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Today we got up super early, and as we didn't have the luxury of a shower, we got ready super quick too. Meant marie didn't have to swan around drying her hair and all the rest of it. We were in McDonald's for breakfast by 7:30, very keen, although I'm pretty sure we got robbed in there. There is something to be said for being the only McDonald's for a hundred miles. Means you can charge what you want. The place was still packed to the rafters. After that we headed up to the south rim of the canyon again in the fresh morning sun. We headed to the bright angel lodge and also the kolb studio, both on the rim of the Grand Canyon, next to the hotel situated there that had been there for decades. After we looked through the kolb studio gallery, we started the trail that led down into the Grand Canyon itself. The trail was narrow and busy, but going down was a leisurely walk, if a little rocky. We passed many people coming back up, bidding them good morning. We didn't take notice of the fact that they looked a lot more hot and sweaty than us. We walked down most of the way with a lovely couple, chatting and taking in the huge vistas in front of and now above us. We sloped further and further down until we got to a rest stop and toilet, both of which were welcome in the 26 degree heat. Then we trekked on a bit more and decided this was the point to turn back, we had climbed down 500 metres and for 2 miles below the rim. We had been walking over an hour already, plus we started to think the climb back up might be a lot worse, especially now it had got hotter. The climb back up was a lot worse, we had to stop a necessary amount of times to accommodate the heat and to allow fluid intake, luckily we had brought plenty. Hats off to Marie, she was feeling the pain now, but she did do all the hiking in a playsuit, with walking boots, a very good look I might add. Fabulous. Another couple took a particular shine to her look. Not that that fuelled her ego at all obviously. We made the climb back up after another nearly 2 hours, after many bottles of water and m and ms. Once we had returned to the top we felt we had earned an ice cream. I had cookies and cream and marie had mint chocolate chip of course. We sat in the sun eating them and then made our way back to the car to drive around the side of the canyon to the east side in search of more scenic views. Plus the 4 mile up and down hike meant we needed a little break. We drove round for about 50 miles stopping at various viewpoints including one with a watchtower. Which you could climb to the top of, so we did and we took some photos from the lookout point. You could even see the Colorado River from up the top, the view went for miles. From there, we set off back towards Flagstaff, not a long journey, but a pleasant one, driving around the edge of the canyon meant there was a lot of scenic viewpoints, even on main roads, we stopped at a couple and ignored the Indian craft stalls. Before long we were back in Flagstaff at the KOA again, and were heading to Walmart shortly afterwards to get dinner. Marie had some vegetables and ranch dip and I had some pieces of chicken. Relatively healthy. But after our day hiking, it wasn't long before we were back at camp and asleep, the day of hiking had made us very tired.
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