A walk on the wild side

Wednesday 20th November

Despite our intention to use these precious days in the desert to relax and recover our normal energy levels.....we had again decided to use all the daylight hours at our disposal and get up as soon as it was light. Consequently the alarm was set for 5.45am, or at least mine was. Martin had somehow managed to set his for 2.45am and cheerfully told me it was time to get up.  I was a bit puzzled as to why my alarm hadn't gone off until I checked the time. What a relief not having to get up for another 4 hours!

Our host, Dave, sets off on a 4 mile hike every day at 6am and had invited us to join him. We fully intend to do so but today we needed to run so although we set off at the same time as him we went off in different directions and at a different pace. We had planned to run back down the entrance road on a fairly mundane out and back route to try and do some miles at a decent pace.  This proved rather harder than expected, it was surprisingly difficult to run on the track due to the loose sand and washboard effect.  We did manage one 6 minute mile on the way out but as soon as we turned we realised that we had been running slightly downhill! On the way back it was a real hard slog and all thoughts of speed were rapidly dismissed.  I felt really depressed at how hard I was working to run very slowly after two days of almost complete rest. It wasn't until later that I remembered that we are at an altitude of almost 5000 feet which hopefully is the reason.

We had a leisurely breakfast whilst watching the birds, chipmunks and rabbits busily snacking on the seed we had distributed just outside the window. The whole desert seemed to be teeming with life as they scuttled around.

The weather forecast had been "partially cloudy" and for cooler temperatures but as we set off the sky was a clear blue and we soon needed to shed layers. Rosie, the rescue dog, had decided to accompany us on our hike and we set off due west from the back of the cabin with no clear destination in mind. It was surprisingly difficult to walk in a straight line due to the rock filled valleys...which looked as though you should be able to wend your way through but were largely impassable causing much back tracking, scrambling and climbing. Consequently we made slow progress and it was hot!

We had brought the slack line and our main aim was to find a suitable place to set it up - again surprisingly difficult.  There were plenty of trees but none which were the right size, the right distance apart and without too many rocks or other hazards between them.  Eventually we found the perfect place, a little sand filled valley, sheltered  with some shade and two trees.  Rosie settled down for a snooze and I got some juggling practice in whilst Martin set the line up.  It was a bit like being at the beach but without the sea!  We stayed there for a couple of hours - the slack lining wasn't too successful because the trees were a bit too far apart which meant that the line was more prone to wobbling.

After a while we decided to head back in the general direction of the cabin and see if we could find a better spot.  This involved quite a lot of climbing - once you entered one of the small canyons and then discovered that you couldn't get through, it was often quite difficult to retrace your steps and find the same way back out.  Rosie patiently followed us, sometimes scampering off and disappearing for a while but always coming back to us again.  We stopped at another spot and put the slack line up again, this was better in that the trees were closer together, but there was a lot more cactus and other prickly undergrowth which meant that we had to keep our shoes on and we have both found it easier to balance with bare feet. I was feeling a bit lazy and sitting in the sun with my book seemed like a much more sensible option. The absolute beauty of it was that there was no-one else anywhere within sight or sound and the chances of actually meeting or seeing anyone else were....zero.

We arrived back at the cabin mid afternoon and sat out on the deck enjoying the sun and a cold drink.  Even though we had covered a relatively short distance it had been over quite tiring terrain and we were glad to put our feet up for a while.  Later we made coffee and took it out to the swing seat at the front of the property where I could quite happily have sat looking down the valley until the sun set.  Martin, of course, can not sit still for more than about 5 minutes at a time and insisted that we climb to the top of one of the rock cairns behind the property to watch the sun set....so off we went again with a slightly bemused Rosie trotting along behind us.

As we climbed up (and up) I was more than a bit worried about how I was going to get down again but I tried not to think about it so that we could enjoy the fabulous sight of watching the sun sink below the distance rocks. We were probably at about 5000 feet, with no sound, no sign of any habitation, just the rocks and the beautiful sky and pink tinged clouds.  Once the sun had disappeared I was anxious to descend before it got dark.  This involved quite a few false starts and it was with great relief that we finally reached the bottom.  Martin has an overly optimistic view of my climbing abilities and I have an overly pessimistic view of how easily I could break a leg, or worse!

On the way back to the cabin we stopped off at the meditation hut so that I could do my core strength exercises, my daily discipline made much easier by the spiritual surroundings, not to mention the padded flooring and view from the window to take the mind off the pain! Next stop, as darkness fell, was the hot tub and tonight we were much earlier as Martin wanted to do some star gazing before the moon came out. The sky was clear, the stars were bright, the water was lovely and hot, it really is the perfect way to relax into the evening. We could get used to living like this, it's going to be hard to leave here and go back to the standard budget motels and camping!