A trip to Norway - Part 1

Just recently I have made another journey, this time with my friend Willem. It was to be a much shorter one than the one I made in Canada and the U.S.
It was about time too, I needed to get out, and unfortunately I don't have the funds for a longer trip yet, so this was perfect. The goal: hitchhiking to Norway, see the Preikestolen. To do this we had about 2 weeks time.

To get us started we had already fixed up a ride through a website to take us from Holland as far as Kolding in Denmark. It cost us about 45 euro's per person, but at least we had certainty we would make it quite close to Norway on the first day, so this was acceptable to me.
The man who drove us there was Peter, a retiree from Holland who now went to a market in Kolding, where he would buy Danish furniture to take back and sell back home. While he earned quite a bit of money from this occasionally it was mostly a hobby, but some of the prices were staggering to us. Once he had bought a chair for 10 euro's and had managed to sell it at an auction for 700 euro's... That is quite the profit!
Anyway, at 8 in the morning he picked us up in Heerenveen, and at 14:30 we made it to Vejle, just north of Kolding where he dropped us off at a big tank station, and wished us good luck.

Looking around we saw it was a good spot, but we decided to get a sign. So we started looking around for cardboard boxes, but we didn't find any. Asking inside the station, Willem managed to get a piece of paper.
It wasn't sturdy but it would have to do!
We wrote down Aarhus, and took position at the exit onto the highway. And got lucky with the second car to pass us by!
Merzad offered to take us along for a while, and dropped us off at a McDonalds at a location that I don't know the name of. Along the way he told us about his home country of Iran, and of the problems it faces in the perception by the media, the politicians in power who mess up the country, and the hospitality of the local people. Hearing him talk about Iran made me want to visit the country. He was a well-spoken man and interesting to listen to.
At McDonalds we managed to get a proper piece of cardboard, and with it we assumed position at an on-ramp.

Hitchhiking in Denmark

This time it took maybe around 20 minutes, and then Jespe showed up. Jespe was a softly speaking man that we sometimes had to strain to hear, but a very nice guy overall. He reminded us of someone we knew back home. He dropped us off in Randers (or at least that's where we figured we were at, we weren't quite sure!).
At this location it took us longer to secure us another ride, which came in the form of Njal, who apparently was named after a popular saga. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nj%C3%A1ls_saga)
He dropped us off further along the highway toward Aalborg, where the highway split off in two possible directions for us to get to a ferry.  But the location we were now at saw very little traffic.
From where we were standing it was hopeless to get a ride within a reasonable amount of time, and so we decided to walk onto the highway itself, hoping to get a ride before a cop showed up.

And thankfully, we got lucky. A car pulled over, but it was so much farther from where we were that we doubted if he pulled over for us or if he was simply breaking down. So I ran over (quite a distance!) and went to look. Thankfully, yes, he did pull over for us. But he was nervous being on the side of the highway like this and wanted us to hurry up. I ran like the devil back to Willem, hoisted up my backpack, and sprinted back to the car. After quickly jamming our stuff into the back we got in, and we were on our way to Aalborg thanks to Willy, from the Congo.
Willy, as it turned out, had made quite the journey himself when in 2003 he was forced to flee the Congo due to hostilities in the area. He had been working in the south while his family had remained in the centre. When the fighting started he was unable to get back to them, and had to flee. And so he came to Denmark, not knowing what had happened to his family as the fighting moved up to the centre of the Congo.
Then, in 2008, as by a miracle, he had found his wive on, of all things, Facebook. She had managed to flee the country as well, and was living in Germany. What a miracle! And what's more, they now had a second child who was two months old! But they still had not gotten back to living together, because Willy wanted to finish school and because he didn't speak German, he couldn't move. And his wive didn't speak Danish, and had her own stuff going on in Germany too. So it might still be a while before they are back living together.
I wish them all the best!

Willy dropped us off in Aalborg, and we had a bit of a distance to walk to get out of town and onto the proper highway again. We tried hitchhiking through town, and we actually did get lucky.
This would turn into a common theme during our trip: in all the worst places we had the best of luck getting rides, and all the good places, where cars had lots of room to pull over, lot's of time to see us etc. we would be getting stuck for various amounts of time.
This time our luck was due to Onja, Peter's young daughter who thought it would be funny to help us. And so together they drove us out of Aalborg and to where we needed to be!
This was another place where there wasn't a lot of traffic, but this time we decided to wait a bit longer. We didn't have to wait long until another car pulled over.

Michael and Lylian were an older couple with a long car in which we could sit in the back. There were tools and other stuff scattered across the floor and we were sitting a bit uncomfortably, but we had a ride all the way to Hirtshals! And from Hirtshals there was a chance of us catching the last ferry for the day to Norway.
Along the way we encountered a horrible sight. An accident had happened just shortly before we came along. The highway was covered with pieces of debris, and various people had already pulled over to help.
What we think happened was a car carrying a woman and her children, who were now sitting by the side of the road crying and in panic, was smashed into from behind somehow. In return their car probably smashed into a car in front of them, which had flipped over and was lying upside down a bit further down the road.
Next to it on the side of the road was a man lying on the ground bleeding, being tended to by two people.
In the flipped over car we thought we saw a body sticking out the back, but we weren't sure. The couple giving us a ride moved through the accident and drove on. There were enough people to help, professional help was on the way and you don't need a traffic jam blocking their access.
This incident quietened us all down, and we didn't speak much untill we were in Hirtshals, where they dropped us off in front of the ferry terminal. Further misfortune: the ferry had already left, and we would have to wait till 12:00 the next day.

Looking around in the area we didn't find much in the way of sleeping spots, but there was a parking with some mobile homes that had people in them, next to the train station. And so we put down our sleeping bags next to the train station walkway when it got darker, and went to sleep.
Then we scared off a guy who rounded the corner of the building, thinking he could take a leak there. Nope!

Where we had slept. Here we are in the process of drying our stuff that got moist, and making some morning tea!

The next day as we were waiting for the ferry I taught Willem how to play chess, which I had learned to play in Canada. I had a mini-board with me, containing all the little magnetic pieces. It takes almost no room and weighs practically nothing, and you can hold it upside down without the pieces falling off.

And then we boarded the ferry.

After about three hours we had made it to Kristiansand, Norway. 

We moved out of the ferry as quickly as possible to take up position at the car exit, and put up our sign.

Our first destination would be Flekkefjord to the west, and again we didn't have to wait long untill a car pulled over. When I ran over to ask where they were going exactly I was surprised to see two really good-looking girls sitting there, willing to take us to Flekkefjord. We had not expected that!

Ida (I don't know if I spelled her name correctly, and this is the first instances of probably many misspelled names!) and Louise took us to a little while before Flekkefjord, on our request, after asking them for a good camping spot. They suggested a location with some nice waterfalls and a lake, which they showed us.

We decided to stay there, and thanked them for helping us out.

The top of the waterfalls

A little further down

Looking around we didn't see a very good spot to set up our tent, except for maybe on the other side of the waterfalls. And so we decided to cross over, which I filmed with my GoPro camera.

We tried setting up our tent there, but it turned out that spot was crawling with red ants. So we picked a spot right next to the water, and decided to spend another night under the stars. 

We also decided we wanted a campfire to keep us warm after sundown, and so the search for good rocks for a fireplace began, as well as the gathering of tinder and firewood.

Willem sitting at the campfire, still unlit

While waiting for the sun to go down we decided to play another round of chess. Good looking set, no? :)

Me breaking some wood for the fire

We spent the night sleeping on the rocks, but slept well considering!

The following morning we decided to move on and try to get to Stavanger, which I will describe in a following post. To be continued!

The end (for now)

I have been putting off writing this post for so long now, but I figured it was time to let everybody know what I've been up to. My friends and family ofcourse already know, but I have returned home. At least for the winter.

The reasons for coming home have been several, among which is ofcourse money. I've been draining my account steadily for 6 months and I decided to do the responsible thing and return before I ran out and worked myself into a debt.
Next to that my sleeping bag was not designed for freezing temperatures, something I have clearly felt for a few weeks now. For a few weeks already I had been sleeping with an inner liner to add warmth (and when I got another one from a ride later on I started using both of them) as well as wearing all my clothes. That worked fine for the first half of the night but as night progressed I started getting colder and colder, up to the point where by morning I was shivering cold.
Another reason is that I personally think this time of year is the worst for solo travel. Not only does it get cold after dark, it gets dark early. In the case of the area I was in it got dark at 17:00, and light didn't return much earlier than 7:00. That is a lot of darkness to deal with, especially if you are lying somewhere in the desert with nothing to distract you save for a book (and in order to read it I need to open my sleepingbag somewhat so I have room, letting out all the heat). And I figured it would be much nicer to spend Christmas with my friends and family.
Nonetheless it feels like a bit of a cop-out.

I've been back for quite a while now, a month or two I guess, but already I'm forming plans for another trip.
But first let me tell you how this one finished.

Before I left Utah I wanted to see Canyonlands, Mesa Arch specifically.
In the hostel I was staying at I met Cory from Canada and Danny from England. Both were looking for something to do on the following day, and Danny had his mind set on a biking trip, followed up by a visit of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Cory was fine with the latter part but wanted to do some hiking. His only trouble was he didn't know of a good place to go. I told him about my plans to visit Canyonlands and so he offered to take me there and go along for a daytrip. With this turn of events I decided I would make it a daytrip as well, and return to the hostel after.
And so the next day Cory and I drove his car to Canyonlands.

The view at the entrance of Canyonlands.

It was pretty in it's own unique way. We visited just the northern area of Canyonlands, called Island in the Sky. Now that might sound like a weird name but it was quite appropriate: the northern part of the park basically consist of a massive plateau from which you can look down over the southern end of the park. Essentially you have some canyons inside of canyons down there, and it is quite the complex view from up above. There might be a few places where you can go down to the bottom of Island in the Sky but we haven't found them yet, and generally speaking the entire plateau is surrounded  by massive cliffs. Hence the Island reference, because it is so hard to reach, and standing from the bottom it might as well be high above in the sky.

 Some shots from Mesa Arch.

From underneath Mesa Arch.

The view from Grand View Point Overlook. This is a pretty weird sight, as you can see some canyons inside other canyons, almost like nature went all 'Inception' on us!

 After viewing the far end we decided to check another viewpoint at the western rim, where we did some hiking along the cliff edge.

 

The hiking trail to and from the western rim.

A shot of Upheaval Dome. Apparently people aren't quite sure what caused this particular formation. Some believe a meteor crashed here and caused this crater. Another theory was that it is a salt dome and that this caused the formation, but I'm not sure how that would work exactly. The meteor theory sounds a lot more epic though!

Another two shots of Canyonlands.

After walking around for the better part of the day and seeing pretty much all the major sights in Island in the Sky we returned to Moab to pick up Danny, who wanted to see Delicate Arch as well.
But when we got there he had not returned from his biking trip yet, and if we wanted to catch the sunset we had to move now, so we drove to Arches together. I had already seen Delicate Arch but when I was there the first time around it was a bit clouded and the sunset missed some of it's brilliance so I didn't mind giving it another shot! And thankfully today was a clear day with barely a cloud in the sky, so the second hike up there was well worth it. I made some more pictures of the Arch, and the turned out even better than the first ones. Unfortunately it's quite hard to get a shot of the Arch without people standing in or near it.

Heading out here on a bright sunny day is well worth the trouble, as you can clearly see! The colouring is brilliant!

I took some more shots from different angles, even from the back.

 

 

 This last picture was taken from the hole you can see in the picture above this one.

Unfortunately things only seem to quiet down when the sun is down. This is my only shot without people in it.

When we got back to the hostel we found Danny and decided to get something to eat in town, and grab a couple of beers while we were there. All in all a good day, despite Corey's car getting hit in the parking lot while we were drinking beer. Thankfully there was a witness and she knew who did it and gave us his phone number. I don't know how it turned out though, because the following morning I packed up all my stuff after having stayed in the hostel for about a week and set back out on the road.
This time the goal was Albuquerque.

Unfortunately I've been putting off writing this post for too long. I do remember names as I wrote them down but I can't perfectly recall each ride. Some of them were a bit more memorable though.
Anyway, I took my time waking up as I didn't have to leave until 11 AM. Then I packed up my stuff and walked down the road a bit before sticking out my thumb. This was still Utah after all, and the cops don't like hitchhikers, so the farther out of town you get the better off you are.
Fortunately I got a ride from John before any cops showed up. He didn't get me further than 3 or 4 miles, but it was a more desolated place with hardly any buildings around out in the desert already. That suited me fine, figuring there'd be fewer cops passing by. Most of them seemed to stick around Moab.
Next ride was Merry who got me further, but again not much of a place. After Merry I got a ride from Spencer, and this I remember better because he had a mobile home and he offered me a new sleeping bag. Unfortunately the sleeping bag in question didn't seem much better than mine and at this point I was already contemplating to go home soon, so I turned down his generous offer. He did give me an inside liner for the sleeping bag I already had, to improve it's warmth by a few degrees. And with my sleeping bag in this time of year every degree is more than welcome. That left me with two liners, because I had already bought one myself in Moab, but I didn't mind getting a little bit warmer still because it was still chilly in the mornings. He dropped me off at Monticello, my turn-off towards Colorado.

On that position I had to wait for a little while before my next ride, but when it was offered to me by Kevin he took me down to the next village. This area was very rural, there was a lot of farmland which was a nice change of pace from the barren desert. Even better: I was now officially in Colorado, where hitchhiking is legal. So at this point I didn't have to worry about cops trying to arrest me or giving me tickets!
I again had to wait for a while, and got the last ride of the day. Cody came back from a hunting trip but hadn't caught anything. He drove me to Cortez, and I made it my stop for the day. The sun was already setting fast and hitchhiking in the dark is doable but not preferable. So I asked him if there was a McDonalds in town where I could get some food and use the wifi for a little while (it was still only 5 PM or so, and it beats twiddling your thumbs in the darkness for 12 hours). Before we got there though he wanted to get some beer, and bought me one too. In all quite a good day, and I was quite content!

After a meal and watching a movie and hanging out for a little while I decided to try and find a place to sleep. I had already been pointed in a general direction, so I started walking in that direction hoping to find a park of some sorts. And I did end up finding a pretty good location at the edge of Cortez, on a park edge close to the water. That's where I put down my sleeping bag and after some star-gazing fell asleep.

My sleeping spot.

 And a picture of my backpack, just for the hell of it.

Early next morning I woke up quite chilly, so I got out of my sleeping bag at first light and packed up, ate some breakfast and tried to find the right road out of Cortez and going to Albuquerque.
Unfortuantely I found I had to backtrack through the entirety of Cortez and it took me a little while to do. When I reached the other end of town I saw a lot of construction going on, and decided that chances of getting a ride here were pretty bad. There was not a lot of room to pull over without inconveniancing anybody else, so I kept walking down the road untill I was past the construction area for quite a bit before trying to hitch a ride.
I didn't have to wait long. The first ride of the day was Pat, an older guy with whom I had a nice chat. I remember him well because he had a sniper rifle across his lap and a shotgun in the back. But I didn't think much of it considering the fact it was hunting season, and that was indeed what the weapons were for. He got me out to the middle of nowhere, and dropped me at an intersection. He was heading to Arizona which was in the other direction of where I wanted to go.
This area was pretty much what the rest of the day would look like: a lot of empty desert with some distant mountains and mesa's. But I can't say it was boring. In a way it was quite exhilirating. This isn't the hottest time of the year obviously, so there wasn't much fear of dehydration and getting into serious trouble if I got stuck. I had a nearly full reservoir of water and food to last me for two days, and ofcourse I counted on getting a ride out of there before ever running out.
Thankfully nobody proved me wrong haha.

Next ride was George, who took me to another town I can't recall the name of, and dropped me off on the other side.

Apparently a fire broke out in that town.

There I was picked up by Alex and Lou, two guys of around my own age who were traveling all over the US together, and had been doing that for quite some time. They had a dog with them too, and he was pushed to the side to make room for my pack.
They told me I was on the wrong road, while I was quite sure I wasn't. I wasn't going to care if I got sidetracked a bit if I was though. Traveling should be done in freeflow after all. Turns out I was on the right road though, which Alex and Lou figured out soon enough. They had to turn around, and I got let out of the car some 4 miles or so out of town in a worse position than I had started out in.
Hitchhiking is not just about having a good location to do it in though, it is also about luck, and luck would have it that I did not need to wait long for Edison to pull over. Edison was somewhere near or just over 30 I guess, and he was in a hurry to get to a school play in which his daughter performed.
That he still took the time to help a complete stranger says quite a bit about him.

After that I had to do some more waiting. I was now in the area of Shiprock. There were only a few houses around and it looked pretty desolate. Considering some of the places I've seen it's hard to believe I've been to a country that's a super power because a lot of it looks pretty poor.
Anyway, after waiting about an hour or so I got a ride from Dave, who was heading through Gallup and would move east to Grants, which is on the highway that leads to Albuquerque, so that was perfect! When we got there we found a nice onramp for me to stand at, but after waiting on it for a while and watching the little traffick that was coming through I decided to move further down and stand by the side of the highway hoping for somebody to pick me up before a cop sent me away.

Thankfully I didnt have to wait long. Unfortunately I can't remember the guy's name, but I do remember he was an old Navajo who was heading straight to Albuquerque where he was supposed to deliver some stuff. Along the way he told me about the Native tribes in the area, and the casino's they had built and ran. It was interesting to hear how the Natives here have adapted, as opposed to the Natives I met in Canada who were more secluded to their more remote reserve.
They didn't have much to do for a lack of jobs in the reserve, and moving out of the reserve basically meant giving up their native status, so it's a lose-lose situation for them really. There isn't much traffick coming through the Manitoulin Islands either, so there isn't much they can do.
Here though there is a major highway and the city of Albuquerque relatively closeby, and they have made it work to their advantage. It's good to know too that Albuquerque can't grow any bigger than it has because it is bordered by Native reserves on all sides.
As we got closer to Albuquerque we made a little deal too. If I helped him unload some stuff at his destination he would drive me to where I needed to be in the city to find my friend. I accepted happily ofcourse. So after we reached the place he needed to go I did some hauling of boxes and we then made our way to the adress I received, where we said goodbye. I was now standing in front of the apartment of my internet friend Alexander whom I've known for some years through a gaming tool called Xfire. Everything looked pretty quiet so I decided to get some food first, and walked back to a McDonalds I saw along the way before heading back.
This time my timing was perfect as he was just walking back to his apartment, and we looked at eachother for a bit before recognition came.

The next week I spent at his place. It was pretty cool to meet the guy who I've talked to online for such a long time, and it was time well spent. He showed me around the city a bit, I got to meet his parents too and we even visited the Albuquerque zoo where his father had worked before retiring.

Me and my friend Alexander.

In front of the Albuquerque Zoo.

 

I had a great time there. But as the week progressed I thought more and more of going home, at least for the winter. Christmas and New Year's Eve with my friends and family sounded really appealing after half a year spent by myself. And because I was in a big city with an airport already, I decided to fly home from Albuquerque.

At the end of the week I bought a plane ticket and left the next day. I flew from Albuquerque to Denver, where I had to wait for five hours. From there I got on a plane to Reykjavik in Iceland, where I had to wait another hour before taking a final flight to Amsterdam, where my parents were waiting for me to take me home.

It's been weird adjusting back to my old life. It was nice to have some of the luxuries back, especially to have some more clothes again, though almost all my stuff became too big for me. I lost a bit of weight tramping around! Some pants that used to be too tight now need a belt to be held up haha.

It's been good seeing my friends and family again too, and I have had a nice christmas and spent New Year's Eve with my friends. I have adjusted to life back home again by now, but as I said at the very start of this post new ideas are already forming in my head.

The day before yesterday I was at a train station in a nearby town and saw some people carrying around their luggage and I felt a pang of longing to be back on the road again. But first I have to do some saving up again, and finding a job isn't all that easy these days. But  no worries, I will make it work, and you will hear from me again. Untill then!

Arches National Park (picture heavy!)

So I have returned from several days of hiking in Arches National Park here in Utah, and I'd figure I'd share my experiences and a 'few' pictures that I took. I have made several video's as well but unfortunately the internet in the area is too slow to upload all of them. I tried, but it just doesn't work fast enough, so I will save those for a later date.
Anyway, I took around 300 pictures as well, and when selecting pictures to use here I came just short of 50 must-have's. It's quite substantial, but I can't trim the count down any further without missing any cool stuff. I don't think you guys will mind anyway, so here we go.

I ended up not going to the park the day after I wrote the last post. It took me too much time to get some new equipment, buy food and buy some new equipment. I replaced my pocket knife with a new one and I bought a liner for my sleeping bag as well, as it is quickly outrunning it's use.
When I was done it started to rain a little and it was somewhere late in the afternoon.
At this moment Brett was still with me, the guy with whom I have been traveling for a while.
That kind of posed a bit of a problem for me, because he wanted to join me on my hike, while I had always imagined myself exploring the Utah National Parks on my own.
I explained my case to him and thankfully he didn't take it hard. The next morning we said goodbye, and I set off on my own, leaving him with some bread and several packs of noodles that I had bought for the both of us.

When I reached the end of the town of Moab I stuck out my thumb hoping to catch a ride to Arches, which was about 3 or 4 miles away. Right before I reached the end of town I saw another hitchhiker just being picked up, so I figured I'd get lucky as well. Unfortunately the first car that pulled over was a police car who caught me with my thumb out. I got a warning and was let off easy, and was told I might get away with hitching across the Colorado River which was about 2 miles away, where I would be officially out of town. When I got there however I ran into some kind of accident with police cars sitting at the side of the road, so I ended up walking all the way to the Park.
When I got there I bought a walk-in ticket which was surprisingly cheap: for 5 dollars you get 7 days of access to the park. I got stopped by a Park Ranger just past the entrance, warning me that I wasn't allowed to hitchhike in the park, and that if I wanted to sleep inside the park I had to have a backpacking permit which I could get at the visitor centre. This permit turned out to be free, but I did have to give up locations I wished to sleep at in the park for each night.
After getting the permit I shouldered my pack and started my trudge uphill, which was quite a ways up. But I dislike the idea of walking around the parking lot asking for a ride up, because to me it feels like I'm badgering people into taking me along. When I stand by the side of the road with my thumb out at least I give them the choice to ignore me. Anyways, uphill I went.

The way up.

Before I made it all the way up though a car pulled over for me. That was quite awkward for a bit because right behind us came the park ranger, so I hoped really hard he did see I didn't stick my thumb out to catch a ride. At first I didn't make much of an effort to get to the car quickly for this reason, but then the park ranger passed out of sight and I broke out in a trot and ran up to the car.

Inside were Annie and Roy, both from China. I figure these were not really their own names, but ones they had adopted to make it easier for other people to pronounce. 

Anyway, they took me up to the top where the road became flat once more. I got them to pull over and let me out, and thanked them for the ride. It was quite a short one, but I wanted to do some exploring up there. Because shortly after reaching the top you are confronted with these views:

In the background you can see the La Sal Mountains, already covered in snow. Quite the contrast, but very beautiful.

Off to the left you can see the Three Gossips (I think that is what they are called anyway). To the right, the front mountain is the Courthouse. In the background of it you can see the Babel Tower.

After I had my fill of this area I started walking again. Along the way another car pulled over for me, wanting to take me to the end of the park where there is a campground. But I politely declined, because a little while further down the road we would end up at a bridge crossing a wash, which I would follow off-trail where I would spend the night. 

At the bridge I met a man who was taking pictures of the wash, and after talking for a little while I wanted to move on and follow the wash, and he was preparing to leave. Then I had an idea, and I asked him if he could take a few pictures of me walking down the wash, which he did.
So when I got back to Moab, I had several emails waiting for me containing his excellent pictures.

Thanks Gary!

I now walk into the wild.... for a few miles anyway!

The wash was dry for the most part, but I did find some stagnant pools of water here and there.

The area here was really interesting, because you can see where water used to flow and you can see and follow many tracks in the soft sand, human and animal prints alike.

Following the mostly dry wash.

After following the tracks for a while I saw some kind of caves up a cliff, one of which looked like it had paintings on the walls inside. I tried to climb up there but there was no way to do it. I did make a video of it, but as I mentioned before I haven't been able to upload it.

I saw some black and white stuff in the small 'cave' on the right. Not sure what it was exactly.

After a failed attempt of getting up there I continued on my way, eventually finding a cool camping spot. The wash turned into a canyon, where I could climb up on the side and camp on top.

The wash leading into a canyon. I set up my tent on top here.

The next morning I did some further exploring of the area. I found an arch that is not visible on the map, and then some kind of bowl-like area with some trees growing in a single part of sand in the middle of it. Quite the interesting area!

An unmarked arch.

A bowl of trees haha.

When I got back to my tent though I was feeling very tired, so I decided to just hang out for the rest of the day. I got out a book and spent much of the afternoon reading, feet dangling down the canyon. In the evening I watched Titanic on my netbook, and the next day I woke up feeling refreshed.

It was quite the interesting place, and what was more important: it was really, really quiet. I was far enough away from everything to never hear a car, only hearing birds and the wind and every now and again a plane flying high above me, so quietly that normally speaking you would never hear it (pesky buggers still!).
This quietness was soothing. When I first became aware of it I had a peeping noise in my ear, much as you could expect to hear after having a loud noise right next to your ear for a while.

All I had gotten away from was the noise of cars and society in general, and was now experiencing the quiet peace of nature.

Next day however I had run out of water. I contemplated boiling some water from one of the stagnant pools I found and treating them with cleansing pills, but decided not to considering the park entrance was not too far away and I could find better water there. So I packed up my stuff and found my way back to the road.

When I got there I stuck out my thumb hoping not to see a park ranger, and almost immediately a car pulled over and drove me down to the entrance. There I filled up my Kamelbak waterbag and my extra bottles, and charged my camera on my netbook, using it's last battery power to do so. 

The largest part of the day was now over, but again I decided against asking for a ride in the parking lot, figuring I'd walk back up and reach the wash again before dark, this time wanting to follow it to the right instead of the left.

This was not to be though, because I was again offered a ride halfway up! That's how I met Shannon and Bri, who were on their way to Delicate Arch and could take me all the way up there, so I decided to join them.

From the parking lot it was a hike of a few miles before reaching Delicate Arch, and somewhere halfway I think Bri wanted to know how heavy my backpack was, and wanted to feel for herself.

She seemed really intent on carrying it for a while, and so I let her. The hike was constantly going up and my pack weighs somewhere around 22 kilograms when filled up with water, so at first I said that it was OK, I could carry it myself no problem, but she seemed to really want to.

So I unshouldered the pack and she hoisted it onto her back.

Looks quite heavy, no?

Still going!

And guess what, she made it all the way to the top too! I didn't doubt her ability to do it, but I didn't think she would want to carry such a heavy load for that entire distance, but she did.

A few shots from Delicate Arch:

As you can see it's a popular place.

A nice comparison shot. You can clearly see how different lighting conditions can seem to change the colour of the rock.

Me and Bri.

When we started our walk back it was getting dark fast, and it was completely dark by the time we reached the parking lot. 

The way back.

I decided to sleep somewhere partially hidden behind some garbage bins there on the parking lot, but they didn't seem very comfortable with that idea and so I let them drive me back to the bridge over the wash, where we said goodbye.

But it being dark, I didn't want to follow the wash off-trail, and so simply decided to sleep under the bridge itself.

Nice and dry! It's getting quite chilly early in the morning though. I slept with all my clothes and a beanie on and it was still a bit chilly. For some reason my sleeping back doesn't seem to hold in body heat so well at these temperatures.

That next morning I decided to walk to Balanced Rock, which was halfway up to Delicate Arch and probably around 6 to 7 miles from the bridge I was at.

But first some breakfast!

After a while of walking I made it to Balanced Rock. It is quite the interesting sight. The rock up top is made of a different kind of rock. Eventually the bottom will erode so much that the boulder on top will fall. That is true for a lot of cool sights in the park. The sandstone isn't the most solid of rock, and so in time all the arches will fall down at some point. These places will not last forever.

Balanced Rock.

I hung out at Balanced Rock for a while, and decided to cook some noodles there. A lot of people looked at me funny as I sat there setting up my cooking stove and making myself a hot meal, but most of them seemed to think it was pretty cool too. Not that it would have bothered me much though haha.

After that I decided to walk further down a secondary road to Double Arches and the Windows.

That was about 4 miles away from Balanced Rock. It took me a little while to get there, because all in all I had not eaten much that day. (My food was starting to run out quickly)

But the walk was quite worth it. The Double Arches and the Windows are really close by and they have quite the good views.

The Double Arches.

Inside the Double Arches.

Again, I made a video but I was not able to upload it just yet.

Next was a walk up to the Windows. First the North Window.

The North Window.

The view from inside the North Window.

And the South Window:

And right across from these Windows was Turret Arch, which was a really cool sight too.

If you go to the other side of the arch and climb around a little bit, you can get a view of both Turret Arch and the South Window.

Also, some people were doing yoga inside the arch.

After walking around here for a while I decided to try and get a ride up to the campground at the end of the park, and either staying there if time ran out, or following another route off-trail and camping out further in the park again.

I ended up getting a ride from the people who talked to me in front of the South Window and who took my picture there. They weren't going to the campground specifically but decided the distance wasn't too huge and they would drive me there anyway, which was really nice of them.

When I got there I made some more noodles and filled up my water reserves again, which had run out a second time. 

By the time I was done it was getting dark again, and the campground custodian came up to me wanting to know where I would stay. I decided to stay at the campground. The problem with walking in the park in the dark is that it's not allowed. There is some kind of biotic growth all over the place which takes years to form, and is destroyed really easily by stepping on it. This biotic growth is required to sustain plantlife in the area.

And so I decided to stay where I was. I was able to sleep in a group area. When I found Juniper Basin (the group site) I put down my stuff, and was approached by a guy of around my own age who introduced himself as Roman. He was there alone for a little bit would be joined by a group of his friends, with whom he had been making trails for two months, and this was to be some kind of goodbye party. He invited me to join them for the evening, and I accepted his offer gladly.

I can be on my own for a while but at some point even I will start to feel lonely, and it was great to have a group of people of around my own age to hang out with for a while.

The sun was setting fast now and it painted the sky in pink and purple, fading slowly into dark blue.

Somebody who came out to enjoy the same view.

An amazing sunset.

That night we stayed up for quite a bit, sitting at a campfire drinking beer and talking about all kinds of things.
The next morning they planned on going on a hike, and I was invited along for that as well, which was really cool of them. I never felt like I was intruding upon their group, as they were all really inviting and friendly. They decided on doing the Devil's Garden Trail, which happened to be the hike I had to do myself too to see the last of the major sights of the park, and so I joined them for the hike as well.

This time I was able to leave my backpack in Roman's car too, which saved me quite the weight to carry around for which I was glad, because the hike turned out to be quite a long one, but well worth the effort of doing.

The first stop: Landscape Arch.

Another balancing rock we found along the way.

After a while we ended up climbing up a cliff, from which we had an awe-inspiring view.

Shortly after that point, we found the Double O Arch, which was a fantastic place where we spent some time sitting and climbing around.

A view from the back of the Double O Arch.

We also managed to climb up into the upper arch seen in the last picture here, but unfortunately I don't have a picture of us standing inside of it yet. Maybe I will get it later, and if so I will post it in a next blogpost.

After hanging out here for a while we followed a primitive trail back to the parking lot, which took us into the canyons below, and which was marked largely by cairns to guide us along.

The more regular trail would simply take you back along the way you came.

Into the canyons!

We zigzagged down these tiers. I didn't realise how beautiful they were untill I saw them from the other side.

After walking and climbing through the canyons for an hour or so we made it back to the parking area, where the group said their goodbyes and they all made their own way home.

Roman drove me back down to Moab and helped me find the hostel in town, where I was able to wash my clothes (I didn't have any clean stuff left at this point) and take my first shower in over a week. After he dropped me off I said goodbye to Roman. Thanks for everything dude! And thanks to the rest of the group as well, it was awesome! :)

So now I have been in the hostel for two nights. I will try to fix my boots again tomorrow as the sole is coming off the right boot again. The glue I used in Kelowna was good, but not good enough for the rugged landscape of Southern Utah.

Next plan: spending a few days in Canyonlands.