Feature
Journey's End: Venezuela, March 17
Approaching the bridge that would take them into the last country
of their epic trip, Sandford was amazed at the traffic conditions.'The
traffic is crazy' he later wrote. 'Lots of huge '70s American cars and
motorcycles all jostling for position trying to cross the bridge into
Venezuela. There's no sign of any officials on the Colombian side
so we go with the flow and end up on the Venezuelan side of the
bridge.'
But that was the easy bit. 'When we pull up outside the
Venezuelan Customs building the fun really starts' Sandford
continues. 'The lady looks at our passport stamps and explains that
we need to go back to Colombia and check ourselves and our bikes
out properly. Not wanting to fight our way through the traffic again,
we walk back over the bridge. At the Colombian customs hut the
staff are really helpful but explain that they need our bikes to do a
brass rubbing of the engine and frame numbers. Rather than
making us hike back for the bikes, one of the customs men just fires
up his scooter, gets Steve on the back, and speeds across the bridge
with the brass-rubbing kit. They're back ten minutes later and
everything gets sorted.'