Trapped and beyond reach!!!

So many times I have read real life stories of people who get lost and trapped in desserts and survived to tell the tale. It is easy to sit in an armchair and read but when it happens to you the urgency of survival hits and panic looms large.
Simply put "I survived last Sunday"
The Sambar lake, as it is popularly known in India, is about 25 kilometer long and 15 kilometers wide, which does not seems to be very much when you are used to driving on highways at speeds of 100 kmph. As it is a flat pan you can see hills and other feature beyond the periphery, swimming in mirage, so you are really never "lost". Being on fringes of the Great Indian Thar Desert it is dusty and hot place. And of course no populance, trees, shrubs or water.
A drive on salt pan is some thing else. You see a wide expanse of flatness and can turn any which way. Power, both of your car and of your nerve, determines the speed of travel. At the same time you have to watch out for tracks and undulations which can make your vehicle jump off or you to loose control.
Me and my wife, went driving through "Sambar" salt pan. What we did not realize that there had been a bit of rain a few days earlier and the apparently dry looking surface was at places hiding slush underneath. Just four kilometers, covered very comfortably with in less than that many minutes, in side the salt pan our car got bogged down. With my experience of desert driving I was confident that with slow and patient effort I would be able to back out to dry ground.
Both of us got out and after looking at the tyres which were barely dug in the slush felt even more confident. Walking in that slush of salt and mud was in itself a feat as your feet tended to slide out. Try as we might the car would only move a few feet forward and backward and at the same time slide sideways where it was more slushy. After fifteen minutes of trying all we achieved was a further dug in vehicle, a very sweaty pair - us, zilch progress and one of the two water bottles finished off.
It is then that panic hit "So how are we going to get out?" No one knew we were there. No one would come looking for us. Only way out was to walk out and reach the track which skirts the "lake" and infrequently used by tractors and motocycles. All advice of staying with the vehicle seemed useless.
By then it was middle of the day and sun was right over head. So picking up the remaining bottle of water we set out walking back. Walking in itself was not a problem once we were beyond the slush patch. Four kilometers is not a long way but in middle of the day with bright sun burning your skin it is a killer.
The second kilometer showed a ray of hope when we saw a tractor slowly going across but our waving did not attract his attention. Now the walk was becoming a drudgery. When you are used to driving one kilometer seems just nothing. On foot we could appreciate what one kilometer means on sandy and salty bed.
By the time we were in the third kilometer all wanted was to lie down in some shade. Unfortunately this was no where available. Thoughts, firmly pushed back earlier, of what further we will have to do once we reach the track began to surface again. Except for one tractor, long gone, we had not seen any thing else. Walking was now just a matter of forcing one foot forward at a time. Not looking up at horizon as the distance never seemed to reduce.