Travelling through the Desert - Palm Springs, Phoenix, Sedona - By Al

Hi everyone,

We have finally started our 'real' tour! Saturday saw us head West through Palm Springs into Arizona, where the scenery was quite barren but spectacular - mountain ranges lay endlessly before us and cactus plants started building up from a mere foot high to 8 feet tall!



Clockwise: Cam in the streets of Palm Springs; Cam in the Mojave Desert just outside of Phoenix; Alison and her first cactus encounter; Alison enquires as to the chances of meeting a snake or scorpion on this bus break...

We spent our first evening in the resort town of Carefree, Arizona and were treated to a 'real live cowboy show!' which was corny but fun.



HR - In Carefree?!; Marshal Pioneer Pepper and the Sunset Pioneer Cowboy music band


Sunday (yesterday) was greeted with Cam and I rising at 3.45am (!!!) to take our first ever air balloon flight over the Mojave Desert. It was very exciting firstly chasing the wind for the perfect launch and then watching the balloons being inflated before taking off for an hour of floating over the desert. After we landed, we were treated to a champayne breakfast in the dessert...ahhh..

Next, we joined the bus group again and had lunch in the red rock town of Sedona, before heading up the mountain towards an afternoon in the Grand Canyon.


Bell Rock in Sedona

Unfotunately, 1/2 an hour out of Sedona saw our bus break down and we were stranded - albeit in a nice location - for the next 5 hours! So we arrived at the hotel late last night and are off to see the Canyon this morning, along with Monument Valley - promises to be an exciting day!


Not a bad place for a bus to break down...Jim, our Tour guide, takes the situation in hand.