Sunday 16 August 2009

Last Post From America....


Well...I guess this is the moment where I get all sobre, emotional, thoughtful, philosophical and what have you. To be honest, I dont know how many people actually follow this blog. I write it for myself, so I can look back on the great experiences, as well as for everyone else.

As I lie here in my bed, about to have my last night's sleep in America for what could a number of years, I think about all the fantastic and amazing things we have seen and done and the memories I will have... Lewis peak, Southern Utah, Arches, Devils Garden, Fiery Furnace, Moab, The Grand Canyon, Phantom Ranch, the rattlesnakes, camping on picnic tables, Californian Condors, Golden Eagles, Laying in a stream to cool of in 112 degree heat, Monument Valley, Mexican Hat, Page, the Indians, Zion National Park, Angels Landing, The Tetons, The bear, Dissappointment Peak, The Chute, Jenny's Lake, Hidden Falls, Yellowstone, seeing moose, Bison, Elk, Old Faithful Bison and Elk burgers, the thermal pools, all the weird and wonderful bugs, Tony Grove, The boy drowning, the huge cave, Naomi Peak, Antelope Island, another snake, The old farmhouse, Gateway, Temple Square, so much camping, The great camping food, the mountains around utah, the Great Salt Lake, Bear Lake, Logan, This Is The Place Monument, The fast food places, Rock Band, going to see MLS All-Stars and Real Salt Lake games, The big SUV's, Mexicans, The whole Taylor family, Ben Lomond Peak, the bees, Pine View Dam, mountain goats, the accent, District 9, how great everyone has been to me, thousands of lizards, white water rafting, swimming in the lakes, wheeler canyon, Idependance Day, Wal-Mart, pelicans, the gold course, Oquirre Mountain Temple, and playing football with the guys...to name a few.

So you can see.... We've certainly had quite a few cool, exciting, exhileration and rare experience's, that most people dont ever have and I hope I will be able to do them again.

I am really going to miss Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona. In fact Ill miss just being here and the people here. It is SUCH a wonderful place that I love so much. I am without a doubt coming to University here and I may even move here some day if I can.



I am not really looking foreward to my flight back tommorow, although Nathan and Britney gave me these special tablets that help you sleep so that should make it easier. It will be cool to fly trans-atlantic by myself though. It will be nice to playe football again properly.

I hope you have enjoyed what I write about being here. I am not really a good writer but I have at least portreyed a basic discription of things here. I'm am sure I will be telling lots of stories to people who ask and who don't when I get back, so if you want me to expand on anything I have written, just ask.

So althought my stint in the United States is over, there is still plenty more to come. I have still got Norway, The North Down's Way 130 mile hike, Northern Ireland, Snowdonia, Denmark, Sardinia and Scotland to write about. Along with many more exciteing things that I do in Ashford (Although I wont bore you with everyday stuff, after all, this is supposed to be for travelling and the more exciting things).

So don't worry, you definately havn't heard the last of me...



Match Day...

Yesteday we got up and went to see a movie called 'District 9'. It was ablosutly amazing. The while thing was so good. I reccomend it to everyone. Although....it had ALOT of swearing in it.....

We then went to eat at happy sumo, where I got a very nice Vegas Roll, and we went on to watch the Real Salt Lake Vs Houston Dynamo match.

It was a good match. The final score was 0 - 0 but lots of players got booked and 2 got sent off which made it interesting. Wayne came with me, Nathan and Britney and we met Carver there and his friend Aubrey. So good all in all.

On the way back we went to Carl's Jr's for one last time before I go. Im gona miss those burgers...


Friday 14 August 2009

Ben Lomond Peak, Pine View Dam E.C.T


Hello all.

Well, my big trip to America is sadly drawing to an end. I'll only have a few more post before I leave to go bac
k home.

My time here has been absolutely amazing, but I'll leave the final speech till the end shall I? Haha.

The last few days have been very exciting and fun.

On Tuesday we climbed Ben Lomond Peak. This is a
mountain that is Just north of Ogden. It is 2,960 meters high, and is the mountain used for the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo.


Early Scottish Settlers came here and like the mountain, so they named it after the the mountain "Ben Lomond" in Scotland. (Which I hope I can climb when I go to Scotland in October, as I would Like to Climb both).

Anyway, back to the story, we parked at the North Ogden Divide to get to the trailhead. The trail to get to The peak was 8.2 miles long, so we were in for a 16.4 mile hike. We started along the trail. The trail was a nice one. It was full of wildflowers and many different types of wildlife. Half way up we found a cockroach/beetle thing and we picked it up to have a look at it. I dared Nathan to eat it and I told
Him that if he did I would buy him a Liverpool shirt. He almost did, but didnt because he didnt know if it was edible or not.

So we carried on walking up the trail, until we passd through a big large area of wild flowers. It was very pretty and we hadn't had a resrt for a while so we sat down for a rest. I ate an apple to give me a little more energy. Apples are so much better than cereal bars energy and taste wise. So we were just stadning there (well, Britney was sitting) and I was talking to nathan. He had his back to the next part of the trail that was towards the peak, and I was talking to him so I had my back towards the part of the trail we had just come from, so we had just come uphill. As I was talking to Nathan, I heard this lound engine-like humming noise. I looked above and behind him and I saw THE MOST ENOURMOUS SWARM OF BEES I CAN IMAGINE (I wont say 'that I have ever seen as I have never seen a swarm before this) It - Was - HUGE!. And it was coming straight for us. I looked with wide eyes and just said "Oh my goodness" and then turned and bolted. Britneyh didn't even look at the bees she just ran, and Nathan turned, took one look at the bees and then scarpered as well. As he ran he could hear the bees following us. We ran about 1/3 of a mile back down the trail before we dared to stop and see if the bees were still chasing us. but for some reason, they had stopped. We were luckly. If those bees had really wanted us, we would have been dead. I would rather face a bear than be attacked by a huge swarm or bee's like that as at least with a bear you can attampt to run or fight or climb a tree or shoot it. With bee's you can do nothing. So yeah...that was scary..but it was still fun and a cool experience!

We reached the top of the peak in fairly good time. The view was amazing! We could see the Whole of Salt Lake and the surrounding area, we could see The Great Salt Lake, Willard Bay, Antelope Island and loads more. There was a metal box on top wth a book where we could write our names and sign it.



So that was nice. We went back down the trail really quickly so that we could go to Maddox. Maddox is an AMAZING steakhouse. It served me the best steak I have ever had. It was a 32oz...yes thats right 32oz porterhouse!!!! SO SO SO GOOD! haha. That was cool.

The next day was a more relaxing day. We got up around 11am and went to The Oaks just below Pine View Dam. Its a nice riverside, outdoor restaurant that sells nice sandwiches and things. I had this pulled pork sandwich. But..more imporantly I found a snake there. It was so cool, in fact I found 2 snakes, but I only picked up one of the because the other one (the smaller one) was too fast to catch. I did get a photo of both of them though.






Next we hit Pine view Reservoir. It was nice. The weather was really hot so we swam in the lake (which is better than the sea as its freshwater, except there are no waves which isnt as good), and we lay on the beach in the hot sun. It was a nice relaxing day after the Ben Lomond Hike.




Yesterday I didnt really do that much exept go on a 5k run and then do 60 push up which was hard. 5k at this altitude kills me too. Hopefully when I get back I suddenly find that I am fitter and a lower altitude.

Tommorow we are going to lagoon and to see Real Salt Lake play Houston Dynamo. :D

Ill keep you updated.


Wednesday 12 August 2009

Tony Grove & Bear Lake






Last week we went to a camping ground up in the mountain of Northern Utah called Tony Grove. It was a nice relaxing campground and it was set to be a nice relaxing week (but not too relaxing, we certainly made sure of that), which would be nice after having so much energetic stuff all the time (which is great by the way).

We arrive early on Monday morning so we could book our campsites and get set up early. The campsite was nice and high up and was a great place to camp, it the midst of a large pine forest, about 2,300 meter elevation, thick mose and mountain lion country, with an amazing and beautifully clear lake right next to it where you could swim, fish, boat or hike around.

On the camp also came Reed, John and Kary and their kids, Wayne and Kristie and their kids, Nate and Cathy and their kids, Cade and Brianna and Kids, and of course Nathan & Britters. Jocelyn and her mother came for a few days as did Karrisa &Kids (Brandons wife). (All the husbands are Britneys brothers except for Reed who is her dad and Nathan (not 'Nate') who is her husband). The first full day we had (Tuesday) we spent just hanging arounf camp, doing short walks, relaxing and swimming in the lake. It was nice. On some of the days there we did an 800m swi in the lake with wet suits on (Me, Wayne, John and Cade). That was fun. During this swim and at the halfway point we would swim in the clear water with the trout. This was really cool as there were rainbow trout, brook trout and browns. The next day we were swimming in the lake and a boy drowned as I was rowing across the lake with the kids (I didnt know he had drowned until after he was dead). I dropped the kids at the shore and me and Cade had to row around Wayne and John and Nate who were looking for his body to make sure they were ok if they got tired. Scary stuff.

The next day we went to Bear Lake this was very fun and almost like the sea except fresh water. We rowed out in the dingy, and had gladiator wars. Me, Nate, Nathan, Britney, Cade, John and Wayne then played kick ups in the water for ages.

The next day we climbed Mt Naomi. It was just over 3,200m. High! It was a very fun climb and had an amazing view!! Excellent.

We had t pack up all our stuff in the rain which was very cold but it was so nice when Kristie made us all hot cholocate/hot cider with chees on toast from her trailer.

So yeah...great week! One thing I forgot to mention is that I love the fact that everyone here is like "Oh..I love your accent!"