It Was A Trip
We wind through San Ignacio for a kilometre or two, but soon we are straight out of the oasis and straight back into cactus covered arid desert of Baja, at least at this point we were driving 80km/hr on paved road. This lasted 10km or so, soon we hit the end of the pavement and arrive at the end where there are workman constructing the next section of the road, we stop and wait as they clear a road for us with heavy machinery. We drive on and struggle through the sand track whilst getting lost in a cloud of dust from the cars in front, finally emerging on the otherside of which the road was washboard with corigated bumps close together. We drive for 2 hours or so along a series of bumpy sand, salt and washboard roads, we finally arrive at a small town by Lagoon and have a cold drink and discuss the roads just before continuing on, Claude mentions that "the worst is still yet to come". We now begin heading south running parallel with the coast for a few k's eventually heading east in land. During which you begin to see some breath taking mesa's and mountainous terrain, we continue driving at crawling speed along flat plains with several arroyo cobble stone crossings and several dry river beds, during this time we slow for cows on the road and stop several times for photographic moments. We truly felt we were in Africa at this point expecting to see a lion or zebra but substituting with many horses and cattle. As we are driving through the most tough terrain we notice Claude ahead, turns out he had hit a bump too hard and when the car came down he busted the brackets on the roof racks, he was reattaching spares as we arrived he pulled over and let us get a head start whilst they finished it off. We drive on cautiously and 10 km down the way we are forced to stop as there is a fence through the road. I get out to open the fence when I hear some shouting I look over to where I hear this, I see an old mexican farmer with cowboy hat on running, shouting and wildly waving his hands in the air, I stop what i'm doing and wait for him. He arrives to us puffing and panting trying to catch his breath and speaks spanish to us, we couldn't understand him nor could Ben or Trent, he then quickly hands us a piece of paper which is written in english. Which basically says " There has been no rain all year, I need money for gas and I need money to buy cattle feed, in order to continue you will have to donate some water and some money." We had no peso's but happily gave him a bottle of water as did Trent and Ben but he still wasn't satisfied and was pointing at the note where it said money. We informed him with some broken spanish that our friend was down the road and he could speak spanish and pay. We wait around for 15 mins for the Lana's whilst doing so we notice the boys 78' Econoline camper was leaking from the radiator, the aussie comment "she'll be right it's only a pin hole leak" got thrown around, Trent hands the farmer 100 peso's for all three cars, it was getting late and we were losing our head start. We drive on through several moon dust traps and around several wash outs in the road. The desert was looking beautiful as the sun began to set over the mesa's. We watch as Trent observes the tracks around a big hole in the road. The detour track itself looked soft consisting of moon dust (baby powder consistency). Trent and Ben negotiate the road well and make it to the road on the other side quite easily. While we bury the car up to our axel the entire back of our car is resting on the spare tyre underneath. We try several times by digging the spare out and placing whatever you can find thats not spiky and placed it under the wheels, trying to push it out, all we manage to do was get ourselves dusty. Our stress levels were through the roof as the sun setted and the night began to fill in. Luckily enough for us Claude was only 10 mins away, we were skeptical about getting out, especially anytime soon, Claude was optimistic quickly attaching cables to both cars in the last remaining daylight. Sure enough we were towed out backwards by our bumper, we floored it back to the washboard. We continue driving into the night, we first continue in low terrain eventually climbing over several mesa's and repetitive rock hills, at each thinking and hoping it was our last only to reveal the distance of your head lights of more rocky hills. At one point our car completely conked out going up hill and watching the two cars ahead drive off into darkness, luckily its computer restarted and so did the car. After an hour and a half of this climbing and descending over rock hills we hit a paved road and a small town, but we weren't at Scorpion Bay yet. After the small town we continue down a steep hill and across a small creek. For the next hour we drive over some more very bumpy hills, but nothing we had not yet experienced before, finally arriving at what we hope is Scorpion Bay. We drive through town and make our way out the the point to camp at which time we pass a sign that reads Scorpion Bay campgrounds 150 peso's per person. We had finally arrived the time being 9.45pm almost 11 hours of journeying. We quickly make 2 min noodles, while trying to work out if there was any waves, it didn't sound like it. We ate fast and in silence after the biggest day of driving we'd ever done. I felt I was a different person after doing that drive. Exhausted drained physically and mentally, we go to bed and fall asleep immediately with only one thought in our mind what will it look like in the morning, will there be swell?