An experience not a pleasure - full version with pics

I think you are best not to drink to much at altitude so i had a decent headache in the morning which with plenty of water seemed to clear.

A quick breakfast and off To Tupiza. 208 kms of gravel roads. I was expectng the gravel (and quite looking forwards to it) but I was not expecting Rippio for 200kms of the 2008!!! The corrugations were by far the worse i have experienced and it was unrelenting. You scan the road ahead trying to find a way to avoid it. If I was lucky I may get 500 meters of "smooth" road and then it was back to the Rippio.

When you weren't contending with Rippio you were going round precipitous hairpins up and down about the mountain ranges. These were invariably sandy with rocks.

You can see the rippio on the road here on the right.

Then there were the rivers to cross. Luckily only two. The first was clear water and I could see that it was shallow so no problem. The next was muddy brown water and i couldn't tell how deep. There were no sticks or trees to be able to prod the river. just when I was about to take my boots & socks off and wade in, a local bus arrived (I should point out on the whole journey I didn't see more than 6 vehicles).

 I watched him wade through and thankfully the water only came 2/3rds of the way up his wheels. I ploughed through and on towards the sand.

The bike and me was being shaken to bits, my headlamp blew, my Brake failure warning light was on and I noticed some hairline cracks in the windshield frame. Not critical but if these were suffering what was happening to the important stuff?

Once I had cleared the last of the hills I was looking forwards to an easier run. But the plain was sandy and the wind blows the sand across the road. You can't really tell how deep but most of it was fine and reasonably Ok to get through. One section was deeper than the others and caught me out. Front wheel turns and you are dumped off. Not hurt but sand everywhere, you can see where my head hit, luckily it missed my brain by about 3 feet. Initial reaction is to look around and make sure no one saw me make a prat of myself!

The bike is nearly 350 kgs fully loaded and there is no way of lifting that. So all the baggage has to come off, then lift the bike, drive it out of the soft stuff and repack.

 

Onwards to more Rippio. Just when I had only 20 kms to go and was beginning to feel the end was in sight, i saw a bike parked at the side of the road with the guy getting the rear wheel off. As much as i wanted to get to my shower and bed, I couldn't pass him (I know i would want someone to stop and help me).

Santos had the rear wheel off and got the inner tube out. It looked pretty ancient and had more patches than Captain Pugwash. He got his patches out and an equally ancient pump that he told me doesn't work! Luckily i carry my little electric pump (a bargain from the States by the way - tiny, light & cheap). He found two punctures and whacked on another two patches to join the others. A quick pump up, all seemed well. Getting the tyre on was difficult just using his screwdriver and spanner, so i got my tyre levers out. tyre back on and pumped up. I packed away my things whilst he put the wheel back on..............ahhhhh the tyre had already gone soft. He had one more patch. We repeat the process. Needless to say the inner tube needed more than 3 patches, it needed a resurrection. There was nothing else I could do. I offered to call in on family or friends but he said he had none (how sad is that). He said he will push it and told me to go. I gave him my drinks and some cash to buy a new inner tube when he got to town. He was grateful for my help but I was sorry there was nothing more I could do to get him going.
I was dead on my feet by the time i got to my hostel. Similar to previous nights as the Hotel I tried to book was full! I didn't care.
"Could I please park my bike somewhere secure and get a shower".
"Sure no problem the secure parking is 6 blocks away". A phone call later, the hostel owner turns up on his push bike and i follow him to his home where he lets me park my bike.

The poor thing did look worse for wear, covered in sand and dust.

I got back to the hostel, changed my booking for 2 nights (there was no way I was riding again tomorrow) had my shower and went to sleep.