I can see Mexico from ere!

Heading east from San Diego takes us along the border of Mexico. A couple of points on the way you can see the rolling patchwork of hills that are the beginnings of Mexico.
A couple of times on the freeway we have to pass through border control, not that we've crossed it, that stops cars on the suspicion they've got over the border illegally. Clearly we couldn't look less Mexican if we tried so we get waved through both times.
There's a dusty heat around here and for a couple of hours we don't see a town or village just scarcely bushy hills with scattered rocks as far as the eye can see.
It's beaming sunshine and a slight haze covers distant mountains. The air conditioning is on full pelt and it's still February. We approach a sand covered town that's typically sprawling for no good reason and get out of the car for supplies. Blimey it's hot. It's like the frickin desert out here. Wait a minute I think it is desert.
Back on the road we pass lemon, orange and palm trees growing in plantations at the side of the road and what seem like abandoned shacks scattered in amongst the fields. Again in the middle of nowhere springs an overly large uninteresting sprawl in which we attempt to get a motel for the night. It's then we find out that prices are sky-high due to the annual Date Festival. This confused me, I wondered why people would want to go out on a date at a festival and make it an annual event. I was confused even further when I found out that it meant a Date, as in the fruit, Festival. We drive on passing a large salty lake, named the Salton Sea, along the road.
We drive up to it through a strange neighbourhood. Sparse landscape and spread out wooden houses with not a soul around next to a deadly quiet lake with a slight haze hanging over it. Due to the salinity it's fairly white and has an eerie quality about it.
It's dark by the time we reach Palm Springs but even now you can tell it's a better place to be. From the desert landscapes of the day it's strange to see such abundance that exists in-between such baron these places. There's a wealth of motels and I soon realise why there's soo many golf related things dotted around the place. It's home of one of part of the PGA tour, no wonder the name rang a bell. How the hell they manage to water the golf courses around here is a miracle, it's as dry as a bone.
Thankfully they must have reserves of it somewhere as our motel pool and hot jacuzzi are full. That night was spent in both the warm pool and steaming jacuzzi under clear skies, a bright full moon and sloping palm trees.


In the morning we have a quick look around town and it's clear the PGA tour brings serious cash as there's plenty of flash restaurants and a fake Spanish colonial crossed with an old style west look to the main street.


From the slightly unreal back to the real of the desert heat and overall sparseness of the land out here. Then into the seemingly unreal environment of the Joshua Tree National Park.


This place is full of Joshua Trees and large Yuccas along with large smoothed rocks giving it a slightly out of this world look. The skies turn grey and the whole place has an evil look to it. Classic. This looks like a movie set but clearly larger.
This is clearly still the desert but the odd bit of rain tries to spoil our day but doesn't quite make it. The icy wind higher up is a chiller though as we walk to a small pond surrounded by yet more huge boulders and twisted trees. Up to a look out point for sunset and the sight of what looks like an oncoming storm but it never materialises.
A stunning view of the sun trying to burst through the thick cloud onto the vast curved landscape. This place is huge and another view shows the desert Joshua trees going on and on into the distance. It reminds me of views I've seen of African plains on TV, sort of. A stunning place.
We pass through a place called Pioneertown along the way which has in fact been the film set for over 200 films and TV series. It was built by Hollywood stars and still runs to this day for various filming projects requiring an old west look for cowboy films and the such.
A disappointing night's stay in the grim 29 Palms, of which the only highlight it there's Subway sandwich place in town.


Although Joshua Tree is considered desert it didn't seem like the archetypal desert I'd seen pictures off. The next day we drive through the Mojave Desert to see the real deal. All this and we're still in California. I think we've now spent as long in California as we did in Peru, crazy.