We travelled through true Mexican desert with lots of cacti poking out of the scrub.  It's amazing to see all the different species, apparently there are over 800, most of which can be found in Mexico.  There were also interesting tall, willowy plants topped with bright red blossoms, which looked a bit like red hot pokers, but it was hard to get a decent photo.

We stopped and pressure-washed both Nyathi's engine and under-body, and then a little later at a DIY place, we did her body too.  We had a small hole in the exhaust welded too.  It doesn't sound like much, but it's incredible how long these things take!

And then of course there are the self-imposed time-wasting things... I went to Ley supermarket and bought lots of stuff to use up our last pesos, only to discover when I got to the till they wouldn't accept my 200 note (especially when she saw I had more money in my wallet).  So I left all the groceries in the bags at the check-out and left, fuming.

Michael had his turn to be fuming later on, when no matter how many places we went to, they would not give us deposits back for our beer bottles.  They were quite happy to take them from us, but not pay us the almost $10 worth of deposit!  We almost felt like smashing them all in front of the place we went to.

The USA border crossing snuck up on us.  There were no exit formalities from Mexico, except to hand in our vehicle importation sticker before we got into Nogales town.  The Americans were a pleasure to deal with and after our frustrating last day in Mexico, we were really pleased to be here.  They did a quick search on the vehicle, with most interest in our foodstuffs and questions as o whether we had any stuff from Africa or South America.  They took one can of Argentine corned beef from us (I'm still not sure why) and that was it.  When we went to immigration the guy had already completed the forms for us and all we had to do was sign them and pay $6 each entry fee.

Michael decided he wanted to rely entirely on the GPS to get us to the centre of Phoenix, so after a lot of driving around, we ended up in a lovely suburb with the GPS declaring we had arrived...

Phoenix is a lovely city with some extremely interesting buildings.  Very modern, big enough to have great facilities, but not too crowded.  It's fairly sprawling so getting from one side to the other can take some time, but the traffic is not very heavy, so that makes up for it.  We spent the day looking for things we needed such as polycarbonate for the cab windows (no success), transformer (no success) etc.  We found good internet facilities at the central library.  We received temporary library cards to gain free access to the internet, which uses a very effective computerised booking system.  The library itself was most impressive and it was a pleasure to wander around and browse through all the magazines and books.

The evening didn't end so well, as we spent until after midnight searching for a campsite where we could camp.  Unfortunately they all turned out to either not exist, or were RV parks with no facilities such as showers or toilets, who would not allow to spend the night, even for their handsome fees of $20.  In the end we resorted to driving 45km south along the I10 to the rest area.  We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got to bed!

When we started up this morning, Nyathi was making a new noise - a howling noise at high revs, when the engine is under load. It sounds like the turbo-charger might be on its way out...

We continued our search for polycarbonate and transformers, but still no luck.  We wandered around a number of shops looking at loads of different thins and buying a few.  We spent ages in an electronics and home entertainment shop looking at all the latest kit and drinking the very welcome complimentary bottles of iced water.

We went to Kinkos where the very friendly on-duty manager allowed us to use the internet connection for free, because they were unable to successfully connect our laptop.  It was great and saved us not only a lot of hassle, but also money (at $12/hr!).  Desperate for a nice hot shower, we looked for local campsites and other facilities, but could find nothing for 'tent campers', so we went north along the motorway to the Bumblebee rest area, ready to head north for the canyon in the morning.

We set off early and the day was wonderful, but the evening ended badly!  First of all we stopped off at a new-age community, Arcosanti, which is the brainchild and design of Paolo Soleri.  It is currently being built (slowly) in stages by budding architects and enthusiasts from all over the world. Upon completion the plan is for it to house 5,000 people in an eco-sensitive environment.  We were not particularly impressed, but did enjoy a very interesting temporary exhibition they had on historic views of what life would be like in the 21st century.  What I thought was quaint was the community post boxes on the side of the road.

We stopped off at Montezuma's Castle which had been recommended to us by another traveller.  It is a cliff dwelling remarkably similar to those found in Dogon country in Mali.  We were very impressed by the information available and the way the park, although small, was set up.

Then we took the scenic Route 89a through Sedona and the Oak Creek Canyon national park area.  The scenery was absolutely spectacular with fiery red and orange mountains and stone formations carved by forces of nature.

We visited an interesting church which was built into the mountains incorporating a massive cross in the structure.  It was lovely inside, but we felt it was a bit of en eyesore on the natural landscape.

We drove north through Flagstaff and joined the famous Route 66 for a while.  We stopped and wandered about in a beautiful big bookstore called Barnes and Noble and bought the USA Rough Guide.  We continued along Route 89 toward the Grand Canyon and the scenery was still wonderful, with forests, prairie-type fields and the snow capped San Francisco mountains in the background.  We also saw a quaint little church on the roadside in the middle of nowhere.

Then we watched the snow clouds roll in and the sky became all gloomy and we had some sleety snow, but we were rewarded with the most fantastic rainbow afterwards...

About 35km south of the entrance to Grand Canyon National park we were driving along and the engine died abruptly!  Michael managed to pull of the road slightly, but when he tried to restart the engine there was no compression, so we knew it was serious and Michael said straight away that the timing belt was broken.  **!@?*!  Using the starter motor in low gear Michael was able to get Nyathi sufficiently off the road to be safe and he even got us relatively level! We sat in the cab debating our options and decided the best thing was to sleep where we were for the night and hope that a highway patrol would spot us in the morning.  So, still not hot shower and it was so cold we decided we couldn't face having a bush bath at close to freezing outside!  We crawled into bed, put on our warm clothing and beanies and snuggled to keep warm (our duvet and electric blanket were safely packed away in the depths of one of the outside compartments).

We woke up to find it had snowed during the night.  It was already starting to melt, but we were still pretty cold.  Michael made a jerry can of hot water for us, which helped us to thaw out a little.  We had very quick bush baths and not a moment too soon, because then the highway patrol stopped to see if everything was OK.  They were extremely pleasant and called the AAA for us to give us a tow.  they were very interested in Nyathi and chatted for a short while, before confirming the tow truck would be with us within the hour.

We thawed our feet in the remaining hot water and about half an hour later the tow truck arrived - oddly from what we thought was the wrong direction...

The driver David, was really nice and soon had Nyathi up on the back of the tow truck, safely secured.  It turns out he was from the garage within the Grand Canyon National park and they were the closest outfit with an AAA concession, so we were towed up into the national park.  It was gloriously warm in the cab of the tow truck, but it was very sad to see Nyathi on the back!  Once we had entered the park David stopped en route for us to have our first quick look at the canyon, which was magnificent.

We went down to the garage and everyone was quite impressed with Nyathi.  The manager, David, was very helpful and we decided the best thing to do was get the vehicle into the workshop and see what the damage was, particularly as we had a full set of Land Rover manuals (which took us almost an hour to find, as we couldn't remember which box we had buried them in).

The garage closed for lunch and we went and booked into Yavapai Lodge (the cheapest accommodation available at $91 + taxes per night)!  We had chicken a la king for lunch and then went back to the garage.  At about 15h30 they got Nyathi of the tow truck and used momentum and some heavy pushing to get her into a work bay.

We took the bonnet off (and a a result the window guard) and left them undoing the tappet cover.  David had kindly arranged some complimentary tickets for us on the Canyon Sunset Tour for 17h30, so we went back to the hotel.  Put on some warmer clothes and caught the shuttle to the Bright Angel Lodge.

The tour was lovely and the bus driver was a real entertainer, telling us all sorts of interesting facts about the canyon and the first entrepreneurs involved in tourism here.  We stopped at a number of view points and went to the lovely shop at Hermit's Rest, where I posed in the dramatic old fireplace. 

Our camera could not do justice to the view of the sun setting over the massive canyon, but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We slept really well and Michael went down to the garage while I finished packing and checked out of the lodge. The mechanics were still trying to loosen the crankshaft pulley bolt and by lunchtime we knew they had the rocker cover off, to reveal a broken a broken rocker arm.  We went for lunch at the Bright Angel which was very pleasant.  We also walked along the canyon rim and sat and watched the squirrel darting about in the bushes below.

We wandered back past the train station to the workshop to see what was happening.

After some debate we decided the best thing to do was to go back down to Flagstaff and stay there for a couple of nights while we waited for the spare parts to be shipped.  So we caught a bus at 17h45 and were in Flagstaff before 20h00.  We wandered about looking for suitable accommodation (cheap, clean, phone, TV and preferably fridge and microwave).  We eventually settled on Highland Motel which was run by a friendly lady called Gita, but unfortunately her English wasn't brilliant so it made communications a bit difficult.  Nevertheless the room was large, clean and cost £30 plus tax.

We called the garage the next day to discover that we had also broken some valves.  Michael called Merlin Land Rover in Nottingham and as always, they were extremely helpful and said they would order the parts and ship them over to us.  Unfortunately the valves would only arrive with them on the Friday and then be in the USA on the Tuesday, but there wasn't anything anyone could do about that.  So, we knew we were in Flagstaff for at least another week.

We spent three nights at Highland Motel and then swapped to the Autolodge Hotel, which was in a better location and although the room wasn't as nice, it cost us just $150 inclusive for the week.  So we settled in nicely and stocked up the fridge.

Flagstaff is a lovely little town.  It has the famous Route 66 travelling through it and is home to the  surprisingly impressive Northern Arizona University.  The NAU also has a fantastic library with (Michaels estimates) over a million books and exceptionally good internet facilities available to all Arizona residents free of charge.  This was a real bonus for us because we spent most of our days doing research on visas, driving in China, trains across China, UK flights, polycarbonate, transformers, MP3s, tyres, shipping - you name it!

I went to the shops and bought a pair of Nike running shoes, socks, shorts, running bottoms and a light sweatshirt for less than $70!  I ran most days, except for the day after my migraine from hell, which I never want to have again in my life.

At night we watched a lot of TV, especially as if we wanted to catch UK businesses or people first thing in the morning, we had to call after midnight.  We tested a number of the fast food places and were pleasantly surprised, but our favourite was SouperSalad which was an buffet for just under $6 and you could eat as much delicious salad, soup, tacos, fruit and ice cream as you cared to - great value!

On Thursday we had a very heavy hailstorm followed by a flurry of snow, which settled for a while with some lasting overnight in the shade, but the rest melted.

I did two loads of washing at the laundromat and started packing...

When we were walking through the NAU grounds to catch the bus from the Amtrak station we saw the most beautiful ice crystal hanging from plants and the ice covered lawns crunched underfoot.

We caught the 08h30 bus back up to the canyon and were thrilled to see Nyathi drive past us just as we were getting off the bus!  The garage bill was lower than we had expected, which was a very pleasant surprise and of course we took a picture of David and his motley crew, who had sorted out Nyathi's ills. David has been particularly helpful and friendly to us, and we would recommend breaking down in the Grand Canyon Park to anyone!

Unfortunately, the turbo noise continues unabated (but no worse than before) - we had rather optimistically hoped that the noise might have be related to the timing belt failure. We spent the morning stopping and looking out over the various rim viewpoints and to change a tyre (some things never change).  The scenery continued to be breathtaking and we drove through an Indian Reservation with houses dotted across the land and the odd souvenir stalls set up along the roadside. 

We stopped in Page and used the library internet for just $5 an hour and then we got some tacos for dinner.  We were going to camp at the local campsite for the night, but decided at $17 we would rather continue and get closer to Bryce Canyon so we could make a full day of it tomorrow.  We drove past Lake Powell which is a haven for pleasure seekers who love the wate life.

We drove through some impressive 'Rainbow Hills' which are striped with distinctly differently coloured soils...

We stopped just outside the Dixie National Park at the Glendale rest area and fell asleep feeling very happy to be back on the road again and sleeping comfortably in Nyathi.

Dixie National Park was beautiful with striking red mountains towering next to the motorway and in some cases stretching over in a natural bridge.

Bryce Canyon was spectacular.  We drove all the way to the end of the park to Rainbow Point and we could see for miles in the distance.  It was very different to the Grand Canyon and in fact we found it more interesting.  There was still some snow lying in the shadier spots, but it was very hot in the sun.  Nyathi attracted quite a lot of attention when we stopped at the various look out points.

We went for a mini hike at one stage.  The rock formations were amazing - it is incredible what erosion can do.  The altitude made it less than a stroll in the park, but we are quite used to altitude now, so wasn't bad.

Then we headed off for Zion National Park.  Once again we used our annual card for entrance (it is definitely going to pay for itself before we are done).  We stopped at a view point and there were loads of bikers there.  many of them were Mexican and were very interested in where we had been travelling in their home country.  We spoke to quite a few of them, but I was most surprised when a guy came up to me and started speaking Afrikaans.  It turns out Steve wasn't with the bikers, but lives at a friend's house in Hurricane about 45 minutes away.  We got chatting to him and his adventurous wife, Maria.  They are both sky-dive instructors and enjoy canyoneering, rappelling and all sorts of adventurous activities.  They invited us to go rappelling with them tomorrow and suggested we meet up later at their friend Rick's house for a braai (bbq).

Michael and I spent the rest of the afternoon climbing up to the top of one of the rocky outcrops and watched the hikers way down in the valley below.  It was extremely beautiful and in a very different way to our previous canyons.

In the early evening we caught up with Steve and Maria (in fact we met in the supermarket, buying braai supplies).  We spent a very pleasant evening with them at their RV, enjoying a big crackling campfire and then when it cooled down we went inside to watch Rick's sky-diving videos that he takes when someone does their first jump - it looked pretty scary!

We were up early.  We had cereal for sustenance and then Steve rigged the rappelling gear up in a tall tree in the garden to give us a few practice runs.

I made a few sandwiches for our packs, filled up the water bottles and we were ready to go.  They took us to the gorgeous Snowy Canyon.  Steve walked down with us and did our first couple of test runs on a not too steep incline, while Maria and Rick arranged to leave one car at the end of the trail so we didn't have to climb all the way back out the canyon again in the evening.  Both Michael and I enjoyed our first attempts and soon got into the swing of things.

Then Rick and Maria joined us and we began our trek into the canyon.  The weather was wonderfully hot, with a slight breeze every now and again.

We did our first more vertical descent OK and encountered a narrow gap at the bottom which was a bit tricky.  Steve rock climbed down and straddled at the bottom instead of using the ropes (rather him than me).

We spent a while picking out our next route and took the time to take in the scenery.  Our next descent was slightly angled and much higher than the previous ones.  It also required a mini 'sort of jump' to get started, which was a bit intimidating.  Steve, Maria and Rick were all fantastic.  They were patient and extremely encouraging.  When we all got to the bottom, we had some lunch in the shade of canyon.

I learned the finer art of rope coiling and a little later, Michael put his throwing skills on display...

Our last descent was about 170feet (I think), anyway, it was very high and require a trickier start than the previous one (my main bruise and watch scratches were courtesy of this last rappel.  If you had brought me to this spot after we left Rick's garden this morning I would have said there was no way I'd manage it by the end of the day.

Michael on his way down...

Followed by me...

It was fabulous.  In the end our descents were much smoother and more controlled and we both thoroughly enjoyed our day - thanks guys - definitely a highlight of our trip!

We spent the evening relaxing outside the RV again.  Steve grilled salmon for us all and then we sat around a roaring campfire roasting marshmallows and having a laugh.  We collapsed into bed exhausted, but feeling fantastic, needless to say, we slept like babies.

We said our fond farewells and were on our way early.  It was interesting to watch the scenery change from mountainous to desert.  We arrived in Las Vegas just after lunch and spent a while just driving around taking in the sights.  As expected, there were loads of wedding chapels...

Then we looked for a place to camp, but could find nothing suitable.  Eventually we found the Station Hotel which was $35 per night and had two swimming pools, jacuzzis and a nice little gym with a good treadmill.  So we were all set.  Michael went off in search for an internet hook up, but to no avail.  I went for a run on the treadmill and then had a refreshing swim, it was great.

We caught the bus into town (about 5 minutes drive) and spent a very enjoyable evening wandering around.  We had a few frozen margaritas for just $1.50 at Hotel Tropicana.  Then we zig-zagged our way up the main 'drag'.  We saw quite a few of the hotels... New York, New York was impressive with a massive rollercoaster whizzing around the outside of the hotel, which was decked with a mini statue of liberty, empire state building - the works.  Inside they had a Coyote Ugly bar, but at $10 each entrance we decided to gaze in wonder from the outside.

At the MGM Grand we got to see a pretty appalling live band and that was about all really, other than loads more slot machines and gambling tables.  We wandered through a few more places and  played blackjack for an hour or so, but when we were $50 down we decided to make it a night.  We ended up walking the full length of The Strip past Circus Circus and then taking a slightly circuitous and somewhat unsavoury route home.  En route, Michael took pity on a street person who was selling roses and bought one for me - sweet!

I ran on the treadmill and watched Dawson's Creek - it made the time fly by.  Then I went for a swim and lay in the sun while Michael tried his luck again at internet searching, but came back unsuccessful.  I spent the afternoon wandering around a fabulous shopping centre.  Everything was far too expensive, but it was great to window shop.  Then I caught (a very slow) bus down to Fremont Street, where I was going to go across to the outlet village, only to discover that it would be closing in half an hour and wasn't the most desirable place to walk to.  feeling rather frustrated I caught the bus back to the shopping centre where I was meeting Michael, but he wasn't there.  I got chatting to some really nice British girls who work for Virgin Atlantic and we talked for quite a while waiting for the bus to arrive with Michael on it and for them to get back to the hotel.  I ended up waiting for over an hour for Michael as there had been a hiccup with the buses, it did make his day though, to be greeted by name by two stewardesses, who told him I would be waiting for him at the front of the building.

We sauntered along watching the displays of ship battles outside Treasure Island and then the volcanic explosion outside Miramar.

The weather was warm, so it was very pleasant strolling about.  We had Chinese for dinner and then went into Bellagios.  It was the most impressive of the hotels.  The decor was exceptionally well done and they have a phased lighting system which simulates sunset inside the building.

The other place we were impressed with was the Venetian, they even had gondolas steered by gondoliers who beautifully serenaded their passengers.

We wandered back up to the shopping centre and caught the last bus back at 23h30.  We spent a very pleasant couple of hours playing blackjack and were pleased to have had better luck than last night, walking away with $100 clear - enough to pay for our accommodation.

We had a leisurely start this morning and then I went for a run.  We packed up and checked out by 13h00.  We drove up to the outlet centre and I spent a good few hours happily wandering about picking up goodies for everyone back home.  I also got a new pair of Oakley sunglasses, which I promptly put on and realised just how much better they were than my cheapies!

We drove into the night, delayed every now and again when the power wire came off the injector pump, causing the engine to die.  Nevertheless, Michael sorted it and we got to San Bernadino on the outskirts of LA at about 23h00.  Of course the rest area shown on the map no longer exists so we opted to spend the night in the Walmart car park.

One really annoying thing I discovered first thing this morning is that my new Oakleys have a scratch on them!  So I wore my old glasses all day and will call them in the morning to find out what they will do to help me.  (Of course their warranty doesn't cover scratches, but I literally wore them for three hours and was so excited I didn't really check them all that well at the shop) so we'll see!

We went first thing to British Car Services.  It was wonderful to hear so many British accents.  The owners, Steve and Bev are from Manchester and of course Ivor and John's friend Dave works there.  They have a very impressive looking place and everyone was very friendly.  We got to use the phone and internet which was really helpful and then we had a general natter about things.  They cannot take the car until Monday, so we have the weekend to explore LA.

They suggested we camped down at Dockweiler Beach RV park so we headed there in the late afternoon.  Michael had a job convincing the superintendent that our vehicle was an RV, custom built.  He wanted to see the special sticker, so he showed him Foley's and persuaded him we should be allowed to stay for the night.  It's all a bit ridiculous because when we drove in we saw people who were not nearly as well set up as us and they too used the on-site showers and toilets.

It was very pleasant.  I cooked a dinner of spaghetti and we watched the sun go down over the ocean.  We did two big loads of laundry too, which was handy.