TRAVEL FEATURE - NEPAL LEIGH WILKINS
ALL ROADS ...
“
Death Road !” Every country seems to have one . Similar in stance to “ The World ’ s Highest Road ” or “ The World ’ s Deadliest Road ”, and the many more infamous roads scattered around the planet seemingly created to terrify the world traveller , or more to the point , to entice those seeking an adventure and the sticker that goes with it . Every nation , every region , will create something that draws the thrill seeker with a few extra dollars to spend .
Having just done battle with that ‘ most notorious ’ of all roads , Argentina ’ s Ruta 40 and the feared “ Cursed 74 ”, an internal battle raged , my attempts to supress laughter were failing and the two riders I had just ridden with must ’ ve thought the Australian was insane .
Social media posts abound with stories of howling winds and deep gravel that will suck a bike in never to been seen again . Tragic tales of bikes laying on their sides , battered and broken , while riders contended with their own injuries . This cursed road has a self-generating mythology and yet why ? Again , I tried not to laugh , in fact my own riding companion of the last few weeks had fallen in the gravel , and the newcomer to our group , a Chilean man in his 60 ’ s had decided enough was enough , and had asked if he turned around could he ride with us ? Of course , he could , I ’ d never leave a rider alone , especially one who had a look of fear spread on his face that was so deep it was as if he ’ d made a pact with the devil himself . I did try to convince him that he only had 24 kilometres remaining and that it was no worse than from where he had ridden . His eyes told a different story , he needed to ride with others .
I still struggled to see why this section of road was considered one to be feared , it was just gravel , perhaps deep in places and yes , a
TRAVERSE 101