RAOC Gazette - page 299
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1981 |
| Late date | 1981 |
| Transcription |
WALK SOFTLY, WALK SAFELY (Lieutenants Perks, Saunders and Walker are currently in their final year at RMCS) ONE of the seven natural wonders of the world, Grand Canyon, Arizona, is two hundred and seventy seven miles long, one mile deep and from four to eighteen miles wide. The inner canyon is officially classed as a desert, and summer temperatures can rise to one hundred and twenty degrees fahrenheit, failing to about eighty degrees at night, To anyone who has never been to the Grand Canyon this information is difficult to visualise, and even photographs can- r -L fully convey the awe-inspiring reality of it. But finally, t er six months planning and preparation, we were going to hid out for ourselves, by way of a series of hikes in the Canyon. So on 26th June 1931, the second year exams thank- fully behind us, we set off on RAF Flight 2141 to Washington DC. Our first night in America was spent in the comparative comfort of a Holiday Inn; we made the most of it as it was to be our last night of comfort for five weeks. The next day saw us complete the second leg of our six thousand mile journey, from Washington to Flagstaff, Arizona. The flight to Phoenix, rizona, landed just after midday, and here we had our first -ste of the heat we were to experience later. We wondered why the streets were deserted until walking out of the air-conditioned terminal we were hit by a searing one hundred and ten degrees! It was here also that we came up against one of the biggest problems of the ' backpacker * in the States—mobility. The dis- tance from Phoenix to Flagstaff is one hundred and twenty miles; there were no trains, and the bus runs once a day—which, naturally, we had just missed. So t after convincing the rental agency that cash was just as good as American Express, we hired a car to complete the journey. We had intended to stay a week at Flagstaff before moving le final eighty miles to the Canyon, but this was cut short by the {Continued on page 249.) A BOUCHER RAPIDS f -'CLEAR '\' CREEK CAMP '("•PHANTOM RANCH ""Vv, HERMIT RAPIDS R | V E 5 - £ & 2 . * -. "t- :o "x«, WANITE RAPIDS rv .—>-/ ^tftfONUMENT s t- J *•> I / r "! l- 3 • -"» f PLATEAU .. POINT-- CAMP J T/? C % \\f%RMlT ,- ' "CAMP^f <y < o o EX CANYON TRAIL GRAND CANYON ARIZONA, USA — 247 — |
| Book number | R0250 |