Kayaking Lake Powell & Antelope Canyon

Today was a pretty early start, as we had to be on time for our Kayak tour on the Lake Powell and into the Antelope Canyon. Sunscreen on in thick layers and off we drove to the starting point. We were a bit early, which was good because apparently, the tour didn't start at the head office of the tour operator, but at a little Marina. Therefore, we had to drive all the way back to where we came from. Off to a good start...
When we were at the right location, we got our waterproofed bags, life vests, paddles and a very brief introduction to kayaking, the we jumped right into our kayaks. As Dana and Ann-Christin shared one, I asked Stephen to kayak with me. Usually, the heavier one should sit in the back, but as I'm a bit taller than Stephen, I sat down in the back. Actually, that was good, because then I could just follow his lead whilst paddling. It was super hot already (about 35°C at 9am), so that I sprinkled water on my legs over and over again to cool me down. Didn't help much, but at least a bit. After 1,5hrs of kayaking, we arrived at the end of the river part and got out onto our feet to wander the Antelope Canyon. At first, it was a sandy ground and kinda comfortable for the feet. But after couple of minutes, the sand got hotter and then the sand turned into gravel. I had my shoes with me, but I didn't want to put my swollen feet back into them in this heat. Luckily, Luca gave me his flip-flops to use (which fit rather good, as he has 43 as shoe size). Then I hung back with Michael to take some photos of the Canyon and him. We talked a lot about his job as an Influencer and his travel experiences so far - it was rather interesting. But Michael's head is always somewhere else, so he really started struggling with the hot sand as he didn't bring his shoes with him. I watched him dance over the hotness for a while until I gave him Lucas flip-flops and put on my own shoes. That worked just fine until we met Luca again, who was on his way back and wanted back his shoes. What do three people do when they only have two life-saving pairs of shoes? Exactly, ask the one with their own shoes - aka me - to walk back and forth to bring the one left behind - aka Michael - the shoes of the one that already walked over the hot sand - aka Luca.
I did that several times which meant that I always had to go through the burning sun three times. I was so thirsty, but most of my water was gone already. My body felt as if it would melt in the sun. It was horrible. But the most awful thing was, that we still had all the way back with the kayak. Luca, Michael and I finally arrived back at the kayaks and asked for more water as the so called "guides" (they didn't guide at all, they mostly weren't even seen during the whole thing) had said they had some water. Apparently, they didn't bring much because I got the last water bottle and I share it with Luca who was out of water as well. The whole organisation of the trip was fucked up, because when Nicola stated that 3 of our group were missing, they first didn't believe us. They said "We made sure, that nobody was behind us", which is absolute bullshit, because the girl walked right past us on our way back to jump into the Canyon river and she should have been the last guide. For all of our sakes, the three missing people arrived 10min later but they told us, they didn't see her or her colleagues or anyone and they didn't even know how far to go and when to turn back. I was extremely pissed at them, because I thought it was completely irresponsible to leave people alone in the Canyon in this extreme heat. They were lucky that nobody collapsed.
When they made sure everyone was back and alright, we got back into the kayaks and took off towards the Marina again. The way back was way hotter and therefore felt way longer. There was always another curve and another curve to go around. But finally, when our water was nearly finished and the sun burned away our skin, we arrived at the Marina. I had to jump into the water to get out of the kayak and didn't even notice that the water rose up to my hips, because I was so hot that the cold water just felt like a bearable temperature again. Everywhere was sand and dirt and I was just done with the day. I just wanted to get back to our peaceful campground and chill for a bit. Luckily, we did exactly that, so that I could wash off Lake Powell from my clothes and myself and just lay down a bit, away from the heat.Okumaya devam et