To Basaseachi

Date: June 18, 2024

After two nights in Torreon, we headed northwest across the remaining part of the great Central Plateau of Mexico. The central part of Mexico including Mexico City and all the way up to the USA is a fairly flat plateau with some higher peaks sticking out. The elevation of the plateau averages at about 1,825 meters above sea level. Much of the drive in the two days after Torreon was in flat areas of the plateau:

Here we start heading into the mountains on the west side of the plateau:

This is in the western part of the State of Chihuaua.

Once we got into the mountains, the driving became much slower. The roads are not very good and go up and down like crazy. Finally, we made it to a cabin we had rented in the Basaseachi National Park:

If you look very closely at the picture of Félicie standing in front of the cabin with her cup of tea, you will notice three tiny kittens and their mother clustered around her feet.

It turned out that there was no electricity there apart from a few light bulbs powered by a solar power charged car battery and we were going to spend four nights in the cabin. Something had to be done... Bjarne went to work and put this wonder together:

Notice the little light in the connector to the laptop. It meant that our laptops could be charged. Starting from the right, the components are: A 24 V lithium battery (that Bjarne made) for an underwater scooter. Then via a light bulb to a solar battery charger (the light bulb is only used when connecting the power to avoid sparks). The solar battery charger was reprogrammed to output 12 V while taking a 24 V battery as input (instead of a solar panel). Since the charger is not exactly a power supply, it needed some more light bulbs to start up the car USB power supply for the computer. Once the charging was steady, these light bulbs could be turned off again to save power. The output from the charger then went to the car USB power supply with some wires that were taped in place with blue tape. It is nice to have a few bits and bobs in the trunk of the car for a sticky situation. Now you know what is behind this website...

In addition to hiking, cooking and making computer chargers we spent our time being entertained by cats! Both the grey stripy ones (barely) spotted above and another litter of three kittens, one of which is looking out from under our car here:

This kitten and its two siblings — all white with orange and brown markings spent a lot of time under our car and even crawled into the engine compartment to play.

Sticking out its paw to play with its sibling:

Sibling fighting back:

Both kittens looking at the photographer:

Kitten washing its paw:

Grey cat with three kittens hoping to get fed. Notice all four tails sticking up in the air:

The buffet is open:

A few moments after this picture was taken they all tumbled over the edge of the step.

So cute!

On our last day, the white/orange kittens and their mother had moved on and then the younger grey ones started getting interested in the car:

So interested in fact that one of them climbed into the engine compartment and hid behind the engine block right as we were getting ready to leave. So we had to take a few minutes to open the hood, localize the cat and scare it out. Félicie had to stand guard while Bjarne started the car engine to make sure that no other kittens ran under the car or up into the engine compartment.