Day 69–71 : Beach to mountains to Nadi

28/8/11 : Our last full day at beachouse – we decided to try and escape! Learned some card games from Paul and Lesley which we played in the evening.

29/8/11 : Animal count – crab and a mongoose (not native). Did some early morning skyping. Took the bus Nadi did some shopping then took a bus to the village near our next hostel. There were no taxis at the bus stop so we set out to walk the 6km with our backpacks – thankfully a couple of kms in, a local bus rescued us. We arrived at the hostel in the beautiful surroundings of the sleeping giant mountains. We dined on crisp sandwiches. After deciding that the bunks looked horrible and were protected from outside only by holey mosquito nets I decided with my phobia that we were leaving the next morning instead of staying 3 nights.

30/8/11 : We escaped and took the bus to Nadi and tried to find somewhere to stay. We found space in the “Kennedy Hotel” which was a strange place and once must have been quite swish but hadn't been redecorated since the 60’s. Enjoyed another chicken express (a Fijian chicken burger chain that does really good chicken!).

Day 65–68 : More mooching at Beachouse

24/8/11 : Trying to go running in the morning! Daily activities include “goggling” (snorkling with no snorkel) pool and ping-pong.

25/8/11 : Took the local bus into Suva the capital. Suva is very small and has a department store, a cinema, McDonalds and some markets. Went to the supermarket so we were able to cook our own food for the next week.

26/8/11 : People stole most off our food so just plain rice from now on :-(. Made friends with some lovely people – Bas, Jen, Paul and Lesley we played cards then ended up playing killer pool – the prize being a jug of beer which we would have won between us and shared if it weren't for a local who cheated! Outrageous.

27/8/11 : Had a measly packet of noodles for lunch. Went walking at low tide and saw a giant sea worm and more blue starfish. Said bye to Bas and Jen and another girl Lara.

Day 62, 63 & 64 : Beach house

We are still in the hostel on the mainland. We have been....

• Swimming off the beach (we have goggles but no snorkel but it's still cool can see some cool little tropical fish)
• Playing with the 3 dogs
• Playing ping-pong and pool
• Working on projects on the computer
• Spent an evening drinking with some British and German people
• Not gone to the town to do grocery shopping but sharing a meal here twice a day - its not expensive
• Went for a ride on the beach on some ponies was nice but a bit boring as just walking. Some interesting tack!
• Reading
• This morning I spoke to Ceri and Ben they have had they're baby Isobel! 
• We have been for a run and now we are gonna do what we call "geeking" for me I'm trying to learn adobe illustrator and making a website and Will is writing a geek article

Animal count: A giant crab that hangs in the hall way at night (or Will just has weird dreams) tropical fish, loads of cute hermit crabs, some cool birds, toad. The plants are amazing too - beautiful flowers and trees.

Thomas meets a local hermit crab

Day 61 : Fiji!

Arrived in Fiji in the early hours of this morning – pretty tired from the overnight flight. Caught the local bus along the coast (a bit of a squeeze!) to Beach House, our hostel for the next few days. Hostel is fantastic – on a great beach with views of the (pretty massive) surf breaking on the reef. Lots of palm trees and hammocks.

Temperature is surprisingly cool – low 20s – nice in the sun. Today  we’ve just been sleeping / resting, but there are lots of activities run by the hostel (diving, surfing, fishing, hiking, horse riding) to keep us busy for a
few days.

Having been unable to fix the laptop in LA (it would take a week to order the part apparently), we managed a pretty good duck tape solution until we get to NZ…

Day 60 : Last day in the US / Venice

Didn't get up to much today as we're flying to Fiji tonight.

Highlights:

• Finally found the Venice canals and walked around them for a bit. Very serene - seems more like the Norfolk broads than Venice, Italy (but also 2 minutes away from a fantastic beach!)
• The loading instructions at the laundromat

Day 59 : Hollywood and skateboarding

Today's activities:

• Drove through Beverly Hill and Hollywood: Saw the Hollywood sign, walk of fame, Kodak theatre and Grauman's Chinese theatre. Not that impressed with Hollywood - it's just a shopping centre with some theatres.
• Hired two skateboards on Venice beach it was so much fun!
• Did some packing for Fiji tomorrow!

Day 58 : Six Flags Magic Mountain

An exhausting, but fun, day at Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park today. At the moment, it has the most roller-coasters (18) of any theme park in the world, and we managed to do all but one of them - the highlights being X2 (the carts spin as you travel), Goliath (very long and fast opening drop) and Apocalypse (really good wooden coaster). We bought a queue-jump ticket, so hardly had to queue for any rides, although the queues were fairly good considering it's summer holiday season. We ran to the first ride (X2) when the park opened as that was the one we heard about big queues for, so thankfully only had to wait for 20 mins or so to ride it!

Probably the scariest part of the day was just driving to and from the park - driving in LA is insane! The roads are pretty bad in California anyway, but when you have 7 lanes each way, everybody driving at 70mph and really close together, combined with undertaking and weavers, it gets very hairy!

Day 57 : School reunion, the pier and body-boarding

Accommodation: A slightly skanky (but expensive) hostel on Venice beach, L.A. Venice beach is on a strip of endless white sandy coastline. It is a bit like wandering around the side streets at Glastonbury but with more crazy and homeless people.

Highlights:

• Meeting Stroud High School friend Louise and her lovely family
• Walking to Santa Monica pier
• Playing on the equipment at muscle beach (see album)
• Bodyboarding – the best I’ve ever done!

Day 56 : Morro bay to L.A.

Today we drove the 200 miles to L.A. We packed up our tent for the last time (it’s going on ebay tomorrow). Had slightly sore heads as stayed up drinking with 2 random groups of people at the campsite.

Highlights:

• Breakfast at the cowgirl cafe in San Luis Obispo
• Drove through Malibu and got stuck in traffic
• Had a little wander on Venice beach – although we were too tired to tolerate the crazyness

Day 55 : Canoeing and San Luis Obispo

Highlights:

• Went canoeing around Morro bay – saw the sea lions hauling on a jetty and got an even closer up view of a sea otter eating its dinner on its tummy.
• Had ice cream in a nearby town San Luis Obispo – which is a cool, funky town (which is so much warmer just being 10 miles inland).
• Bought some more sunglasses (new ones broke) and bought replacements for my watermelon flipflops which are dying. 

Day 54 : Elephant seals

Today we drove from Kirk Creek to Morro bay campsite.

Highlights:

• Elephant seal colony at San Simeon. They are hilarious! With they’re funny nose things. They are moulting at the moment and have nothing to do but to practice fighting. They do this in the see it’s like watching thummy wars between 2 wobbly, flubbery things. (I will put a video up).
• Morro bay – a more close up view of a sea otter eating his lunch so cute.
• Wandered around the little seaside strip

Day 53 : Big Sur

Left hostel in San Francisco mid-morning and took the very slow Highway 1 down the coast towards LA. Stopped to look at Half Moon Bay (where the Mavericks big wave surf contest takes place – it was flat today) and drove through Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. Scenery and road very rugged – feels very much like Cornwall.

Stopped to walk around the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park where there is a spectacular waterfall that drops straight into the Pacific.

Camped at Kirk Creek, right on the sea, about 30 miles south of Big Sur. Very nice campsite with great views and nice not to have to worry about bears etc. Weather fairly warm but cloudy since San Francisco.

Animal count : lots of pelicans cruising around the cliffs. A couple of sea-otters in the kelp beds near our campsite.

Day 52 : Walking around San Francisco

This morning we took a free walking tour from the hostel - covered many of the neighbourhoods we walked around yesterday evening, but good to have somebody to explain the history. We were walking for about 5 hours so covered a lot of ground!

Met up with Ali (Bristol / University friend) in the evening for a few drinks and dinner. Good to catch up with Bristol news!

Annoyingly, Tiger Airways have cancelled the route from Melbourne to Alice Springs that we had booked as part of our Australia trip in November, so finding a replacement is going to knock a hole in our budget. Also, our laptop is in need of repair (hinge that holds the screen in place is broken)...

Day 51 : Golden Gate

Spent the morning cycling over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito, where we caught the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf. Lots of great views although often obscured by cloud (apparently normal for SF). Cycle lanes were very busy, so it must be a nightmare if you do it on a weekend. Also many joggers (often pushing prams!) around.

Took advantage of the great kitchen at the hostel to cook lunch, and then explored the neighbourhoods near our hostel for a few hours.

Louise bumped into a colleague from St. Michaels in our hostel - random!

Day 50 : Yosemite Valley / San Francisco

Headed to Yosemite Valley early on the advice of a park ranger who told us to be there by 7 to avoid the traffic. Left the campsite at 0545 and arrived to empty roads. Walked around Yosemite Falls and stopped to view Half Dome and El Capitan - all very beautiful in the morning sun.

Drove the 180 miles to our hostel in San Francisco - nice entrance over the bay bridge (not the Golden Gate) and we were there by lunchtime. Hostel large and nice - interesting building, built as barracks for soldiers in the US civil war and then used as a medical facility during WW2. Had a post-festival shower feeling having not washed for days. Can see the Golden Gate bridge from the hostel.

In the afternoon, walked down to Fisherman's Wharf (views of the GG bridge and Alcatraz) and along to Pier 39 where lots of sea lions "haul" - could watch them sunbathing / fighting / swimming for hours! On Ali and Jo's advice, munched a bread bowl of clam chowder whilst battling the sea gulls away.

Day 49 : Tuolumne Meadows / Tioga Pass

Packed up and got out of the campsite early to hit Yosemite before the crowds. Drove along the Tioga pass which crosses Yosemite East-West and on the advice of a ranger, stopped to walk the 7 mile hike to Cathedral Lakes – lots of large granite domes. Louise not feeling too well, so we only made it about 5 miles – still a good hike though!

Stopped for lunch in Tuolumne Meadows and continued along the Tioga pass, with some great views over Yosemite. Walked another short hike down to the giant Sequoias at Tuolumne Grove. Camped just outside Yosemite – hoping to get up early and head to Yosemite Valley tomorrow morning before we drive to San Francisco.

Feeling pretty grubby after 4 days without a shower, but managed to heat some pans of water on the fire for a bit of a wash. Thankfully, temperature much warmer down here this evening (camp is around 4000ft).

Day 48 : Riding at June Lake

Another early start to get to June Lake for a half day horse ride in the morning. We trekked up to the top of a mountain overlooking June Lake – first time in Western saddles but the horses knew where they were going. Our horses (Custer and Mike) were amazingly sure-footed on the steep and rocky trail.

Back at the camp, we walked around the lake and found the beaver dam (no beaver to be seen though) and had a lazy afternoon. Splashed out and had sausages and wine for dinner (cooked in the fire pit). It’s too cold to sit outside once the sun has set.

Animal count: many suicidal chipmunks on roads (amazingly, we only ran one over). 3 white-tailed deer. Many horses.

Day 47 : Mountain biking at Mammoth

Headed up to Mammoth Mountain adventure centre before the crowds and hired 2 bikes for half a day. Rode the gondola up to the top and took a “Blue” run all the way down to Mammoth Lakes – 3 hours of great downhill trails!

Leaving Mammoth, we headed north to our campground at Trumbull Lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Campground is really basic (no showers again) but there is a lake to have a dip in. Still at high altitude, but getting used to it now. Not many shops around here so supplies are really expensive – having a minimal bbq / charcoal oven tonight. Campsite surrounded by spectacular snow-capped mountains. Fishermen on the lake said there is a large bear around (apparently it tried and failed to catch a beaver in the lake).

Early start tomorrow to go horse riding in the morning…

Day 46 : Lowest to Highest

Awoke to another scorching day – forecast to hit 49 degrees Celsius where we are staying in Stovepipe Wells. Left DV and drove through another 100 miles of desert to Lone Pine at the base of Mount Whitney – the highest peak in the (contiguous) US (around 14000ft). Strange to be driving through the desert and see snowy mountains on the horizon. Had a US Navy jet fly really low over us as we came out of DV – must have only been 1000ft above us.

Decided to head north towards Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra Nevada and camped at the base of Mammoth Mountain. Place is a hive of activity – big ski resort in winter – lots of mountain bikers, hikers, etc. Think we grabbed the last tent plot on the mountain! Campsite is at 9000ft and feeling the altitude. It’s also much cooler – now only about 20 degrees, so have to dig out our warm clothes!

Hopefully going to hire some bikes tomorrow and try out some of the mountain bike runs if not too expensive.

Day 45 : Death Valley

Picked up hire car from Treasure Island in the morning and headed out towards Death Valley. Spectacular drive through the desert to DV, via Dantes View and the Artists Drive. Ver, very hot, but dry - forecast says it is 47 degrees Celsius today.

Staying tonight in Stovepipe wells - one of two "villages" in DV. Facilities very primitive as one would expect in the middle of a desert. There is really nothing here other than the motel and a general store. Fortunately, there is air-con!

This evening we went for a surprisingly refreshing evening swim at the motel pool and went for a walk to watch the stars - sky is incredibly clear.

Animal count: 1 hot chipmunk

Day 44: Sin City

Highlights:

• Wandering around taking it all in – Paris, Venice, New York, Ancient Rome you can do it all!
• The dancing fountains at the Bellagio
• Dollar beers
• “Absinthe” show -amazing acrobatics and burlesque
• All-you-can-eat buffet dinner in Excalibur (although ate too much)
• Slot machines - came out $2 up overall :-)

This place is great you could just wander around all day (although it is so hot)

Animal count: Just the flamingos again. The lions at the MGM grand had been put to bed before we got there :-(

Day 43 : Flagstaff to Vegas

Took a seven hour bus to Vegas. It’s always a bit unnerving getting the greyhound, as even if you have a ticket for a specific time it is still first-come first-serve. One of British guys we made friends with had to hide by the toilet because as he got on the bus to look for a seat, the people behind him took the last seats. The moral of the story - sit down in the first seat you see! The other lesson learned is, although you wouldn't contemplate it unless very desperate, don't go in the toilet on the bus (they stink)! A claustrophobic women got stuck in the toilet for about ten minutes because the door broke!

I was sitting next to two funny teenage brothers from Idaho, they wanted to learn any British slang and swear words they could.

As you enter Vegas its amazing especially at night the lights are so beautiful and excessive! We are staying at The Flamingo. We did some guilt free slot machines (thank to Andy and Jess’s wedding gift) then went to see the flamingos that were all sleeping on one leg.