Thank goodness for gaiters and Gore-Tex boots, because spring is on its way! I never thought I’d say this, but the other day, when my feet went straight through the ice and into the water of the small stream we were crossing, I was actually pleased. Pleased that the water-proofing on my boots worked as advertised, and pleased that the biting cold of winter was coming to an end.

When we first started this trip back in June, we were anxious to finish before the arrival of winter (see “Winter Cometh”) and before the temperatures plummeted to minus 20. Never did we think that we’d still be hiking through Christmas, and never did we think that we’d still be hiking well past it.

But here we are, halfway through February, and the daytime temperatures are already hitting a balmy 14 degrees (some of the time). It’s strange to think that less than a month ago, daytime highs were around zero. Now, we can feel the sun building up strength, the sky is getting bluer, and the temperatures are rapidly rising.

One thing that we both love about walking is being able to observe even the tiniest hint of a new season. The pretty blossoms in the photos above are actually quite small, but we have been watching them emerge over the past couple of days with some excitement. They are the first signs of spring that we have seen and they are the first splashes of colour in this otherwise monochome desert landscape.