We drove straight to highway 98, which brought us to the town of Calexico,a major border spot for people crossing into Mexico. The streets were lined with cars, all facing Mexico so we went the other way.
after leaving Calexico, the scenery became very desolate, and very, very dry. This road follows the border, so we met many white with green writing border trucks, some pulling trailers,with all terrain vehicles on them. No one paid any attention to this little VW camper.
near the Heber dunes , just before Ocotillo, we decided to stop for the day, small dirt roads led off the main track, so we pulled into one, found a small stand of Tamarisk trees, and got our camp ready.
I poured us a glass of wine, and as we sat there, marveling at the peace and quiet, a border truck pulled up, drove very, very slow past our spot, i waved, he waved and off he went again.
Ten minutes later , another truck came, different one, drove by us very slowly, the guy smiled, i can just imagine what he was thinking, a couple of nerdy Canadian people , camping out here!!
But what it was really all about it, that on a constant basis ,people flee from Mexico, and jump the border into the USA.
The next morning we saw all the infrared cameras on huge posts, all throughout the desert.
Anyways, they didn’t return that evening, but i realized later on that they had a wonderful view of us, with those cameras….
The sunset was amazing, as you will see on the photos. I went exploring the next early morning, we had not seen any critters, but lots and lots of tracks, i took my camera with me, and went to a bit of a hilltop, to overlook the area. A white border control truck drove up, with a trailer behind it, with two ATV’s, they looked around, saw me, and one of them , big dude, in combat gear,came straight at me in the ATV, at high speed!!!!
Ohhh…great!!!! what did i do????? He was wearing a black helmet so i could not see his face, and he politely said to me, please mam, could you now get back to your truck!!!! there are some bodies coming across and there could be trouble!!!! BODIES?????? TROUBLE??????? Lovely!!!
I hightailed it to the Westy, both guys took off at high speed towards the border, and thats the last we saw of them. I didnt dare take a photo of them, wish now i did though….
We had our breaky, made coffee and then moved on, towards San Diego.
All along we saw these huge poles with cameras, and later on, on the main highway, we passed truck yards, full of border control vehicles. A lot of money is spent on this……