Feeling a little worse for wear we dragged ourselves out of bed at 630 to head down to the meeting place to begin our death road trip! After Browny forced down a milkshake and I a muffin we were off with our guide Steve. Our tour was us and Anthony, four Germans, an Aussie and a Canadian.
We reached the start point and were handed our bikes along with a helmet and jacket, trousers, knee pads and goggles if we wanted them. We were each given an individual briefing on how to use our bike and told about the rules of the road and how to overtake etc. After a quick test ride around the car park we were off!
The first section was all asphalt and quite wide and so allowed everyone to get used to their bikes on a smooth surface. I was loving racing down and was very disappointed I couldn't make my bike go any faster! At one point we stopped and Steve told us to look over the edge of the road, here there was a massive drop and at the bottom a minivan which had clearly fallen off the edge! We reached a drug checkpoint and another checkpoint where we paid our entrance fee to cycle the death road. Here was where the real fun began! The surface was rough and dirt track like and the road was a lot thinner and we could see that at some points it was definitely only one lane wide (if that!). We were given an extensive safety briefing before beginning, this included being told we had to cycle on the left side of the road - next to the sheer drops!
The surface made it a lot harder to control the bike and it took some getting used to. Browny was feeling particularly nervous but was plodding along with her best concentration face on! We made regular stops to get the group back together and sort out any bike troubles as well as for Steve to brief us on the next section of road and tell us a few horror stories of injuries and the odd death spot! The scenery was absolutely incredible and helped to distract you a bit from the sheer 50m or so drops to the left of you!
After a couple of sections I was feeling fairly confident and was sticking with the crazy Germans - who would just stop on blind corners to take photos, much to the aussie and Canadian woman's dismay! At one of the check points I heard one of the Germans say to his friend 'haha you got beaten by a girl!' as he arrived shortly after me!
The whole road was incredible and some of the cars were driven by crazy people racing up and down! By the last few sections the road surface had turned slightly smoother and Browny had got used to the whole cycling thing and was keeping up with us at the front. She wished she had had that confidence from the outset, but with all the possible dangers it was definitely better to go at your own pace!
As we reached the bottom we were given a celebratory beer for all completing the worlds most dangerous road - without any injuries! After we went to La sende verde, the only animal sanctuary in Bolivia. Here they had monkeys, macaws and lots of other animals running around. We were given a buffet lunch and browny and I treated ourselves to a chocolate brownie dessert - this was good! I then had a shower but the hot water didn't last long enough for browny. It was then time to head back to La Paz where we were dropped at our hostel and went for a 'quick nap' before dinner which turned into us sleeping through the night!