30th Jan
Up pack and leave by 0930 hrs and Roly naviagte NNE to Ruta 3 to "The most dangerous road in the world". We get out of the city with no problems and rise even higher to a pass at 4725 metres where we start looking for "the road". We find an old track which rises high into the snow line and up another 500 metres to 5200 metres. The Africa Twin needs reving like hell in 1st gear at this height on 84 octane fuel. We push though 200mm of wet fresh snow with Roly taking the lead. It is very difficult, hard work and its hard to breath after exercise, let alone talk.

Dave follows and we head down into a steep valley and Roly decides it is too dangerous to continue as this just can not be the corect route it is too samll and dangerous. Dave keen to continue down the track which is not wide enough for a car. The clouds obsure the view and all vision behond 10 metres. We then meet a couple of locals with 10 donkeys comming up the track. They tell us it is impossible on motorbike to continue down, we turn around and head back to the pass on the main road. We decide to continue down into the next valley and are soon overtaken by 2 trail bikes ( Honda XL250 anf XR 650). Both have no number plates and in time we catch them up while they are stopped for a drink. We ask them the way and they say they will show us, but can´t beleive we will do the road with the heavy bikes and all the luggage we carry. They show us to the start and then rush off at speed after a quick photo stop. The Road of Death is quite fantastic, all gravel with fantastic views down into a valley, huge drop offs, no barriers and the road is washed away in places. There is little sign of people except for road side memorials for those who went over the edge. The jungle is thick and the tops of the trees are below us. There are water falls verywhere including over the road and some times we have to drive though or if we are lucky we can get behind them. At 16 kms in we are met by three huge land slides across the road. It is raining hard and there is small shelter overlooking the landslide. We stop for lunch ( Soup, Olives and Sardines). The total route is 35kms long and in recent years a new road has replaced this dangerous road. The old road is now offically only used by walkers, bikes and motorbikes and all traffic is meant to go down only but occasionally a small local bus goes this way to save time as this route is shorter than the new road. They also go up and down and some time over the side! Bodies and vechiles are generally apparently not collected after accidents. After a good walk over the still moving landslides we decide to turn around, the lighter bikes had made it over but rocks were still comming down along with large quanties of water. It is raining so hard now it is no longer amusing and by the time we get back to the main raod we are soaked though. We head back up the mountain but again the bikes are struggling in the alitude and thick cold clouds. We slowly freeze and Dave needs to keep stopping to warm his hands on his cylinder head. We finally make it back up to 4725 metres and are in thick cold cloud cover.. We head back down towards La Paz as we have decided not to head for anywhere else today. At the city limits Police check Roly stops to wait 20 minutes for Dave. The Africa Twin is blown over by a passing lorry and Roly has to pick up on his own while all local people just watch. By taking off one pannier the task is acomplished. We finally both get back into La Paz and decide to go back to the same hotel.