Day 1 (21-Sep-13) Los Angeles - Death Valley (423 miles)

Awoke 06:15hrs, excited at the prospect of meeting my wife, Astrid, who was in the final approaches to Los Angeles from Brisbane. Clearly, Simon, who had shared the hotel room with me for the night, was still suffering the effects of jet leg. He was equally excited and also clearly intent on perpetuating a practice he had honed with consummate skill on Kokoda, leaving bits of essential luggage strewn across the entire route, arriving at the finish in nothing more than undersized speedos. And so we left the hotel with Simon’s rain jacket still in the wardrobe!

Astrid duly exited Tom Bradley airport close to schedule, but only after being exhorted for overstaying her visit visa in 1994 by 4 days and threatened with immediate expulsion – it would seem The Morgans are deemed ‘undesirables’. However, with formalities behind us, we picked up our 6-cylinder AWD SUV and headed out of Los Angeles under cloudy skies along famed 10-lane concrete highways. Once we had crested the pass on the Antelope Valley Freeway, the clouds gave way to clear blue skies, as well as gusting winds, which stayed with us for the rest of the day. We were greeted with our first view of Death Valley at Father Crowley Vista Point by noon, with temperature at this elevation already a ‘toasty’ 90F. It was evident even from this remote vantage point that the valley floor was being blasted by high winds, with huge dust plumes sweeping all asunder. We then descended the Inyo Mountains to Panamint Springs, close to sea level, for brief pit stop.

At 14:15hrs we then continued over the Panamint Range (a 4200ft ascent/descent) to Stovepipe Wells Village, where we picked up our $80 multi-entry park pass, which is valid for a year and allows access to all US national parks. We then hugged the eastern side of Death Valley to Furnace Creek, at which point we began the long climb to Dante’s View, situated on top of the Amargosa Mountains at 5475ft. Along the way we stopped at Zabriskie Point for views of ancient volcanic ash deposits that have been moulded by flash floods into great folded sheets. The vista from Dante’s View of the valley below, which is below sea level , were truly stunning. Despite the ferocious winds, we edged our way along the ridge to capture views of the entire valley floor, which stretches over 70 miles N-S. We then descended to the lower point on the valley floor at Badwater. At 282ft below sea level this area is also the lowest point in the Americas. Even at 18:15hrs the temperature was brutal (over 100F). After obligatory photo shoot we slowly meandered our way back to Panamint Springs, arriving both hungry and thirsty at 20:15hrs.