Hiking the Love Valley

Today we decided to do the hike I was trying to do yesterday, the Love Valley.  I was given a map by our helpful host but it was a bit on the rough side for details.  It showed two roads but missed all the little side roads that we passed as we hiked down the highway.  So after heading in to a few restaurants and tour places we found our turnoff and got onto the trail/road.  We didn't know what to expect besides finding out that there were no ATV’s allowed and it was around 4km long.

It started out with these weird, mushroom shaped formations and as we hiked up the valley, things transformed as we went.  You could see the different layers of the formations and the different colours as you climbed up the valley.  Later, we were to discover the formations are from volcanic eruptions and are actually the ash from the eruptions that accumulated and over time, compressed into this hard material that hardens to oxygen exposure but is really easy to dig into.  Many of the rooms you could see were constructed in days once you got into the easy digging.  There is also a basalt layer that formed over the ash which protects it from the rain erosion while the formations are formed by rain, wind and erosion.

Throughout the valley farmers have

tilled the land and planted gardens that sustain their families over the winter.  Gardens of grapes, melons, apples, onions, potatoes and tomatoes are the main crops and you find them everywhere you look.  It was a cool contrast between the dry rock slopes and greener farmland in the valley.  It was really nice to get away from the hordes of people and ATV’s and mellow out taking our owe time and exploring.

Every chance we could get we were checking out the side valleys looking for dug out homes.  We found a bunch but couldn't find how to access them.  We did manage to find a couple of places to kick back and take in the sights.  Also ran into a mom and son from South Africa where the son was cycling around the world and the mom joined him for a few weeks.  Pretty incredible to think he’s been riding from London and is heading east, hoping to get to North America next year some time.  He might even stop off in Revy!

Back on the trail and we climbed up out of the valley to find a kid selling orange juice.  I said no but asked for directions back to Gerome and he pointed down a trail to the north.  It all made sense according to our map so  we headed down only to find it was a dead end and we had to back track to where we had met him.  He was long gone by then so I couldn't give the kid crap for sending us on the wrong direction, guess I should have bought that orange juice!  We got back on the right track and with a tired crew managed to get back to Gerome.  What a great day of hiking and getting away from the hordes of people.  Dinner and bed time early for our really early day tomorrow, ballooning with a pickup of 4:15!  That’s gonna be painful!

PS... Robby we've got a couple potential panoramas for the wall now!