From Singapore to Santiago: Boise and Bisons

We’ve just spent time in Boise, Idaho and Yellowstone National Park – it’s been a good week! Interestingly, when we told people we were going to Idaho, we were generally met with one of three responses:

Sniggered laughter
“Sorry I don't understand - why are you going there?”
“Ohhh… I hope you guys like potatoes”

Even Lonely Planet’s description of “Idaho, famous for not being famous” didn’t fill us with joyous expectation. However, we’ve found that a general rule for our travels have been that it’s the people who make a place fun! We stayed with the Lang family (another great NZ connection) and were treated to great food and company. We’ve really had some lessons on how to be a good host from all the awesome people we’ve stayed with! The highlight of our time was tubing down the Boise River. We floated along for two hours, and apart from the occasional rapid or low hanging tree branch it was an exceptionally relaxing afternoon.

Our kind host Jason pulling us through the shallow water!

From Idaho, we travelled east to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone really has it all: waterfalls, hiking, lakes, mountains, hot springs, geysers and big beasty wildlife. We camped there for the last four nights, which has really tested our resources/sanity. You see, when you camp in your own country, you can bring lots of things that make the camping experience more enjoyable. But because we’re far from home, we've had to improvise a little. Our extensive cutlery collection (24 piece plastic spoon/fork/knife set) has been put to the test, but we've found that attaching a plastic spoon to a stick makes an excellent long-handled spoon. Other examples include:

With excellent communication and co-operation, two tent pegs can be a highly effective method of carrying a pot away from the campfire.
Sharp rocks and tent pegs are a time-consuming but ultimately successful way of opening a can.
Above mentioned rock is an adequate substitute for knocking above mentioned tent pegs into the ground to perform their conventional role of holding a tent down.

Another ingenious invention: plastic spoon attached to stick = long pot stirrer!

Yellowstone itself has been fantastic. We spent last night trying to spot some wildlife, so parked our car on a hill overlooking a valley in the hope that the wildlife might come to us. Well, be careful what you wish for. If you have ever seen a buffalo/bison, you will know they are absolutely massive. Cows are tiny beside them. So now visualise two large, male bison making loud, aggressive noises, pawing the ground and threatening to ram into each other – imagine the noise, the anticipation, the excitement – except that they are doing this from directly in front of and directly behind your bright red car. Directly. As in one of them was licking our bonnet between grunts. After ten minutes of angry bison-man threats at each other, and much nervousness from inside our car, the girlfriend of Angry Bison 1 whispered something into his ear and encouraged him to move on. Or she headbutted him. Either way, it worked, and we were able to drive off.

Fighting in the blue corner...

The contender in the red corner

On our way back to our campsite we saw a grizzly. Admittedly, it was 200 metres away and still walking… but as far as grizzlies go, that’s probably just where you want them!