My Round The World ride (inc top blagging at Spa & The Ring)
Discussion
The plan was to lace the wheel, get it roughly true using the bike then see if I could find a friendly LBS who'd let me use their jig but judging by the state of some of the bikes I see around here I'm not sure such a thing exists so I had to improvise by gradually tightening the brake and using a tie wrap as a guide to make it perfectly round.
Fingers crossed this hub lasts a bit longer than the last two.
Fingers crossed this hub lasts a bit longer than the last two.
Crossing the Andes again, for when once just wasn't enough....
Starting from Purmamarca, first up was the Cuesta de Lipán, 36km long with a height gain of just under 2,000m.
4,170m altitude. Apparently the air only contains 63% of the oxygen available at sea level and yes I noticed.
Cold nights in the tent meant waking up to frozen water. I managed to solve this the next few nights by wrapping the water in my still warm trousers and sealing it up in my Ortlieb rack bag.
Salinas Grandes, the first of two salt flats between Purmamarca & San Pedro.
When I got to the border it was closed for the night so I ended up sleeping at the petrol station next door to get out of the horrific wind for a night.
Chile!
There was me thinking Paso Jama where the border was would be the high point as it was called the pass but twice afterwards the road climbed to over 4,700 & 4,800m. Breathing was even more like hard work up there.
Starting from Purmamarca, first up was the Cuesta de Lipán, 36km long with a height gain of just under 2,000m.
4,170m altitude. Apparently the air only contains 63% of the oxygen available at sea level and yes I noticed.
Cold nights in the tent meant waking up to frozen water. I managed to solve this the next few nights by wrapping the water in my still warm trousers and sealing it up in my Ortlieb rack bag.
Salinas Grandes, the first of two salt flats between Purmamarca & San Pedro.
When I got to the border it was closed for the night so I ended up sleeping at the petrol station next door to get out of the horrific wind for a night.
Chile!
There was me thinking Paso Jama where the border was would be the high point as it was called the pass but twice afterwards the road climbed to over 4,700 & 4,800m. Breathing was even more like hard work up there.
Nezquick said:
Just read all 19 pages of this thread. You, OP, are a legend. Great work and truly inspirational.
Few questions though:
1. Any close calls in terms of safety as yet?
2. Any countries /places you would have avoided?
Keep going!!!
1. Do you mean apart from camping out on the Nullarbor amongst all the deadly snakes and spiders?Few questions though:
1. Any close calls in terms of safety as yet?
2. Any countries /places you would have avoided?
Keep going!!!
Chinese & Turkish bus / minibus drivers all seem to have a habit of overtaking me and immediately cutting in to the kerb to stop so there were plenty of close calls there. I was also knocked down in Malaysia and hit on a pedestrian crossing by a red light jumper in China and had my ribs fractured. Also plenty of near misses on the bike with people just passing too close for comfort, especially in New Zealand of all places.
2. No. The point of my trip is for me to see the world and even though I've been in some places that weren't all that great or difficult to cycle I don't regret any of my choices of where I've ridden for a moment.
For example the desert in Kazakhstan had no tarmac, just a dirt road in poor condition and a perpetual headwind for 300km with very few places to get food or water. I ran out of water and ended up pushing my bike through soft sand for six hours before I flagged down the only truck I saw all day and got some water from the driver but in that same 300km stretch I met a Sheikh from Abu Dhabi and joined him and his friends for dinner as his special guest. The whole trip is full of surprises and what can be a really crap day can be followed by an absolutely amazing day to balance things out.
While in San Pedro de Atacama I met three other cyclists so we teamed up to ride to Bolivia together. Two of the guys were already cycling together on very lightly loaded trekking bikes and the third guy was loaded up like me but was also on a trekking bike.
We set off together but it was obvious from the first km that Joe & I couldn't keep up with Mike & Cass as it's a steady climb from 2,450m to 4,650m to reach the Bolivian border. After what seemed like hours of slogging uphill, we finally caught up with Mike & Cass who'd chosen somewhere for us to camp for the night and had already got their tents up.
This is my view of Licancabur in the morning, just a few km from the border.
Bolivia!
After getting our passports stamped it was about 5km to the entrance to Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve where we had to pay an entrance fee and due to the high winds, ended up sitting for the afternoon waiting it out. That night we slept in the refugio next door where the temperature was a balmy 1 degree C indoors with no heating or running water and electricity only from 7pm - 10pm.
The next morning came and if anything, the winds seemed stronger but we decided on an early start to try and cover some ground before they really whipped up in the afternoon like they normally do. We set off around Laguna Blanca and crossed the icy stream between here and Laguna Verde using stepping stones that had an unnerving habit of moving when you stepped on them so we each had to half drag, half carry our bikes across while gambling on which stones would take our weight, all the while battling the ever increasing side wind determined to make things as difficult as possible for us. More by luck than judgement, we all made it across without anyone going for a swim.
Once the stream had been crossed, we headed toward the 4,726m pass which would take us to Laguna Chalviri, our planned stop for the evening and 46km away.
The way things had been going, I'd been struggling to keep up with Mike & Cass the day before on their lightly loaded bikes but once we hit the rough stuff with the endless amount of soft sand and loose gravel I was really struggling to keep up with all three of them given that they had trekking bikes and mine is a road bike on a marginally wider tyre than my road tyres but still pretty useless on soft ground given the amount of luggage I'm carrying. It didn't take long then after starting up the pass to realise that the ever increasing headwind coupled with me being very slow would probably mean we wouldn't reach our planned stop for the night where there was another refugio for us to sleep in so the plan was to give it another 5km and make a call as to whether we stick together or for Mike & Cass to push on at their normal pace with Joe & I arriving later, and in my case much later.
Within minutes of our conversation, none of this mattered any more as the wind had picked up to a point where none of us could ride into it any longer so we all turned around and without pedalling were being pushed along at speeds on gravel I really wasn't comfortable with due to the occasional gust from the side determined to push me off the road.
Once back at the refugio for the second night and after covering less than 20km all day, I decided to give the dirt roads a miss for the time being while the others would wait and see what the wind was like in the morning before pushing on. It was much calmer the next morning so they all headed off again, only this time without me as I headed back to San Pedro de Atacama and have since cycled up the coast on tarmac roads to Arica via Calama & Iquique.
Next up is La Paz where I get to experience the cold all over again!
The freezing Altiplano.
We set off together but it was obvious from the first km that Joe & I couldn't keep up with Mike & Cass as it's a steady climb from 2,450m to 4,650m to reach the Bolivian border. After what seemed like hours of slogging uphill, we finally caught up with Mike & Cass who'd chosen somewhere for us to camp for the night and had already got their tents up.
This is my view of Licancabur in the morning, just a few km from the border.
Bolivia!
After getting our passports stamped it was about 5km to the entrance to Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve where we had to pay an entrance fee and due to the high winds, ended up sitting for the afternoon waiting it out. That night we slept in the refugio next door where the temperature was a balmy 1 degree C indoors with no heating or running water and electricity only from 7pm - 10pm.
The next morning came and if anything, the winds seemed stronger but we decided on an early start to try and cover some ground before they really whipped up in the afternoon like they normally do. We set off around Laguna Blanca and crossed the icy stream between here and Laguna Verde using stepping stones that had an unnerving habit of moving when you stepped on them so we each had to half drag, half carry our bikes across while gambling on which stones would take our weight, all the while battling the ever increasing side wind determined to make things as difficult as possible for us. More by luck than judgement, we all made it across without anyone going for a swim.
Once the stream had been crossed, we headed toward the 4,726m pass which would take us to Laguna Chalviri, our planned stop for the evening and 46km away.
The way things had been going, I'd been struggling to keep up with Mike & Cass the day before on their lightly loaded bikes but once we hit the rough stuff with the endless amount of soft sand and loose gravel I was really struggling to keep up with all three of them given that they had trekking bikes and mine is a road bike on a marginally wider tyre than my road tyres but still pretty useless on soft ground given the amount of luggage I'm carrying. It didn't take long then after starting up the pass to realise that the ever increasing headwind coupled with me being very slow would probably mean we wouldn't reach our planned stop for the night where there was another refugio for us to sleep in so the plan was to give it another 5km and make a call as to whether we stick together or for Mike & Cass to push on at their normal pace with Joe & I arriving later, and in my case much later.
Within minutes of our conversation, none of this mattered any more as the wind had picked up to a point where none of us could ride into it any longer so we all turned around and without pedalling were being pushed along at speeds on gravel I really wasn't comfortable with due to the occasional gust from the side determined to push me off the road.
Once back at the refugio for the second night and after covering less than 20km all day, I decided to give the dirt roads a miss for the time being while the others would wait and see what the wind was like in the morning before pushing on. It was much calmer the next morning so they all headed off again, only this time without me as I headed back to San Pedro de Atacama and have since cycled up the coast on tarmac roads to Arica via Calama & Iquique.
Next up is La Paz where I get to experience the cold all over again!
The freezing Altiplano.
BoRED S2upid said:
It seems to me that this would make a very good book on your return some of your adventures make very good reading not to mention the life changing journey your on. Have you considered it?
It's unlikely but I haven't ruled it out completely. I've read several books about cycling around the world because of my interest in the subject but most are extremely boring and don't contain much more than distance covered per day, what food they ate and where they camped in the evening. Yes really!After turning back from the south of Bolivia earlier this month due to the soft sand I didn't fancy riding on and after a short detour of about 1,400km on tarmac roads I did eventually reach La Paz.
The route I took was back down to San Pedro de Atacama, directly west to the coast at Tocopilla then north to Iquique then Arica in Chile before heading east again from sea level to the Chilean customs post at 4,681m in one continuous climb that took 4 days followed by some camping out on the Bolivian Altiplano where the temperature was just low enough at night for me to get ice in my tent and condensation in the hood of my sleeping bag.
Absolutely stunning scenery though, as already posted in the "photos from today's ride thread and on Facebook.
Sleeping in a derelict building on the Chilean coast between Tocopilla & Iquique.
Putre at sunset.
Volcán Parinacota and Lago Chungará, Lauca National Park, Chile.
Breakfast with a view.
A new top speed between the Chilean & Bolivian border posts. There might not be much oxygen to breath but there's not much air resistance either!
More volcanoes on the Bolivian Altiplano.
Camping out on the Altiplano.
Finally, after reaching La Paz I splashed out on a Death Road package tour after speaking to lots of others who'd done it and came to the conclusion that although I probably could do it on my skinny tyred road bike I'd have more fun on a full suspension mountain bike.
I posted a separate thread about this though where you can see the rest of the photos.
El Camino del Muerte (Death Road), Bolivia.
The route I took was back down to San Pedro de Atacama, directly west to the coast at Tocopilla then north to Iquique then Arica in Chile before heading east again from sea level to the Chilean customs post at 4,681m in one continuous climb that took 4 days followed by some camping out on the Bolivian Altiplano where the temperature was just low enough at night for me to get ice in my tent and condensation in the hood of my sleeping bag.
Absolutely stunning scenery though, as already posted in the "photos from today's ride thread and on Facebook.
Sleeping in a derelict building on the Chilean coast between Tocopilla & Iquique.
Putre at sunset.
Volcán Parinacota and Lago Chungará, Lauca National Park, Chile.
Breakfast with a view.
A new top speed between the Chilean & Bolivian border posts. There might not be much oxygen to breath but there's not much air resistance either!
More volcanoes on the Bolivian Altiplano.
Camping out on the Altiplano.
Finally, after reaching La Paz I splashed out on a Death Road package tour after speaking to lots of others who'd done it and came to the conclusion that although I probably could do it on my skinny tyred road bike I'd have more fun on a full suspension mountain bike.
I posted a separate thread about this though where you can see the rest of the photos.
El Camino del Muerte (Death Road), Bolivia.
At just under 5,000m, Thursday's crossing of the Cordillera Blanca through Huáscarán National Park marks the highest point of my trip to date.
As with much of Peru, the scenery was spectacular with snow capped peaks and glaciers as far as the eye could see and the unpaved track meant I didn't see another vehicle all day once I'd turned off the main road.
As with much of Peru, the scenery was spectacular with snow capped peaks and glaciers as far as the eye could see and the unpaved track meant I didn't see another vehicle all day once I'd turned off the main road.
Psimpson7 said:
You hitting Australia's east coast at any point?
Amazing thread. One of the few I read every post in.
What, including this one back in January this year? Amazing thread. One of the few I read every post in.
neilski said:
Sorry about the lack of updates since August but I've had very little access to wifi and have been saving my mobile data for other stuff.
The good news is that I've now reached Sydney, 27,875km since the start of the trip.
I'll try and get some more photos up once I get wifi which may not be until New Zealand which I'm flying to towards the end of next week. What I can say though is that Australia is awesome, if a little big!
So in answer to your question, yes, the east coast was on my route albeit only as far north as Sydney but it was 10 months ago and I'm heading home now via the Americas & north Africa.The good news is that I've now reached Sydney, 27,875km since the start of the trip.
I'll try and get some more photos up once I get wifi which may not be until New Zealand which I'm flying to towards the end of next week. What I can say though is that Australia is awesome, if a little big!
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff