DESERT TERROR LOST FOR 3 NIGHTS, I DRANK MY WEE TO SURVIVE!

Hiking stick in one hand and water bottle swinging from the other, I set off down the dusty track.

In the Californian desert, at the Joshua Tree National Park, I had a 13 kilometre trek ahead of me, in blistering 40-degree heat.

Keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes, I really wanted to see one.

On the drive in, I’d already spied a coyote. Being a Kiwi, spotting native predators in the wild was thrilling!

I’d recently moved to Canada, and was in the States for a few weeks, cat sitting for my friend Nat and her husband Lou hikers who’d got lost in the desert and died.

That won’t happen to me, I thought.

A wounded animal, my position in the food chain had dropped

I’d stick to the trail. And in my bag, I had a first-aid kit, plenty of while they were on holiday.

‘Be careful out there,’ Lou had warned.

There were stories of snacks