We laugh in the face of Death
Trip Start
May 21, 2007
1
19
44
Trip End
Mar 30, 2008
Coroico,
Bolivia
Thursday, July 19, 2007
We started off at 9ish at the top of the mountain (4700metres high!) with snow around us and the pair of us well wrapped up for the cold. After a pretty stringent safety demo, our group took off downhill on an excellent tarmac road for around 30 kilometers, stopping a few times along the way. It was fantastic, freewheeling along at around 65 km/h, going so fast that we were actually overtaking buses....and the road was safe enough for us to relax, get to know the bike and really soak in the scenery.
Please, no comments yet on the relative safety of this. It gets worse.
One part of the road that they didn't mention in the brochure was the uphill stretches. Cycling uphill at 4000 metres is not my idea of fun. I was like a one-lunged astmathic chain smoker by the time I made it to the top of one particular stretch, and the whole group collapsed on the ground, coughing and wheezing to beat the band. We began to wonder if this was why they call it the Death Road...but brushing ourselves off, we picked ourselves up for the final push to the proper start of 'The Worlds Most Dangerous Road'.
The road was once the only way to get into north west Bolivia, and buses and trucks used to come up and down this hairy 3 metre wide dirt track....and of course, every year, some of them would fall of the edge. 20 of them on average each year. Yoiks. However in 2005 a new paved road opened, leaving the road to nutty cyclists and the odd bit of local traffic. Although all along the track, as you peer over the edge, you can make out the ruins of buses and trucks that slipped over the edge in years gone. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspon dent/6136268.stm
I can't pick out any piece of the road as being better or more exciting than another. Each corner had a sheer drop beside it, each rut on the road was peppered with fist-sized rocks that you had to constantly move to avoid, and the dust from the bike in front of you almost blinded you if you got too close. But each time you stopped and looked at the view, your breath was literally taken away. We cycled under waterfalls, over rivers and around landslides - and every pedal of the way saw such magnificent scenery that your eyes would water.
Finally, when we got (dustily) to the bottom we raised a glass of beer to the guides in celebration. Marge and I were thrilled to have made it down in one piece - without a single fall or stumble the whole way down. We'd cycled around 65km in total and descended 3600 metres in the process....and earned the right to wear our 'Death Road Conqueror' t-shirts with pride.
