moment too soon either, as literally just as we were knocking in the last peg there was an enormous clap of thunder and the heavens opened! We hadn’t seen rain like that since the cyclone that hit us in Goa!! So we headed for the shelter of the cafeteria and dried out over a bowl of soup, before going to rescue Mum and Dad, who were stranded in their room!! Once the rain had gone off (about 2-3 hours later!) we had a look round the supermarket before heading down to the canyon rim, just a quarter of a mile away down a path. We were a little gutted to find that we had just missed the sunset by about ten minutes, and there was a little grumbling all round that we’d spent too long in the supermarket. Still it was a marvellous sight anyway, and we had another night, so we decided to walk down to Bright Angel Lodge, about a mile and a half away, to go and see about something for tea!! From this walk you could see all the way down to the bottom of the canyon, as well as the trail leading down. It looked like

a formidable climb down and even worse back up, but the most alarming thing was that the method of choice for this journey was on the back of a mule!! We had read that in order to do this you needed a really good head for heights as the mules are not scared of teetering on the edge!! Needless to say we all declined this opportunity!!

Bright Angel Lodge had a few places to eat, but our first stop was for a pint in the pub whilst perusing the menu for the restaurant. We were treated to a virtuoso rendition of some old American classics by Chicago Mike, an alarmingly bearded singer guitarist!! He’s touring in Europe soon - if you get the chance you must go and see him - he’s the best - honest Guv!! After a few beers we were all ready for a good feed - and the restaurant didn’t disappoint! Another beer back in the bar with Chicago Mike’s closing numbers and we were on the free shuttle bus