Day 37 - It's Hot, Damn Hot

Trip Start May 19, 2008
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39
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Trip End Nov 08, 2008


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Flag of United States  , California,
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Mel took her first turn at driving Chip today and first stop was the town of Independence for a bank, groceries and fuel. First bank we tried wouldn't cash them because we didn't bank there and the second one, which was substantially bigger wouldn't cash them because of the risk of forgeries but told us that the stores would take them. When we asked what the stores did with them, the woman replied that they pay them in at the bank!!! If you work that one out let us know! (Comments on "guestbook" welcome!)

To our surprise we were able to use our cheques in Independence as they had been intended - like cash! So once restocked and refuelled we took the road south and then east towards Death Valley. Now as it is a valley we weren't expecting to have to climb hills, but that's exactly what we did, through the foothills of the Inyo Mountains and the Argus Range. We stopped for lunch on a plateau looking down into a canyon and it was hot The Sierra Nevada From Independence Creek
The Sierra Nevada From Independence Creek
 !

After lunch we descended quite a way through steep twists and turns, obviously on our way into the valley...oh no, just when you've gone down several thousand feet you have to go back up! This time through the Cottonwood Mountains and the Panamint Range. Unfortunately our map doesn't show topography so we've no idea when we're going to be faced with hills like this. But it's the main route into Death Valley and DV is where we were headed so......20 miles an hour in second gear for several thousand feet! And all the time it was getting hotter and hotter and hotter. Quite scarily there were blackened pieces of car-sized road every now and then where cars had obviously caught fire! The authorities have actually placed tanks at several points along the climb which hold radiator water, no use to us though, being air-cooled! By the time we reached the summit of the climb it was 48'C! Which idiots take an air-cooled vehicle into the desert in the middle of summer?

From there it was down, down, down and down some more. If you didn't cook your engine on the way up you could always cook your brakes on the way down. At one point it felt as if the road in front of us would never stop going down!

Eventually we hit the valley floor, Sea Level and Stovepipe Wells at 5.45 pm and the temperature reached 50'C! No More To Be Said
No More To Be Said
 ! Another 25 miles further on we reached our campsite at Furnace Creek at 190 feet below sea level. Quite a difference from yesterday at 9945 ft above and snow! Bizarrely (or not really when you think about it), it's off-peak season in DV, as opposed to everywhere else we have been, and so only the one camp-site is open and there aren't too many other idiots camping in the middle of the desert in the middle of summer so it's not at all crowded!

It's soooo hot, it's just unimaginable how hot it is. We didn't need to boil the kettle to do the washing up tonight, the water out of our water canister was hot enough from just being on the picnic bench outside. We really didn't need a fire either but lit one anyway to keep the Rattlesnakes and Kangaroo Rats at bay!

Just going to bed at 10.30 pm and it's still 38'C! Oh to wash in cold water - but there just isn't any!!!

Distance travelled: 123 miles

Total distance travelled: 1448 miles

Days on road: 17

States visited: 1

National Parks visited: 2
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