T
he trucks were still parked up as I got further along and then I realised what was going on.
I had weaved myself along for about 25 kms and this is the line up of trucks just waiting for the
border to open that Patricio was talking about.
I reckon I must have passed hundreds by now and they just still kept on going as far ahead as I
could see. Now things changed a bit, they were on the move and we were all starting to go up,
and I mean up. I looked up ahead and I could see this small convoy of trucks crawling their way
up this snake. The road had been cut into the mountain and made to go across to the left and up
the hill a bit, then I would get to a tight hairpin bend, go around and up again for another
kilometre to the right. All along this snake, the trucks not only had to battle the steep ascent,
they now had to contend with the guys coming down the hill! Travelling in low gear up this
monster would have been hard enough to do, trying to keep the revs up and trying not to have
to stop at all. The smell of burning brake pads started to fill the air and it was getting a lot colder
as I went higher, then I realised that there must be ice coming up soon, so I had to try and keep
in the tracks of the semi wheels, as they had crushed what ever was on the road, this worked for
a while until I got to the bends up ahead. Not only did the trucks have to stop before each bend,
I had to stop too because as the semi’s were coming down the hill and approaching a bend they
had to squeeze around as tight as they could and do it quickly because as the trailer came
around behind them, a lot of the time the wheels would start to skid out onto the other side of
the road and it wasn’t that wide up there.
They would nearly be all the way around the bend and then they would hit the throttle,
straighten up the trailer and then move on down. This is getting a bit serious I thought to myself,
but anyway I have to keep on going so just don’t look down is going to be the key. The road was
ok until I got to this man made tunnel. The tunnels have been built to stop the snow from sliding
down the steep parts and blocking the road.
My biggest fear here is will the snow stay
stuck on the hills as this white stuff is all new
to me. I'm from Australia and live with dust,
grass and sand mate! The only time I had ice
was in my drink.