Looking at my map I see this big national park between Vegas and my next major destination, San Francisco. This park is called Death Valley.
Sounds good to me, and so I plot a course through it taking me out the other end in the town of Ridgecrest. Using hotwire, I book my hotel for the night, spend another $35 on taxi fare to get my car, fill her up with gas, and head on out.
Nevada is just one big desert. There is nothing but sand and scrubland as far as the eye can see. It's warm. Very warm - but then when you're driving through the Mojave Desert, what do you expect? Before long I'm approaching the park.
It is truly breathtaking. You come over the brow of a mountainline and are confronted with this calm and tranquil looking Valley inbetween you and the next ridge in the distance. To say it's vast is an understatement (3000 square miles).
Having socked up on another 6 bottles of water at the last gas station/brothel (yes, it was a gas station and brothel in one), I venture towards the park entrance. It's a telling sign when it's so hot that rather than collect the entry fee, there is a car-park style machine where you have to pay for and print out your ticket. As an honest sort of chap, I pay my $10 and continue on into the valley.
Down there, it is hot. So hot in fact, it holds the record for the second hottest temperature recorded in the world, and the highest in the Americas. As you go further into the valley life stops existing. Shurbs become further separated, insects stop splatting across the windscreen. It is too barren, too devoid of water for life to survive.
I continue in.
The lowest point of Death Valley is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Walking here across the salt flats, I struggle to remember a hotter place I have been. The pyramids? No? Valley of the Kings? Not a patch on how hot it is here. It's so hot, that I step out of my car to make the 50 metre walk out onto the salt flats, walk 10 metres, then double back to the car to take water with me.
By the time I'm done here, it's now approaching 5pm. I decide to continue onwards and towards my hotel in Ridgecrest. My GPS tells me there's a way out of Death Valley heading south. I can't help but notice that no-one else is going South when they leave Badwater, but assume that they're also staying closer by and not travelling quite as far as me.
10 miles south and my road turns off onto a gravel track. This doesn't worry me - there are gravel tracks as roads all over America, and I've driven then in every state so far, ever since picking the car up in South Dakota. Nothing new here. I press on.
The road's texture turns to thicker gravel, with the occasional bit of rock. Hmm. Well I've got 50 miles to go to get to Ridgecrest, 75 miles to go to the nearest Petrol station if I go back, and a third of a tank of fuel. I press on.
The road start disintegrating further. After 20 miles of loose gravel it suddenly becomes a dried up river bed. And not a flat one either. I'm thankful that the Crown Victoria has good ground clearance as parts of the semi-washed away bed are holes half a foot deep. The car is taking it in her stride, and other than having to dodge the odd rock, my progress isn't terribly slow. I press on.
After a few more miles, I hit a rock. Not a big rock, but enough to make a bang under the car. I slow down and decide to see if I've done any damage. As I slow to a stop, the electrics die. Completely. No dash lights, nothing. I get out and check for damage - the car is fine. I try and restart her. Nothing. Completely dead.
It dawns on me that I'm in Death Valley, on what is really a 4x4 track, it's 7pm, I have no mobile phone signal and no-one knows I am here. My hands start shaking a little as I tried and coax the car back to life. I open the bonnet and look inside, everything seems fine. No obviously loose wires. I check the fuse box - all are fine. I start rocking the car backwards and forwards. This does something, whilst the car rocks, the electrics are clicking on and off. By this time it's gone half past 8 and the light is starting to fade. I stand on the drivers door sill, and whilst rocking the car up and down manage to get the windows closed (they are all electric). I try rolling the car back down the track, and very quickly get it stuck on a rock.
The sun dips behind the horizon.
To say I was scared is an understatement. I have never felt such wretched helplessness and terror. It was everything I could do to stop myself from panicking. As darkness closed around me I decided I would not let this overcome me. I would find a way out.
Windows and doors shut, I sat there, baking hot, and tried to sleep.
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