Death road

  La Paz, Bolivia Tuesday, June 7, 2016

You have all seen the Top Gear episode where they drive down death road. I remember the images of the truck they were in edging along with the tyres barely on the road - the rest of the tyre hanging over the edge of a 1,000 ft drop. Scary stuff! Today I was going to bike down that very same road. Starting very early in the morning I headed out and met up with Gravity Tours who collected us in a small bus and took about an hour to reach the start of the mountain bike tour at 4,600m. At the top of the mountain the bikes were unloaded, just five of us were in the group today, four girls and me, along with two guides; one for the front of the group and one for the back. At first the road was tarmac for about 30 minutes, all down hill, so no need to peddle. It was exhilarating, but very cold due to the altitude. Then we reached the start of the tricky bit - it was time to go off road. Our guides explained The rules of Death Road to us. which are 1. In Bolivia they drive on the right hand side of the road normally - but not on Death Road. You drive on the left here. This is so drivers can see how close their wheels are to the edge and hopefully avoid going over! 2. Let others pass you on the right. So we headed off, this was also down hill - actually it was going to be downhill all the way hence the company name - Gravity Bike Tours! The cloud covered the roads so not much to see just concentrate on the bumpy road and keep clear of the edge - this was most important as I knew it was a sheer drop there but I couldn't see it due to the cloud cover. Double scary! After about 30 minutes the cloud cleared and suddenly I could clearly see the immense drop down below. Automatically I moved further over to the middle of the road and no longer near the left edge. I was not going to go down there! The views were staggering, the clouds made it mysterious and very spectacular at the same time. In places a number of small waterfalls flowed over the road and over the edge making it more adventurous and exciting. Our guides would quite often stop ahead of us on the other side of the waterfalls to take photos and videos of us cycling through them. About 2 hours into the ride and I still hadn't had to peddle as it was downhill all the way. Then we came to a road block. A huge landslide had blocked the road. A digger was clearing and moving the landslide already and after about an hour it was clear enough for us to pass it. The sheer power of nature at work again. More down hill again but sometimes it got a little flatter now so I knew we must be getting nearer to the bottom of the road. Finally after a few more rivers and it was starting to get really muddy now, we reach the end of the road. Wow what a ride! At the bottom was a small coffee shop selling beer and light snacks where we all stopped to congratulate ourselves for surviving and not taking the express route down over the edge. We were wet, muddy and tired but exhilarated. We headed over a small bridge to an animal sanctuary where we could all take a hot shower and change into dry clothes. It was bliss and despite the signs asking you not to take too long, we couldn't help staying under the shower for ages. Followed by some well deserved food in the snack bar, our day was done and just time now to head back to La Paz on the bus this time on the newly made road which is lovely and smooth so I did what I always do on a bus and snoozed all the way back to the city. What a day! Would I do it again?? You bet I would....Fantastic!