Guess Who's Back...

Good news everybody - I have returned from my white-water rafting trip in America's Grand Canyon in one piece with no (significant) injuries and I'm not dead.

The rafting and camping was great fun. It's been a complete change from my normal lifestyle - much more basic. No music apart from that which you sing yourself. No showers, just the cold Colorado river. No flushing toilets, just a metal box behind a bush or boulder. No beds, just a sleeping mat under the stars (and what stars they are...) or a tent if it rains. No mobile phones and no digital watch. But it's strange how quickly I became used to these apparent deprivations.

One area where we weren't deprived was food - it was fantastic. Dinners includes salmon, steak, pork chops and spag bol. Always good sized portions, well prepared, very tasty and with lots of veg/rice etc to accompany them. The four guides did a brilliant job of preparing these for us - all we had to do was sit and wait. They also did breakfast and sandwiches for lunch for us, plus there were various little snacks on offer through the day: cereal bars, liquorice, chocolate etc. And unlimited apples and oranges on the boats.

The really impressive thing about the food was just how many ingredients were stashed away on the boat. There were avocados available as sandwich ingredients for lunch every day. They seemed to have a huge amount of melons in there. One morning they pulled a pineapple out from somewhere. And taking breakable fresh eggs on a white water rafting trip... sounds like a mad idea but they were kept safe somewhere.

And then to move from this basic lifestyle to the gross excesses of Vegas - it really gives you a different perspective on things. Such a contrast, and I know which one I preferred.

Holiday stories and photos will be appearing here over the next few days.