It was a cold start icy road, we headed up hill and noticed numerous frozen waterfalls, streams and rivers, climbed to 4500m! The engine of the bike and the engine of the controller is definitely noticing the altitude. The bikes are really down on power, and I am short of breath with the slightest exertion, I even get short of breath intermittently without exertion as I must have a habit of holding my breath, when concentrating on tasks such as typing. We travelled across an awesome pateau,with scrub and tussock type vegetation, volcano towering over the plateau and very picturesque alpine lakes. We had our first taste of dirt road riding at last with large sections of road works with nothing but shingle and enjoyed testing the bikes out, they handled really well and it was just like the teenage boys were back on the mid canterbury shingle roads our natural environment.
As mentioned before this is the main land bridge for all of the trade to and from Bolivia and the numerous trucks were kicking up heaps of dust, thankfully they were all pulled up at the start of a section with a stop lollypop, and we pushed to the front so when it was changed to go we were off with a spray of shingle on Volvo truck radiator and hence in clean air. This was great until we stopped to get some photos of some Lama and a bunch of buildings, I was taking photos of Hax bothering Lamas and Harry looking manly by an altitude sign when a truck appeared on the near horizon, Hax and Harry had the simple job of kicking their bikes into gear and giving it what for, while I was left fumbling my camera into its bag and trying to get my gloves on and bike started (they are a bit sluggish to start up at this altitude, Meanwhile a truck came from the other direction preventing me from pulling out in time, so it left me pulling out at the same moment the truck traveling our way passed which lead to me finding out just how much pick up this Kawasaki has at altitude to try and not get stuck without visibility behind the dust factory, It was truck Vs Bike in the high altitude drag race (he probably couldn’t see me, but to me it was all on) a bit dodgie as I couldn’t really see if there was anything coming and had to rely on Harry telling me the coast was clear over the intercom. The end result was that I just managed to get in front which saved my lungs and eyes from an onslaught of dust. We had to keep our wits about us as there were massive potholes which either needed to be taken at speed to fly over them or avoided. Heaps of Lamas. Quit aLaming at times.
As we came in to the border Hax's Helmet camera fell off and tumbled down the road, this led to initial concern that it was destroyed and later hilarity as we watched the footage. A lot of bureaucracy at border thankfully we have Geert to sort all of that out. Harry was accosted for moving his bike too soon before all of the stamps were gathered. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Used the public toilet but not free, ended up having to change some US dollars to spent a bolero. Lunch with dog poo looking vege of some description, which had us concerned we were given gringo food until a bunch of locals came in and got the same meal.
Geert was worried about time so we had a fast trip down through an amazing plane, then later down onto the alti plano, with canyons along the way. It was fast and free with little air resistance to slow down our open throttle descent. Despite this I did find that the bike had a max speed of 145 thats all it would do. Emergency stop for Harry to contribute to the environment in no small way apparently. Small huts made of mud with grass roofs, Bolivians with traditional dress, tending lamas and sheep.
Into Oruro just before dark. There was busy traffic, hot bikes stalling intermittently, the traffic was very push and shove, no real pattern discernible to the give way rules, just the law of the jungle, big has right of way over little, hence I was cut off by bus at the first roundabout. Eventually found the Hotel, showered and off for dinner. Pique was the recommended local dish so we all went for that. I was very hungry so went with the super Pique, while Hax and Harry sensibly ordered the Medio Pique. It was way too much, two medios between three of us would have been enough. Tired, bed.
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