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World´s Most Dangerous Road
The group at the start...I´m feeling a little nervous and cautious at this stage So after a big long weekend with birthday celebrations I decided to join a group of friends and try our luck mountain biking down what they call the Death Road. Thinking that I would have recovered enough from the weekend I booked in and was just going to hope for the best. I woke on Monday morning feeling a little vague, something you don´t really want to be feeling on a day you are going to apparantly risk your life. An early 6.30am start saw us walking in the cold to the tour office for breakfast, where we loaded up on tea, coffee, hot toasted sandwiches (this is a bit of a treat) and the usual half stale bread, jam and butter. We are then kitted out in our wonder looking equipment that we have to wear for the day....Lance Armstrong eat your heart out I am thinking! This included a pair of lovely padded bike pants that had been worn by and sweated in by god knows how many others, a biking shirt, raincoat, bike gloves and a helmut. Then we were packed into the bus and off we go up the hill and outta La Paz towards the
World´s Most Dangerous Road
Me after the first part of the road...loving the outfit!!! start of the road. I had been hoping that breakfast might wake me up a bit and clear the foggy head, no such luck, as I fell asleep extremely awkwardly in the bus up the hill and woke to find the start of the road there and my brain elsewhere. My theory of the day is to take it slow and not to become a statistic and I have no desire to prove that I can ride a bike to anyone. We are allocated our bikes and we are all geared up ready to go at the top of hill when we get the option of going on the actual death road or taking the new paved road for the first part of the journey. For me there is no question as to what one I am taking, but all my friends are obviously feeling a little more confident and decide to take the one that requires some knowledge of how to mountain bike. I´m happy with my option and feeling ready to tackly the asphalt for the first little bit.
Just a little information about the road itself before we go any further. This road is called Death
Road or the World´s Deadliest Road for obvious reasons. It runs from La Cumbre, which is at 4700m, and then runs downhill to a town called Yolosa which is at about 1180m. So that means that we decend around 3500m along the road. Along the way we are going to see a number of different climates and different vegetation etc. To start with everything is quite barren as it is quite cold and then we decend into a subtropical area. The road is not really used anymore by vehichles, maybe a few here and there as people still live on the road, and the most common mode of transport now is on mountain bike. Most of the road is one lane and the danger other than having only one lane is the huge dropoffs that are right there on the side. Some of the dropoffs fall for up to 500m, so if you were to have an accident in a car or bike for that matter there is nothing stopping you until 500m. The road itself is not that dangerous it was mainly the crazy drivers that used to cause the accidents when it was used. We were also going
The World´s Most Dangerous Road
Action photo...not a care in the world! to pass waterfalls along the way and hopefully see some amazing country side.
So at the the top of the hill I let all the people with either no brains, skill or big egos go the hard way and I start to cruise down the new road for the first hour. The scenery was amazing and because I´d chosen the easy way I was actually able to enjoy it as we flew down the mountains. I really didn´t feel scared at all once we started and the crisp cold mountain air seem to revamp my brain - I was having a great time at the back just cruising along. All was good until we hit an uphill part, all of about 6km apparantly, but because of the altitude and no doubt a lack of fitness I struggled and nearly died here. My legs were working but my chest was so sore that it felt like it might explode and I was struggling to breath even once I got off the bike. I believe that this is how asthma might feel. The first hill got me but the next one I made but the altitude had killed me and I
World´s Most Dangerous Road
The hard slog up one of the only hills. My chest was about to explode with pain as breathing at altitude gave me a look at how having asthma might be. I only walked once too!!! came to the top coughing like I had been smoking 2 packs of Winnies for the past 10 years. Luckily for me that was it for the hills and the rest was down hill. This is when we left the nicely new made road and hit the real Death Road and found out why we needed mountain bikes.
The road was spectacular to start with but the cloud cover had come in so for the majority of the road we could not see any of the beautiful valley. This was kinda good in a way as we could not see the full extent of the drop offs, but we could see for at least 50m and that was enough. They tell you to ride on the side closest to the edge and the reason for this is that if a car comes the other way then they will be on the inside. With the drivers side on the left hand side here it makes it hard for the drivers on the cliff side to see if they are on the right side of the road, so they change what side they drive on so the driver is on the
World´s Most Dangerous Road
Part of the road and the sheer drop off same side as the cliff edge. It really wasn´t that scary and because I was taking it easy I didn´t really have any reason to think that I might go over the edge. There wasn´t much opportunity though to look out as you were concentrating on where you were going. Occasionally though I did catch sight of the massive drop only 1m away from where I was riding and that made my heart miss a beat. We did met up with the other group which meant all the guys where out there to prove who was the gnarliest bike rider. Still can´t work out why that is necessary and why the male ego takes over any kinda of sensibility. We all stopped at one place where there were waterfalls and also a shrine for a couple of people who had died there. One was for an Israeli girl who had died there 5 years ago, the first person on a bike. She had been racing with a group of 5 people and come around the corner to fast and was not able to stop. Just about 10m away was another Star of David which was for an Israeli guy who
had gone over the edge only about a month before. He was riding past and him and his mate were trying to kick each other and he fell off. So after learning this and seeing that really the only way you hurt yourself or die is if you are being stupid, the guides tell us that this part of the road is very dangerous because it is wet so please take the right and be careful. Before the guide had even finished the group of egotisical guys race off against each other and just do whatever they please......meanwhile the guides have their hands up in the air and Jane is quickly at the back waiting her turn in first gear!!!
So we make it further down the valley and the clouds start to lift and now we can see the beautiful green valley ahead of us. The most dangerous part of the road is now behind us and we can now pick up the pace and be reasonably safe....I´m weary of this advice as I have seen many people in La Paz with slings, grazes and bruises and most of it happens at the end of the road. We
World´s Most Dangerous Road
The road and us hard core adventurers end the road at a little town called Yolosa where we have a much needed cold beer and hang out in our great looking cycling gear thinking that we are too cool. After a quick cold beer we are in the bus and up to a great little town situated near the top of the hill, called Coroico, where there is a hot shower and some lunch waiting for us. Not only were the showers great and the food a treat it was great to be somewhere a little tropical. I had only wished that I had been more organised and brought my bag with me and stayed a couple of days in this town as it would be great break from the madness that is La Paz. So to get back to La Paz we now have to take the new road that has replaced the Death Road....this is more scary than the bike ride itself as the fog has set in further and I swear the bus driver can only see 1m out of the window. Well I obviously made it, have the photos and t-shirt to prove it, and I am glad that I let people talk
World´s Most Dangerous Road
The sheer cliffs of the valley which make this road very dangerous. Some of them drop for 500m. Our day was very cloudy as well so couldn´t see much of the valley. me into actually doing it, I am a hardcore adventurer after all - obviously!!!!!
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walter
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road
pictures are wow!