Morning of day two – I fancy the sunrise on the desert, but W stays in bed: no film to make, so he has a well-deserved sleep-in after doing all the driving yesterday. I am not usually a morning person, so the “golden hour” at sparrow fart usually sees me firmly snuggled into the bed-sheets awaiting my daily dose of caffeine to magically appear on the bedside table.

But today I join the photographer line-up at Zabriskie Point; the soft dawn light revealing the canyons’ subtle shades of colour.
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Valley..We left LA at 10 on the biggest freeway I have ever seen, and stopped at Denny’s (a fast food franchise) for a late breakfast. The portions are still so huge in the US that W and I have to split every meal. The closest thing to eggs Benedict that Denny’s can offer is eggs cooked inside an o-shaped dough, hash browns (adapted from the swiss rosti, and I bet they thought they invented it) with bacon so crisp it’s easier to eat with my fingers. The coffee is bottomless, but America is not renowned for its coffee – even Starbucks is looking good here! It’s good that this is a bottomless cup; I have to drink a gallon of it to equal a regular shot of caffeine in Sydney.
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Actually it’s two right feet I ended up with – in my packing I didn’t think to check the two sandals I grabbed off the shelf. Husband, having an identical pair, I ended up with one of my right shoes, and one of his. So he has two left to match my right. Sigh, I only noticed that when I arose in San Diego, somewhat befuddled after twenty hours of travel. More

The village of Mesta is renowned as a village that has been continuously inhabited since medieval times. The village itself is preserved, so none of the walls, facades or foundations can be changed in construction. As a result, the hotel we stayed at had rooms distributed around town. Where we were there were three rooms, beautifully designed and fitted out. Tassos had even installed little square lamps in the stairwell – and not a sign of wiring. He scraped the mortar away from between the irregular stones, laid the wires around them and then mortared them back in. Light with beauty. Read more