Monument Valley and an early halloween

Heres part 2 of our catch up posts...:

Ok, so for all those who have seen Forrest Gump you may recollect the point where he decides to stop running and go home. On route to Monument valley we passed that very spot and played chicken with the passing traffic as we tried to get some pics of us in action. No casualties and some good group shots later we headed on to our first real cultural experience of the trek. We were really excited, cause we are sad like that… and we were gonna get to meet some Navajo Indians and stay the night in one the their traditional Hogons (mud homes that look a bit like an igloo, but orange and with a complex wooden structure thing inside). This was also the first time we were gonna get to stay in the heart of one of these incredible landscapes away from other campers and hikers.

The reserve was AMAZING, the whole world as far as you could see was deep reds and oranges… exaggerated by the fact that we arrived pretty much at sunset. We were picked up by Marvin… possibly the funniest guy we met on the whole trip… in his make-shift tour jeep on which we feared for our lives at every turn. I think that his true calling was to be a stunt driver cause that is the only reason I can imagine why he would hit the accelerator at every sharp corner or vertical drop. He took us around the valley, pointed out the shapes in the towering rocks and told us any myths or stories about them. As the sun went down he took us to some rock carvings that he had to illuminate with a torch. That only made it more atmospheric. Last thing before heading to the hogons, he took us to a cave with the shape of an eagle on the ceiling where we lay back whilst he sang us some native songs.

At the camp we were served a delicious meal and danced and sang around the fire before heading off to our sleeping bags in the hogon. Just before we turned into bed we did some star gazing and I saw the brightest shooting star EVER. Perfect. In the morning we were up before the sunrise and headed out to get some pics as the sun crept over the horizon. Despite the fact the Elmer (our Navajo informer) made no sense at all and managed to avoid answering any question with a structured sentence, I would recommend this trip to everyone! For those wondering where monument valley is… for oldies John Wayne films were set here… for middle-agers Back to the Future 3 (bit at the start with the Indians and cavalry) was here and if both of the above are before your time Will Smiths Wild Wild West film, Mission Impossible 2 (the bit at the start where he is rock climbing) and one of Metallica’s rock videos were all here as well.


Easterns Halloween,
Ok, so somewhere along the trip we had decided to have an early Halloween party, carve pumpkins, dress up and dance the night away. Don’t know how that happened… but as I’ve always wanted to celebrate a proper American Halloween I was pretty chuffed with the whole idea! After an on-route dip in the controversial Lake Powell, we made our way to a super Wal-Mart to put together some creepy consumes. Now Adam really took the word CREEPY and ran with it. In fact he ran with it sooo far that barely anyone would dare say a word to him later that night. Everyone else had dressed up as zombies, vampires, clowns, witches … the usual. Adam however being the creative little being that he is donned a skin-suit and a tranny mask. Then he covered himself in fake blood and carried a butchers knife around with him. I’ll say no more. We made some delicious punch and had an awesome night.