So I had a shower (and 'shaved' my legs with disastrous and bloody effect!! The things that become a priority when you're extremely drunk?!?), packed in the corridor and headed to the reception. Passed out on the bench and was woken up by the tour manager for the trek! Great first impression!! I then promptly got up, staggered to the bathroom to be sick!! I jumped in the van shotgun as DJ and chatted to the TM, Colin, mostly about dating and what brought me to be on the trip and his job. I'm sure we did introductions but by lunchtime I'll be damned if I could remember any of them!

We did a couple of stops, one for lunch and Colin put on a big picnic spread! 4/5 types of ham and cheeses, pickles, salad, fruit, crisps, carrots, hummus, bread, pittas and juice boxes. In contrast to the fog we left in SF it was roasting. I reckon high 20's. Think I managed a slice of cheese, ham and a couple of carrots with hummus. Rough doesn't do my hangover justice!

So, lunch made me a little clearer on what was going on...we have Elaina from Madrid Spain, 35, a Teacher. Elisa, 21, from France (close to where I lived with the French family), unemployed, but recently looking to get a bus driver's licence. Sergin, 25?, from Croatia, works in IT. Becky, 27, from London, Assistant Manager of a cocktail and jazz club and Claire, 24?, from London, a primary school secretary. A nice small group, there should've been up to 13. Sergin, Claire and Elisa have all travelled on a few tours together before and know each other.

After lunch I jumped in the back and fell asleep all the way to lake Tahoe, except one stop for pictures at a viewpoint.

Having given Colin $15, we hit Safeway Tahoe styleee to pick up dinner for the camp out and alcamahol. I bought water and wine, with little intention, at that point, on drinking the wine. Got to camp about 3pm, in the middle of these woods, right on the shores of Tahoe. Loads of biiiiiiig RV's. We had to unload the trailer of all the gear and hike it up a hill. I really should've made more effort to do the gym before I left! I am so unfit! Although, still the strongest girl there!

Becky asked who was sleeping with who and Colin asked her who she wanted to share with. She picked me! I was really happy about that. So we pitched the tents! Very dusty and dirty. Immediately, we were to get the bikini's on and down to the beach. Claire and I hired a jet ski. Claire had always wanted to do it! I drove first and we had a blast, screaming and giggling. Claire was hanging into the straps on the side of my life jacket. I was larking about at high speed, then all of a sudden I could only feeling her hanging onto one side...she was completely hanging off. Sooo funny! We were told we could go a mile and a half out, so I did. We headed back in and as we were coming into the bay, I said to Claire 'which side of the jetty did we leave from?' We didn't recognise anything. After much deliberation, it slowly dawned on us that we weren't in our bay. We had no idea where we were or if we were even on the right side of the lake!! We'd maybe went in the wrong direction coming out of some of the donuts. A guy came out of the bay on another jet ski, we asked him where we should return it to, he asked where we hired it from...'don't know'...where are you staying...'don't know'. Jesus! 20 minutes into the tour (ex travel) and we were lost already!! On a jet ski, with a stranger, limited fuel, in the middle of a massive lake. He suggested a couple of places and Claire thought she recognised one of the names, so he gave us directions.

We joined the others back at the beach to relay the story. Colin was trying so hard to get everyone gee'd up for volleyball. But it wasn't really that type of crowd. After a group high five line up, he headed back to camp to cook dinner. Claire and I headed back to camp 10 minutes later to grab a shower after our jet ski adventure. I was about to leave when Claire asked if I was going to inform the jet ski operator that I wasn't going to take it out again. I wasn't but thought I'd better now she'd mentioned it again. I went over and told the jet ski attendants and she said 'hold on I need to give you this paperwork.' s***! I forgot, I almost walked off the beach without paying...!

Back at camp, had a shower. Ewwww full of dirt and sand. The dirt on my body is engrained, my beautician is gonna have a field day when I get back! What's more, no plugs for hair dryer or straighteners! Arrggghh!! Oh well! This is what it's all about! Although it would appear that on my drunkeness I had left my charger at the hostel (the second time I left it at the sinks!).

Quick spaghetti Napoli with steak and sausage meat with salad. Then off on a sunset catamaran booze cruise for $50. Elaina didn't go, despite Colin's persuasive efforts, so he hung back with her. It was chilled and chatting, lounging on the bow. We hadn't stopped all day, so the first opportunity to get to know each other. And what a sunset...! Tahoe knows how to do a sunset.

The walk on the way back had lots of giggles with Becky. I think mostly about Colin and his awwŵeesssooommmeee American enthusiasm. We decided his name didn't suit him, it was too English. Jeeves was suggested as he's always looking after us and serving us. And so it was shortened and he was christened 'G'. We also decided to tell him he'd missed out on the most awesome night and that someone was hit by the gib and thrown overboard. He believed it too!! Americans just don't get sarcastic humour. I had to tell him we were f***in with him.

The campfire was on and G made us somemmmmores! Corn biscuits with Hershey's and a melted marshmallow. He tried his best to get us 'bugging out', with beers and riddles but it was dying on its arse. 'If one is three and two is three and three is five and four, four is the cosmic number, what is six?' 'jack and Jill are lying dead in a pool of water, what happened?' Who gives a flying ****! I asked him what his most awesome moment on tour had been and he told us a story about a racoon raiding the camp and tapping on his van windows when he was in bed. Elaina was entertaining him best she could. He went off to the toilet and as I was analysing the 'best moment on tour racoon story' with the group (I don't know, maybe I was expecting something more profound), I went to stand up, my chair tipped and I almost fell into the fire head first. The poor guy, when he came back, the damp squib atmosphere had turned into uproarious laughter. When he asked what had happened, he said in a dead pan voice 'I'm glad that you didn't fall in the fire'. He must've thought the group were really insensitive laughing at me falling in the fire, but we were all in fits of laughter.

Everyone was tired through a mixture of hangover, jet lag and the long drive, so we headed to bed. We had to be on the road (ready, breakfast and tents packed) by 7am. Becky and I chatted and giggled about the funnies of the day!