The cruel sun beat down - it’s one malevolent eye unblinking, casting down its rays, encasing the vast sandy terrain and any form of life that may exist there in its unwavering, unrelenting inferno. As if this hellish landscape wasn’t torture enough, the sky was as clear as can be. Not a wisp of cloud in any direction as far as the eye could see to provide the shade I was desperately in need of to shelter me from these callous withering rays. With each step taken, sinking into the red searing sand of the devils playground; the air dry and hazy. My head, pounding. My breathing, erratic. My vision, beginning to blur. It felt like drowning in lava. My skin was so dry, feeling like it was being scraped by sand paper. The feeling of numbness, spreading to all parts of my body and my swollen tongue was just the icing on the cake. The terrain was vast and seemed never-ending; only punctuated with the dark shadowy silhouettes of cactus, like great ghost ships across sandy waves. Strange h...