Frank is still in Colorado and is has at last moved from the plains into mountain country, though he is not in the main Rockies he is in the mountain ranges of Sangia da Cristo, their foothills.

He has made better progress than we anticipated and is at an altitude of 7,000 feet in a very pretty tourist town called Salida. It is completely different to all the towns he has been in recently as this is where people come on their vacations rather where they live or work. It has quite a few motels and campsites and is surrounded by mountains on all sides some climbing up to 12,000 feet. He climbed some 3,000 feet in altitude over the last week along the banks of the Arkansas river.

However, this was quite gentle compared with yesterday Thursday 12th when he climbed up another 2500 feet to visit some remote lakes nestled high up above the town with an american called "Rip" who had made this same walk some 30 years ago. The altitude took him somewhat by surprise as has been walking on the flat for so long. He had to stop every 10 minutes to get his breath back, and today his ankles ached, a sure sign that he has been excercising some new muscles! They started about 0800 and got to the lakes at about 1400. Frank has a lot of experience walking but he avoids wilderness trails as travelling alone he feels this puts him in greater danger than walking on established trails. This was borne out on this day's walk on the descent of this trip they got lost, twice! They made it back to Rip's pickup at about 1730.

Frank is keeping notes of all his day to day experiences in a weekly diary which he sends home each week. I'm sure they will make interesting reading. He has seen some enormous vehicles and trailers go by. Some of the motorhomes are big enough to house entire Norfolk villages and tow cars behind them like yachts tow dinghies, for local access! Some of the cars towed in turn have bikes strapped to the back of them making them like Russian dolls in their interactions.

Frank is now heading North for a town called Leadville another 3,000 feet up. We will report next week or earlier on any developments!