20/11/09 - The World's Most Dangerous Road

Today Rob, Luke, Di and myself rode down the Death Road. This is a 65km stretch of road which goes nearly continuously downward from 4700m to 1200m. It is named for the large number of deaths that occur (drivers - not usually bikers). From what I've seen of the drivers in this continent most of the deaths result from a fairly epic degree of stupidity. They'll try to overtake anywhere, even if signs say not to, and they are on narrow twisting roads with no visibility and sheer drps of hundreds of meters along every part of the road and track. I'll admit that the drops are fatal, but there is next to no chance of anyone on a bike going over.

Now for some photos.

This is us with our guide at the beginning of the road. No-one is entirely sure what Luke is doing in that stance.

The first part of the road is on tarmac and this was my favourite section as you could actually appreciate the view rather than having your eyes fixed to the ground looking for large stones.

Once we were onto the track it was proper mountain biking for the majority of the road. Incredibly rough ground and stones making all of us wish for superior bikes as the suspension on those we were using was no where near up to the task of diminishing the vibrations we were experiencing (I don't think I'll be sitting down for a few days).

The next photo shows what the side of the track is like basically for the duration of death road. Even so, I think they talk it up a bit much. The only real danger is having your pelvis turn to dust.

By the end we were all glad we had done it (how could I come to Bolivia and not go down the world's most dangerous road?) but were very... tender in certain areas.

On the way back we found that Tucan had once again found the most slow mode of transportation possible as our minibus was being overtaken by everything, including lorries, on the way back. Note that this was on stretches of road with many no overtaking signs posted.