Another bitterly cold start to the day, which is not too surprising as we were out of the tent while it was still dark to watch the sunrise over the canyon. A couple of wrong turns, including walking through a graveyard, and we found ourselves standing on the rim, just as the sun broke the horizon.
After a couple of hours of Britsail admin in the warmth of the cafeteria, not made any easier by no phone signal and a slower than dial-up Wi-Fi, we spent the day exploring the area of the Grand Canyon accessible both on foot and using the shuttle bus service.
We bumped into David again while taking a shuttle bus out to the most distant viewpoint accessible by free park transport, Hermits Rest. We also had a conversation with a Greek couple about Brexit, and on the last shuttle run of the day, I even spent time explaining to an elderly gentleman from Iowa who asked everyone around him if they liked baseball, that in the UK it’s called rounders and is only played by pre-adolescence school girls… I don’t think he took offence!
Having calculated that it’s another 13 days to Santa Monica Pier and given tomorrow’s weather forecast of a sub-zero day when taking wind chill into consideration, we have decided to stay here one more day, with a little more chilling (in both senses) than we did today.
The food choice for veggies is very limited, so for the second night, we have dined on a very mediocre pizza and spent the time sitting in the dining hall plotting our last 13 days on Route 66 to the level of detail that it clearly will not go according to plan.
The Park Rangers are telling those on the campground that it could drop to zero fahrenheit tonight (-17 centigrade), but we are banking on that being an exaggeration. The next 10 hours will confirm one way or the other!! ❄😬⛄
