Oli Reveals: I

The first installment of Oli’s emails from his round-the-world travels:

Hi guys & girls…

Finally get a bloody chance to use the internet for more than 7 minutes, and
actually settle down to write about the start to my trip; New York was an
awesome place to see, with me staying there for 4 nights. Done the usual
tourist stuff like the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Central
Park, Wall St, Guggenheim art gallery- Thea knows what I mean! (probably
Jackie and Poppy too). Managed to stay in a 4* hotel (on the floor of Ben’s
sister’s room for a couple of nights). New Yorkers love their Bagels,
mobile phones and a shit load of fast food, as it’s so cheap. My highlight
of New York was the view from the ESB- a carpet of sky scrappers.

Flew over to San Francisco on Friday, with the rental company letting me
have a car…the fools!! hahaha…I got my money’s worth as I took the trip
on a bit of a spin for four days. When I say “spin”, imagine driving 900
miles to the Grand Canyon in the next state of Arizona, south east of San
Francisco in California, only stopping for fuel and food, as well as a 4
hour sleep on the roadside. The journey took me 15 hours (not counting the
stops). I averaged 100mph on the interstate freeways- why break a habit?!!
(joke parents…) and drove through mountains, deserts, open stretches of
fields and nothing overtook me for the entire journey. The Grand Canyon was
cool to see, so expansive and beautiful- you have to see it first hand to
appreciate this huge whole in the ground. Did two treks there- a 20 km walk
of the rim and then a 10km trek into the canyon itself- Dan Hill would be
proud of the fact that I hiked 2000ft down into the canyon and back again in
2 1/2 hours, when the guides say it should take 4-6 hours. Camped a night
there, and froze my arse off as the GC is elevated, and we were essentially
in the middle of the Arizonan desert.

After the Grand Canyon, I drove to Las Vegas, stopping ay the Hoover Dam,
which ain’t that special in my opinion. Vegas is so tacky, fake, surreal
and bright that it feels like the American dream, or a part of it.
Something so loud in the middle of the Nevada desert that people are drawn
like a moth to a light. Didn’t gamble (sorry), but checked out around 5
casinos along “the strip”, some of which were in Oceans 11.

After a night in Vegas, I blitzed it to the Californian coast (taking 6 1/2
hours of driving around an average speed of 100mph). Once on the coast I
drove north to San Francisco along a famous coast road called “the Big Sur”,
which was very twisty and narrow, but contained some beautiful beaches and
some famous bridges and viewing points- the stereotype Californian coastal
drive!! Now in San Francisco, having completed the mammouth road trip of
1850 miles, $180 worth of fuel, 3 states, and jack sh*t sleep. Today me
and Ben walked around central San Francisco- china town for grub tonight!!

I reckon the best part of my trip so far was the driving through the diverse
landscapes of the west coast- vast expanses of land listening to American
Classic rock on the radio and my own trance CD’s- I have Jason to thank for
that!!

Write to you when we’re in Hawaii, as well as buzzing out personal emails
rather than this one.

Laters,

Oli