11-18 June

Route: Flagstaff-South Rim-Marble Canyon-South Rim

We now realize the importance of selecting a campground away from a railway line. Every time a train went past it felt and sounded like it was going right through our tent. The good news was, we were up super early, so could enjoy the back road from Flagstaff to South Rim.

We had had a little rain overnight and the temperature had really plummeted, people were walking around Grand Canyon dressed like Eskimos. I finally managed to buy a Tilley hat. Mannie may recall the Canadian we met at Nyika Plateau in Malawi, who showed us his. Apparently, simply the best outdoors hat in the world, or so he said. For $91, it even comes with a 4 page manual & a 2 year full insurance replacement scheme. The shuttle we booked to Marble Canyon, left bang on time. By this stage the wind was blowing a gale, it was freezing.

At 20:00 we met all the river guides and fellow rafters, for a briefing. The guides really looked like a motley crew of hippie, grass smoking beach bums, but turned out to be really good guys & girls, all with university degrees, mostly school teachers, who do this for the summer.

We set off early Sunday in temperatures 30 degrees cooler than normal, which was great ‘til we hit the first rapid. The water at Lees Ferry, not far below the Glen Canyon dam wall is in the 7-8C range, as the water they release via the turbines is taken from about 300 feet below the water surface. Lorna & our new Texan friend, Dawn, nearly froze to death, they were shaking like leaves.

Rafting is a very laid back affair, most of the time we spent quietly floating down the petrol green Colorado, broken every so often with a frenetic adrenaline rush, as we went through the rapids. Most days we do a hike into a side canyon, which are really great.

Red Wall Cavern, is a massive cave that has been eroded into the red wall limestone, it has been estimated that 50000 men could stand in it, today its mostly used by rafters to play baseball etc.

Our guides were all very experienced, KJ the tour leader has been ‘on the river’ for 30 years, & has done more than 100 full 15 day trips. We enjoyed been on the raft with Mark, he is quieter & gave good info about the geology, history of the canyon etc.

Lunches were spent on a sandy beach, normally with some shade, which was welcome as the temps soon started rising to the more normal 38-43C range.

The food was excellent, with any left over’s been thrown away, a great waste. What was rather strange for us, is that all liquid waste, incl soapy water, urine etc is put in the river and only the solid waste is carried out. Apparently as the land receives so little rain and the Colorado being such a high volume river, this is the most environmentally friendly way. They are also paranoid about clean hands, requiring everyone to wash there hands & then apply a sanitizer, before eating. Dishes are washed in 4 bowels, 2 with boiling water and one with a bleach type solution.

The guides do all the work, we were only required to help move the bags, mattresses etc off & on the boats each day & to wash our plate & fork. Each evening they set up a pee bucket for the ladies & a toilet, which is an old metal ammunition case, complete with seat etc, a rather sophisticated bush toilet.

The scenery from the rafts was spectacular, with the upper canyon being relatively wide, while the last day or so we float through sheer cliffs that rise steeply from the river. All in all we raft 87 miles and the river drops about 800 feet. The gradient of the river can easily be seen when you are at water level in the rafts. As we travel further, additional rock layers become visible, with the youngest being about 180 million years old to when we take out at Phantom Ranch were the rocks are 1.8 billion years old. On the 4^th day we pass an area known as The Great Unconformity. Here, 2 layers of rock meet, but there is a difference in age of approximately 1.3 billion years, between the layers. The ‘missing’ rock has been for the most part, eroded away before the newer rock that we see today was deposited. We pass sections that have not been fully eroded, but still there is ‘no rock’ for a period of over 500 million years.

One day we round a bend in the river, before us, a magnificent sight where the turquoise water of the Little Colorado meets the deep green Colorado River. 11 miles up stream, calcium rich water bubbles to the surface at place which is most sacred to the local Native Indian’s, known as The Place of Emergence, giving the water its beautiful colour.

We had a great fun racing down the warm, fast flowing river, wearing our life jackets like nappies, to protect our rears.

At the end of each day, we crept into our sleeping bags, on a tarp laid out on the soft sand, looked up at the clear skies, with a billions stars shining down on us…………………and once again reminded ourselves, how lucky we are.

On our final morning on the mighty Colorado, the early sunlight seemed to accentuate the height of the narrow canyon cliffs, as we drifted the last 2 miles to Piper Creek. We had seen the trail in the distance from North Rim, a week ago & we had been briefed on how best to ascend this grueling, yet beautiful trail. We took our first steps back to the future, from the 1.8 billion year old rocks on the rivers edge to the Bright Angel Hotel which stands 1600 meters, above us.

From the river you gain altitude rapidly on the 13km long Bright Angel trail, via the section of the known as The Corkscrew, after about 7 k’s we reach the first water point, Indian Gardens. We stop for a snack and relax for a few minutes under the shady Cottonwood trees. We traverse the relatively flat Indian Gardens plateau, the temperature having risen to over 40C sap our energy and our packs seem to bore into our backs. The gentle incline soon changes into long, dusty switchbacks, finally we rise up above the 500 foot high Red Wall Sandstone cliffs we had rafted next to for 2 days. Lorna feeling stronger today, led the way, stopping every now again in a patch of shade, to rest & admire the beauty around us. Drawing on our reserves and the promise of a bowl of ice cream, we finally ‘summit’, 5hrs20minutes after leaving the river. Exhausted but elated………what a week!