let us back in, what with are charm and all! Had to wait ages to fly as just as we arrived a storm started, so what do you do to while away the hours? - play Shithead on the airport floor!!!! We finally got our airtime, late afternoon. And wow was it worth waiting for!
We boarded our little 7 seater plane and took off. Couldn't see the canyon at first, but had amazing views of the surrounding desert and mountains, then we flew over the rim! It was way cool, i never dreamed the canyon was so big! It took us 10 minutes to fly across the width of it!!!!! The rock formations and meandering river at the bottom are pretty damn impressive, not beautiful as such, but impressive none the less! We flew along the length of the canyon, for 50 minutes in total...was awesome! (Have to point out that Sarah and Anna managed to fall asleep in the plavne and i felt sick - as it was far from a smooth ride, and so damn hot!) Was an amazing experience though
Back at camp, had wierd food - potato and onion soup and salad, then ran off to see the sunset at the rim. Was looking forward to watching the seunset over the rim with a glass of wine, but lost others on way to rim, was knackered when we got there, was nearly dark and bloody couldy. Couldn't even have that drink, as glass bottles were not allowed by the rim! So turned out to be a big disappointment! Sat by the campfire for the rest of the night, drowning my sorrows with a bottle of wine and a packet of fags and worried about whether neil was okay somewhere at the bottom of the canyon.
Day 2 - had a lovely lie in....got up and wandered around aimlessly like a lost sheep waiting for Neil to return!!! Was quite nice to just chill! Heard good news at about 8am, when some of the others returned from half way, that he and Torston were alive and well and half way camp, if perhaps a little worse for wear!
Neil finally arrived back at about 10.30, boy was i glad to see him!! He looked absolutley knackered - i am so glad i didn't try and do it!!!!!!! Put Neil to bed, but he was a naughty boy and wouldn't sleep, so we decided to explore the rim by bus!!!!!
Stopped at the trail head where Neil started and walked a few foot down the trail - now i can say i went into the canynon too!!!!! Was hard enough just climbing up that little bit - proving my opinion that Neil really was insane!
Treated Neil to an eice-cream, afterall he did deserve it!!! Checked out the visitor centre and then headed back as my poor little Neil was tired!!
Back at camp it all started to go mental! Sarah decided we should play flip-cup, a drinking game, so i reluctantly ...of course...joined in!! The game involves downing drinks then flipping the cup your drink was in! Was great fun, but fortunately we had to stop for food. Ate food...can't even remember what it was!! Then went to the rim to watch another 'amazing' sunset! This one was actually quite good. Wasn't dark or cloudy! And it was mad better by the storm which had begun to circle around the canyon! Jimmy was intent on getting drunk, and insisted we opened the bottle of wine we had just bought! Oh yeah and Neil got scared when i went too close to the edge!! The big wuss!!!!When the heavens opened and the storm got scarily close we headed back to camp, were obviously the drinking games continued! Drank far too much, we all did, we actually ran out of alcohol, and had to raid the drinks cooler for anything we could find! Jimmy was stupidly drunk too! Started passing a bottle of Jamesons round, and that finshed me off!!!! Incidentally sorry Rob for drinking the Jamesons, it was just too tempting!!! A brilliant last night....i know i will regret it in the morning!
Neils story......
I went for a walk, it was a long way downhill, got to the bottom, had a lemonade,swam in my panties, got told off by ranger for pussy feeding,had beer, got up early, walked uphill, was very tired, too hot, couldnt sleep,built a house, was fun, drank lots, slept, amen!!!!!
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