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Published: January 25th 2006
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The Death Road
Giving Katharine and Laura a few tips My first adventure in Bolivia was to cycle down the
Death Road!!!!!!!!!! The
Death Road is in the mountains outside of
La Paz, its a narrow dirt track that runs from Chuspipata to Coroico. It was given the title of "The World's Most Dangerous Road" in 1995 and I´m betting still probably is. You see quite a few reefs laid by the roadside on the way down.
The company is called "Downhill Madness". 8am we´re all bussed from central La Paz upto La Cumbre, a high Andes pass around
4670m. We select our bikes and then given safety training, not as silly as it sounds. The rear brake is on the right hand side and not the left as back home, a useful thing to know!
Its bloody cold up here and we´re all wrapped in several layers. The first section is on tarmacked road and is basically all about going as fast as possible, peddling isn´t required gravity takes over! Within seconds I was freewheeling down the road as fast as the bike could carry me. I reckon at times I must have been hitting
40mph, which on a bike feels fast! I couldn´t really enjoy the view
as I was concentrating on not hitting any rocks, braking with the correct hand and avoiding on coming vehicles! With each rest stop I shed layers of clothes, the temperature rises the further we descend. But its isn´t all downhill we did have a 4km uphill section. On route we pass (or fly) through several drug check points, its Coca country after all.
We leave the tarmacked road at
Chuspipata and turn onto the
start of the actual
Death Road. This is a narrow rocky dirt track of a road with dramatic 1000m drops and many blind turns. We´re split into 3 groups fast, medium and slow its your choice. I pick the fast group.
The tarmac road was fun and a little bit scary, but the Death Road was loads of fun but very scary. The fast group lives up to its name and we head off down this single lane road/dirt track as fast as humanly possible. You really need your concentration here, the rocks are bigger the track is narrower and the
edge ever so close. I spent most of my time braking hard on corners. I just couldn´t get the line right though the
The Death Road
The start at 4500m corners and ended up in the side of the mountain a couple of times. We stop ever 20mins or so for repairs, at least 2 new bikes were needed, I had my brakes tightened many times and handle bars loosened due to the vibrations locking them up!
The road is
windy, dusty, unpredictable and didn´t allow anytime to enjoy the view. I´m gripping the handle bars with all my might, my fingers seem to be permanently braking to avoid a collision with rocks or another biker. Its was fantastic fun, I really enjoyed seeing how fast you could go before starting to lose control of the bike, and the pit falls of losing control where very real!
By far the
worst part of the whole ride was flying round the sharp blind bends only to come out the other side and find the road had narrowed even further. A metre of road width had just disappeared, I was now dangerously close to a very long fall! Hard to describe that sudden feeling in your stomach as you realise your a little to close to the edge for comfort. As your travelling at speed you can´t just quickly twist
The Death Road
Streamline position! the handle bars to move out of the way. You´ll just end up going over the top of the bike. Its a very long few seconds moving across.
Several times we stop to let a bus or truck pass, the locals must have nerves of steal to use the service.
By early afternoon the sun is out in force, the further we go down the more tropical the climate and landscape gets. Everyone hugs the shade of the support vehicle on each rest stop. We even pass under a couple of small waterfalls which add another variable into the
Death Road equation.
Towards the end I can really start to feel it in my hands and my bum. I think I was hovering above the seat for the last half hour of riding, just too uncomfortable to sit down.
The ride ends in La Senda Verde at Lodge where we get to swim, eat, drink, shower, swap stories and be merry before the long and bumpy coach trip back up the
Death Road and to
La Paz. The Death Road definitely lived up to its name, I had an absolutley excellent great time!
The total The Death Road
The tarmac section distance covered was 64km in under 6 hours, descending 3500m from 4500m down to just over 1000m.
Extra special thanks to
Laura and
Katharine for picking the tour company and booking the ride, top top day!
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Mike
non-member comment
That's one scary sounding bike ride - hope your bum recovers soon!