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Death road
We were up early, We were so excited at the prospect, Sarah was more nervous than anything else. We were picked up 40 minutes late and expected to be the last into the minibus. We were actually the first, this is Bolivian time. We watched as the guide Mericio collected two guys from a different hotel. From the van across the road we watched the English guy Kurt, think they were getting into a two door coupe. He got onto the bus alittle red after asking Mericio to pull the coupe out further as they won't be able to open the door! That was the start to a funny day.
We filled the van and drove up to the start at 4700m. We all Stood around and got our bikes and protective gear in the snow. This included the photo of me with a snowman. We set off down the sealed part of the road, getting use to the bikes. These were on Kona, full suspension bikes, probably the most expensive bike I've been on (equal with the Baraloche downhill bike). After 45 minutes on this fun easy ride we got back into the van for an 8km drive to the start of 'the worlds most dangerous road'. This section was uphill and we only want downhill at this altitude.
A safety word or two before we started indicated that we were to ride on the left... or the cliff side. To make it feel safer the guide indicated that a landslide on the new road meant there would be increased oncoming traffic. Great, this was a one lane road when it tries, when it is not caving in down the cliff face.
We pushed off for the start of the ride on a loose gravel road within the clouds. This impaired the view down, however the white void from the edge told you if you went off this edge, it was not a two foot drop! The ride was great fun, neither Sarah nor I fell off our bikes or hurt ourselves. I think Sarah was surprised with her speed and I was very impressed. We spent large parts of it together, and witnessed the tyres sliding out a few times on each others bikes. The views were incredible!
Interesting parts during the ride included the first stop, where the guide indicated that he lost a tourist over the barrier a month ago at this point, also when the English girl face planted twice on the road and, the crazy times, when you had to quickly break and standing on the cliff edge while a truck passed, and finally a couple of waterfalls we road under.
Near the end we arrived at an optional single track part which I opted to do with some guys in the group. The girls and another guy went the easier way which was the same as the gravel road we had been doing. This section was absolutely crazy. The 'track' was cleared of trees but that was about all, with boulders instead of track and slippery sloped 'V' shaped track in other parts. All of this had a drop off to the right or left, changed by the hairpin turns. My favourite was a hairpin with a foot drop over a root, a drop off to the outside it also had a boulder on the inside, to stop you taking the easy way out. Most parts of the single track were taken as slow possible, about 5 minutes of craziness.
After this we joined up again on the main track and finished the last 6km. The whole experience was so much fun. After a few photos, we headed to lunch, a beer, shower and swim. We started at 4700m and finished at 1200m, from snowmen to rainforest and a beer in the pool.
We had a great group of people in the van and joked, talked, watched gopro footage of the day and had a beer for the road, all the way back up to La Paz.
Six of us met up not long after for a steak dinner and bottle of red, followed by another at a local bar. Just to top of a great day, Miami Heat won in overtime to level the series 3-3 and force a game 7!!
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