the last thing I remember from Death Valley are the bugs and the birds. The bugs were everywhere… they walked on the floor only, they were a fast walking kind. I stepped on one (I think by accident) and it made a sound as if somebody crushed some dired pepper and immediately turned into black dust… and so black dust did not look like black dust ever again.
The birds, the smart birds, they were everywhere as well, outside at least… I felt observed… stalked…
And the desert. It was the most powerful one, the one that did not care to look particularly pretty, it was just there to be very, very low and very hot and very dry. (Surrounded by spectacular mountains…)
I decided to return to death valley. I am going to go in the “off season”, not in the top heat of July, more at the end of May, June?, but still… I am going there, so I can touch the glowing, salty ground… in the morning… around sunrise. Then again, hopefully, around sunset.
I want to see the universe hide behind the blue veil of the day and I want to see it reappear at night.
I will probably take pictures. I will definitely draw. But I am not going to visit the desert in order to spend time looking at paper or at a picture taking machine. I just want to go back to a place that I have been thinking about for about 5 years now…
Oh and I am also not going to perform any suicidal adventures. There will be no stupid midday hikes, no staring at the sun.
I am much too aware that the desert would not even break into sweat killing me…
And so I will be very, very careful… and I am going to write about it… I hope…