Cloudy Desert Sunset
Sounds like it would be the start of a great epic crime thriller right? If only the outcome was as good as this fictional story. Last weekend Sarah and I set out to find the Kuwait Highway of Death. What is this dreaded driveway? This scary street? It would be the stretch of road that the Iraqis used to drive in and out of Kuwait. It so happens that while on said road, the Coalition forces attacked and devastated their forces. Problem is that the amount of damage and the types of rounds used by the Coalition forces (depleted uranium) meant that clean up after the war would be difficult. Many people were afraid to approach the wreckage due to the radioactivity and the gruesomeness of the scene. From what we heard, to this day there are still exploded tanks, trucks, cars, and in some cases, even people, left on that road.
So naturally, I wanted to go see it.
Sarah and I planned for a full day’s excursion to see this place. We set out and determined that the road must be highway 80 since that was the one leading to Iraq in the most direct manner.
We chose poorly.
Kuwait Map
We drove all the way to near the border of Iraq (no way I am getting too close) and didn’t see anything. Sadden and defeated we turned around and headed back. On the way south on 80 we found an interesting site of Ruins. It would appear that a very small village got abandon around the time of the invasion. We stopped so I could take some pictures. We noticed that there was no visible war damage. No bullet holes or explosions. it looks like the buildings were just left and the desert was working on swallowing them back up. A local sheep herder was using the area for some of his sheep, but was not there at the time. After a while we packed up and headed home.
So, what we thought was the HoD, was just a road. Apparently it’s a smaller road to the west of 80 that claims the name Highway of Death. This means that this coming weekend, we have a new plan! Keep an eye out for the potential actual finding of…..The Highway Of Death!
did you ever go find the right ‘highway of death’?