The road of DEATH! (an Amy Only Activity)

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Phew I made it! I successfully made it down the World Most Dangerous road on a mountain bike in one piece and loved every minute of it. The Word Bank has officially named a very high and narrow mountain pass in Bolivia, the worlds worst as it has killed the most people on the planet. Trucks and buses have gone off the side not to mention the amount of tourists who have lost control of their bikes and toppled off. The fall is sheer and very real (nearly 1 km) - I don´t think I have concentrated as hard as I did while going down the track in a long while. This was obviously an AOA (Amy Only Activity) as Giss was too scared but I had him well prepared should he have received a knock on our door later that night to say that I hadn´t made it.

The day started early with zero visibility which added to the nerves and danger especially as the first few kilometers were on a Bolivian highway where trucks love to overtake on corners. 6 tourists died on the road only last month - 5 of which had had massive nights the night before in La Paz and were still high (until they hit the ground that is). As a reminder of the danger, the road is lined with graves and crosses and of course our guide filled us in on all the horror stories of stupid people going too fast and riding off the edge or the poor French girl took two fatal steps backwards when she jumped off her bike to let a car pass.

With only 6 in our group, it took us about 2 hours to reach the bottom down and we rode a total of 56km. We met a few buses (that do not slow down at all while sitting on their horns) and were greeted with some speeding cars which was a little scary but we all survived. The adrenalin rush was awesome and as the day progressed and your confidence grew, you could really reach some great speeds on the downhill straights.

And so you will all be pleased to know that I live to see another day...

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Photos

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Getting ready for battle

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Where´s the road?

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And we´re off...

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Just one of the massive drops

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Dodging the buses, landslides and waterfalls

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Nearly down and feeling a little more confident

Comments

[Penny]

OMG Amy, i hope your mum doesnt read this blog!! She would die knowing you did that!!

[Marcos]

TtHE ROAD OF DEATH
Amy, definetely you are "THE CRAZY AMY"...

[Matty Bords]

Amy, I think I would love to do this bike ride !!!

[perns]

Jeepers Ames that sounds so scary but so awesome, I'd love to do this ride too