didn’t linger too much outside but headed straight for the air-conditioned centre! American information centres are ace, you can spend hours in them, we got to watch a short film about life in the desert which was really interesting and gave you a good incite to the workings of a place such as this and the variety of plant and animal life that can survive in these harsh environments.

We also thought it a good idea to top up our petrol levels, I’m pretty sure that this was some of the most expensive petrol we came across but hardly surprising really! We had a small debate about what everyone wanted to do and we decided that it would be good to do the touristy loop. It did mean that we would have a slightly longer drive but if we just headed off straight to Vegas then we would miss out on the most interesting parts of Death Valley. There is a scenic tourist drive which was fabulous, again it was

a total surprise in terms of rock formations and rock colours. You drive through some spectacular scenery and pass through another Artists Palette, where the rocks are tinged with a whole host of different colours, the result of mineral deposits within the rock.

We then drove down to the Devils Golf Course, which isn’t a golf course at all, but a very bleak and flat part of the desert. The earth is cracked from dryness and the ground seems to shimmer from the number of white salty deposits that are scattered all around your feet. It was a place that you could literally see for miles and miles and miles, and it was incredibly hot. Whilst being stood there taking too many photos, I turned and looked at our mini-van, parked in the most desolate of places and I a flash of a though about our other, not so reliable mini-van! I immediately removed any potential paranoia about breaking down in a