The Night Under the Stars

after the day in the heat we were advised by the Death Valley National Park rangers not to use any of the nearest campgrounds. why? well, it was 115°F (46°C) during the night so at midnight, it will be colder: 95°F (35°C)... still you can hardly sleep in this temperature. we drove to a campground about an hour and a half drive away, which was over 2000ft (600m) above sea level where the temperatures were about 50°F (10°C) lower. it was the strangest campground we have seen. it was a designated area right next to the road with 10 tables and a rock hard surface (it looked like car park to us). for free. when we arrived there there was just one climber waiting in his car for the night to come but later it got full. yes, it was a bit cooler that below sea level but (also, since we couldn't get our tent pegs in the rock!) we decided to sleep outside, under the amazing desert stars. we chose to sleep on the tables (one table each) to avoid any spiders, snakes, scorpios and whatever could crawl over us. the tables were a few meters away from each other so it wasn't the most romantic night but it was amazingly warm with the slightly cooler breeze blowing our faces. and the stars were the brightest!

po dniu spedzonym w upale straznicy Parku Narodowego Doliny Smierci odradzili nam nocleg na kilku najblizszych kampingach. czemu? jesli w ciagu dnia bylo 46°C to o polnocy byloby 36°C, wiec za goraco na jakikolwiek sen. pojechalismy zatem dalej, jakies poltorej godziny jazdy na ponad 600m ponad poziom morza, gdzie temperatury bylo o okolo 10°C nizsze. tam znalezlismy nasz nocleg... byl to teren oznaczony jako kamping z dziesiecioma stolami i bardzo twardym, skalistym trardym gruntem. za darmo. gdy tam dotarlismy, zastalismy samotnego wspinacza czekajacego na noc w swoim samochodzie, ale pozniej miejsce sie zapelnilo. bylo chlodniej niz ponizej poziomu morza, ale poniewaz nie dalo sie wbic sledzi od namiotu w skalne podloze, postanowilismy spac na zewnatrz, pod gwiadzami. wybralismy nocleg na stolach (osobnych), by uniknac pajakow, wezy, skorpionow czy czegokolwiek innego co mogloby w nocy po nas pelzac. stoly oddalone byly od siebie o kilka metrow, nie byla to wiec najbardziej romantyczna noc, ale bylo przyjemnie cieplo, z nieco chlodniejszym wiatrem owiewajacym nasze twarze. gwiazdy byly takie jasne i wyrazne!