Part 2...extreme bike ride and more extreme curry.

So the last proper installment took us to the Death Road, which James briefly mentioned. There's an awful lot of hype about this bike ride; most of the companies have had a very serious injury or a fatality, YouTube has it's fair share of footage to put anyone off and hostel gossip means everyone's heard of 'someone last week who broke their arm/leg/head'.

The day began at 6.30am where Madness (our tour company) fed and watered us and then kitted us head to toe in safety equipment. The eight of us (4 English, 1 Irish, 2 Spanish and 1 German) all piled into a minibus and started the 1hour drive to the start of the biking. Everyone was in good spirits apart from the Spanish girl who seemed a bit quiet but no one thought anything of it.

We got on our bikes and set off downhill in clear conditions with Tarmac beneath our tyres. We were travelling downhill as fast as our bikes would take us (annoyingly James seemed to be able to propel his bike that bit faster than mine, regardless of how many aerodynamic shapes I attempted to make with my torso!!). Great views, wind in our hair, this was a breeze.

After about 30 minutes we came to a tunnel with a gravel track running parallel. It became clear rather quickly that this was the end of the good road, the good weather (mist, zero visibility, light rain) and the easy ride. We set off again this time with me directly behind the guide (the weird body shapes were obviously working) when literally out of nowhere there was an enormous lorry heading straight for us emerging from the mist a couple of metres in front of the bikes. Now I know what you're thinking, if I was that lorry driver with zero visibility, going uphill on the death road on a blind bend, I wouldn't bother to stick my lights on either!!!! Myself and the guide reacted quickly with her forking to the right and me to the left, narrowly missing both of us. Luckily the only injury was to our nerves which were a bit rattled.

The zero visibility made the road itself feel more unsafe however it did mean we couldn't see any of the big drops so actually felt quite tame at the top. As we dropped in altitude the mist cleared and we got our first glimpse of what all the fuss is about...spectacular views experienced on great quality mountain bikes on such a fun road.

The road itself is 64km of mainly downhill with a couple of kms uphill. Everyone tackled the uphill with relative ease apart from the Spanish girl who'd got off her bike and pushed it up the modest hill-odd we thought!

The final stretch involved some fun twists and turns in the gravel track, cycling under a waterfall and generally everyone feeling more confident on their bikes. The Spanish couple had been lagging behind the whole way, when suddenly out of nowhere the Spanish man came storming past everyone (including the guide) at a crazy pace. Reading between the lines one can only assume that she really didn't want to come mountain biking, was riding painfully slowly and probably moaning so for the final few minutes he had a blowout and left her at the back of the pack. See if you can spot her happy face on our photos!

The death road overall felt very safe, the guide said 'you're safe if you stay in your comfort zone. As soon as you go faster than you're comfortable with, it gets dangerous' and she was absolutely right.

It was a fantastic experience which flew by so quickly and most of us would have liked a bit longer on the bikes. We did the ride and we now have the t shirts to say we survived which will be worn with pride back home.



After our achievements of the day we thought it fitting to celebrate with the highest curry in the world. It's not everyday you can have a korma at extreme altitude. The food was lovely but 2/5 of us found the eating experience a bit too extreme and were in the loo within 10 minutes of leaving...good times!

-- Posted from Miranda's iPhone