Entry 1 - Etain Desert

[Zoa]

A wide stretch of arid land, the Etain Desert is a harsh and cruel place. Humans only reside on the edges of this area, where water is available. In the desert itself, water is difficult to come by, and the animals that live there are predatory and wary....

Scavengers of the Etain

(Excert from Zoa's journal on her travels around the world - R-click & view in another tab for full image)
"Looking from a settlement toward a portion of the Etain Desert, the crows did watch to see if I would brave the trek into the dry heat. I am not sure if I should venture in that direction, as the beady black eyes of the nearest bird contains a bit of unnerving anticipation..."

Spoiler

My submission is a scan of a picture I snapped during one of my cross-country drives in June of 1999 - pre digital camera days. This is a picture of crows begging for scraps at the lonely rest stop in the middle of Death Valley. Several cars were pulled into this stop at 10am, hoods open, cooling off in the heat. Temperature in the shade was over 110 Farenheit - the highest my little thermometer would go. After my car "cooled", I did set off again, heading east.
Edits to this image: All I did was crop out a telephone pole.