Our Honeymoon!

We woke up early to made our way to the trek hotel - Paul went over the road to McDonalds to pick up some breakfast and by the time he got back the taxi had arrived that the hotel had ordered for us - It was a luxury car with leather seats and everything. I am sure the driver appreciated us making it smell like a sausage and egg McMuffin!

We arrived at the trek hotel quite early - there were a few people milling about with backpacks so we found a seat on a settee and waited until the trek leader arrived. When they did the one trek leader called out a tour name and all of the young good looking people went with him and we were left with all of the oldies!

Paul had seen a guy standing up in an Albion shirt and he said that he thought that he was going to be funny. We all went around and introduced ourselves. There was actually quite a good mix of people - all ages and from a few different countries. Our leader was a guy called Chris who looked like a surfer dude. We checked our extra bag into reception and made our way out to the van that would be taking us around for the next 2 weeks.

When we got to the van Chris asked if anyone had any dietary requirements - a few people put their hands up to say that they were vegetarians - Paul put his hand up and said he was an anti-vegetarian! Everybody laughed but then Paul said that he was serious! Chris also said that he was happy to have all kinds of music playing apart from Britney which Catherine wasn’t happy about!
We all then got into the van and Chris explained that the back of the bus was the worst place to sit because you couldn’t hear any music and the air con didn’t go that far back - everyone said that because we were a couple then we could have the back to ourselves! This worked out really well because there was enough room to fit almost 4 people on. Everybody else was crammed onto smaller seats in lines of 3.

We then set off and had a mini tour around LA - we went to a lot of the places that we had been a few days before so we didn’t really take many pictures. We did go down Rodeo Drive so Cath posed for a few photos. We then set off to a place called Lake Havasu in Arizona. On the way we passed London Bridge - the legend is that the local man who purchased it thought he was actually buying Tower Bridge - I bet he had a shock when he saw this one arrive!

We arrived at the campsite which was really cool. There was only one other person staying at the site and it was right on the riverbank. Chris got all of the equipment out of the van and showed us how to put up the tents. We didn’t have much trouble putting ours up and we got settled in. A few people then suggested going for a swim in the river so we got changed and got into the water - it was freezing! Paul decided that he was going to try and swim out to an island in the middle of the river. The current was really strong and Paul nearly drowned - he admitted when he got back that it was a stupid idea!

Chris explained to us all that we would have a rota of things to do, either cook, clean the plates or clean the van. We were put with a guy called James who seemed like a nice guy. For the first night Chris did the cooking - it was rice mixed with vegetables! Paul realised that if you put loads of curry powder in it then it was almost edible!

After dinner we all had a few beers and sat on the river bank - the sky was so clear and you could see more stars than we had ever seen before - there was not a cloud in the sky and the Milky Way was visible. We then saw a shooting star which we had never seen before - one of the girls called Stella was trying to take photos of them but without any success. When she went to the toilet we saw one that lasted for about 5 seconds and shot all the way across us - it was amazing! We all laughed at Stella for missing it!

We stayed up until 2ish and then settled in for our first night in the tent.