side being the crazy Peruvian drivers
and the narrow mountain roads. At
one point, Kelvin had the choice of
either going over the edge of the cliff
or going into the ditch to avoid a truck
careering around a blind bend. He
chose the ditch!
The next two days took us on even
more beautiful roads, and on the third
day we decided that we would head
across to the PanAm (sigh!), other-
wise we risked not getting to the start
of the Dakar rally on time. There was
one last hurdle though. On venturing
west, looking at the map and then also
selecting a 'paved roads only' option
on everyone's GPS's, we ended up on
a dirt road. Normally this is the pre-
ferred option however, time was of
the essence and we were getting clos-
er and closer to the coast, but we were
still a good bit over 3000 metres. Hm-
mmmm, so when would we descend?!
Then it all became clear. About 60
kilometres from the coast we came
over the top of a hill and saw a huge
valley in front of us, with multiple
zig-zagging roads etched into the
mountain-sides. Ok, no problem.
Then for the fun part.
On starting our descent I quickly
realised this section may take some
time. The road had a maximum width
of one car, and covered in sand, with
steep, narrow corners. The incentive
to get the corners right was to not end
up falling off the edge of the cliff. Fun
times! I will not lie, I had that horri-
ble feeling of trepidation in my chest
and in the pit of my stomach, and if
it wasn’t already boiling hot my palms
would have been sweating anyway. For
me it was a huge achievement to get to
the bottom of the humongous pass un-
scathed. My bike did take a rest in the
hedge on two occasions, primarily due
to the fact that I wanted to keep away
from the cliff edge but loose chippings
had fallen onto the 'safe' side. I stuck
with the safe side, and hey presto, the
bike is horizontal. Mind you, that's
why I have a DR650 and soft luggage ...
if you don't fall you're not trying hard
enough, and the challenge was good.
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