8 days building a fence in the Mojave Desert

So we're back from Lake Mead and San Diego. Project One was a rather interesting affair. We were continuing the building of a fence encompassing Lake Mead in order to keep cattle out of the recreational park. The fence was started last year and is so far 10 miles long. Our camp was really in the middle of nowhere; no shops or anything within 30 miles. Still we where able to see the lights from Las Vegas at night. Our first full day of working involved stretching three lengths of wire (one smooth, two barbed) between braces and clipping them to 'T' posts (already existing). Typically the distance between each section is 400m. For this we have to carry some really heavy (70 kilos) spools of wire over long distances and really, really difficult ground! The next day we carried our equipment for over a mile to our start point. Here we had to pound posts in place - this involves having one person holding the 'T' post, another to line it up with the rest of the fenceline (crooked fencelines are tricky to wire!) and one more to pound the post into the ground. Where the ground is too hard or rocky we had to use the Pionjar - a Swedish pneumatic drill which was lots fun to use! The next day we had a much smaller hike to a closer location. We spent the day installing the braces - digging massive, deep holes for them and encasing them in concrete. Mixing concrete in a bucket is in no way easy.

The next day (the days have all rolled into one now) we were back there pounding in posts again. Myself and Dan had To re-pound a whole line of posts because the sighting post was completely out of line with the next brace-annoying. The day after was quite tough. We had to carry all our equipment out to where we were on the second day again in order to stretch the wire in two of those sections. This took ages because it was so windy; communication over several small hills and 400m ain't easy.

And so day 7. We were given a treat by the Project Partner (basically the guy in charge). He took us for a walk through a large canyon next to the Colorado River to some hot springs - small pools of water that flow through the rock and heated by magma. One of the most relaxing day's of my life! Me and one other girl where the only ones brave enough to take a dive in de Colorado river (like 0 degrees celsius) from 10 meter high cliffs).
It's a good thing this place is practically kept secret; otherwise it would be packed with people. We were lucky to have it to ourselves

Later that day after doing a little bit of work (picking up debris from previous work on the fence) we convinced our awesome supervisor John to take us to Hoover Dam.
Day 8 involved picking up our tools from the work site and driving home to Flagstaff. We had to fully clean out the van, trailer and equipment: 3 solid hours of cleaning!

Typing all this in english took me like 3 hours so I'll do the rest in Dutch:)

Nadat we eindelijk weer thuis waren, hadden we 1 avond en 1 ochtend om uit te rusten voor onze eigen trip: Palm Springs en San Diego. Nadat we een busje gehuurd hadden, was het 6 uur rijden naar Palm Springs. Daar hebben we 1 nacht gespendeerd en zijn we de volgende dag tot een uur of 5 gebleven aangezien het maar 2 uurtjes van daar naar San Diego is. Palm Springs is een heerlijk mellow stadje en we hebben daar een heerlijk rustig dagje gehad: een massage, lekker op terrasjes zitten en een beetje rondlopen (al was het daar al een beetje te warm voor). Eenmaal aangekomen in San Diego hebben we in gecheckt in een best mooi hoteletje aan 2nd Street, dus midden in het centrum. Een heel mooi outdoor winkelcentrum was tot 10 uur open, dus daar hebben we lekker gewinkeld, gegeten en uiteindelijk naar de film True Grit geweest; waar ik voor 11 dollar heerlijk geslapen heb:) De volgende dag hebben we de hele dag op het strand gelegen! 30 graden en de hele dag zon, dus dat was genieten! Die avond na het eten naar The Green Hornet oid geweest, wat best wel grappig was. Die was vroeg afgelopen dus daarna zijn we nog lekker wat gaan drinken in de stad. Omdat alle aankomende projecten weer door elkaar gegooid zijn moesten we gister alweer terug. Na nog een lange ochtend door San Diego (heerlijke stad) geslenterd te hebben en nog eens 9 uur rijden kwamen we rond 12 uur s nachts thuis. Vandaag en morgen lekker vrij (waarschijnlijk even helemaal niks doen:) ), en den vanaf woensdag 8 dagen naar de Grand Canyon.

De vermoeidheid begint toch toe te slaan dus ik zal proberen morgen nog wat leuke dingen toe te voegen, maar voor nu nu weten jullie iig wat ik gedaan heb! Hoe is het in Nederland? Heel veel groetjes aan iedereen! Xxxxxx