I clearly recal the moment the REAL heat hit us. It was rounding a corner near Death Valley junction and SOB was it HOT! It almost took my breath away, like hitting a sauna blast. Hot, damn hot, like…Africa HOT. We were told that it broke 120f that day! Well we finally did it, we got up early and left Las Vegas. What is it about that town the makes one stay up late into the evening? The night before it was the show at 9pm, THEN dinner and a ton of walking around til all hours.

Regardless, with a few hours sleep we did one last bit of a drive of the strip and headed south to find that one famous sign of Las Vegas. We turned around many miles out of our way and gave up. Never did see the damn thing.

The day was actually abit overcast and marginally less hot than the day before. Although the extra day in Vegas put us off schedule, it was better riding weather.

Anyway, with both of having not been on the bikes much lately, well more so for Vik, we had some stuff to sort out and buy regarding gear etc. This resulted in a lot of small stops, adjustments, photostops, fuel stops, nav stops, gears stops and stop stops. It was getting frustrating as I just wanted to roll.

We headed for Death Valley. DEATH VALLEY, ominous eh? Hot, no shade, sparsely populated and baren. Hmmm 26 year old motorcycle. Hmmm. Well the old girl had been through the deserts of Mexico, was well maintained and had given me no problems. Bring on the death, I mean heat.

By the time we got out of the city it was getting towards noon and we needed to eat. We agreed we would ride til about noon then have a break, maybe a nap and carry on. Well in the town of Pahrump we stopped for KFC and found a ball park to nap in. It actually had big trees for shade. The temperature was not too bad for nap but the damn flies were driving us crazy. Regardless we were both surprised that we had been semi conscious for an hour and a half.

The first real destination was Dante’s Peak and a place called Devils Outlook. It was a really nice climb up to about 5000 ft with a spectacular view of the salt covered flats below and the desert track we had just driven through.

Stunning. Vik walked out to the scenic point and took some pics. I didn’t go, I was feeling really sleep deprived and my feet were still blistered from trudging allll over Vegas.

From where I was perched I could clearly see the road we were about to drive along to get the lowest elevation in North America , -283ft below sea level. We could see, as the informative signs posted told us, the piece of tectonic plate that had tiled creating the low point and we could see how any moisture flowed to that point. What we couldn’t see from our nice cool high elevation purch, was the heat.

We headed down the mountain and back in to the heat. The comparative coolness we experienced in Vegas in the morning had definitely given way to hundred degree heat again.

We knew the dangers of the heat, we were drinking lots of water and keeping our salt intakes high. There was no shade and unfortunately we both only feel comfortable wearing good gear, full jackets and jeans. In my case, as per pics, I was wearing the beany helmet.

I clearly recal the moment the REAL heat hit us. It was rounding a corner near Death Valley junction and SOB was it HOT! It almost took my breath away, like hitting a sauna blast. Hot, damn hot, like…Africa HOT. We were told that it broke 120f that day!

I was boiling. I could get a bit of cooling effect by sticking my arm out at just the right angle to let a breeze go up my sleeves and cool me off abit. Again, cooler when moving. Vik’s bike gives him more direct breeze so he warned me about letting that hot wind hit you too long, it sucks the moisture right out of your skin!

After a few more futzy stops and nav stops we made the trek, about 50km’s round trip, to the lowest elevation in North America 283ft below sea level and walked in the salt flats abit. It was an interesting experience and mofo hot, so we booked out of there.

With the combination of the heat and the lack of sleep I was getting grumpy. I wasn’t nearly as hot when we were moving so I wanted to keep moving.

One of the great things about Vik and I travelling is our communications, both psychic, hand signalled and discussed. We sorted it, we needed to keep moving and when we did stop, get all the crap done you need to do, then get moving again. I think it was around here that I put my metal rimmed sunglasses on and burnt my face as they had been sitting in the sun. Oh yeah, don’t touch ANYTHING if you can help it!

Yes I got abit sunburned, lol.

I liked how the sand was blowing around on the road and the drifts at the side of the road. It felt very desertish.

Somewhere in there we came across this area that was like a small mountains valley but was totally filled with sand dunes, at sunset. I took about a million pics here, all arty and stuff.

At the next fuel stop in a place called Furnace Creek we both guzzled a full 2litres of Gatorade and had a snack and rest. We fuelled the bikes and tried to stay out of the wind, it was hotter than the normal air! No wonder they call it Furnace creek! Another town was name Stovepipe mills. Hot there too!

From there we headed up into the mountains again on lovely roads. It was getting dark now so hopefully it would cool down soon. Oh how right I was, lol.

The heat had not abated but the light certainly had. I had to take my sunglasses off. Fine, but it only took about 5 short minutes for the smoking hot breeze to dry out my eyeballs and render me almost blind. I limped to a stop and dug in my bags for some drops, and water. I dug out my full face helmet with the sweet new clean visor and continued on.

We had a gorgeous ride through some twisty roads. The moon rise that night was amazing, a huge burning orange moon, gorgeous. We rode on into the night and basically stopped at the first hotel in the first town, Big Pine, we found.

We both crashed right out.