Travel through the largest salt lake on earth
17/09/2015
September 17, 2015
A crazy bike tour through South America is the condition and equipment of the World Bicycle Relief Fundraiser Lena and Hardy on the test.
We left La Paz behind weeks ago. We always navigate south through the hinterland of the Bolivian Altiplano. And suddenly it lies ahead of us: the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt lake on earth. We stand on the last stony hill and the sight of the salt knocks us around. Over 10,000 km2 glowing white swallows the horizon. How long we have speculated how it would be to drive over salt and now it should finally happen. On in the unreality! What the earth has ready for us here in the following days is incomparable. In front of us, at over 3,600 m high, is not only an incredible amount of salt, there is also an 11-day route through the deserted lagoon and desert landscape in the southwest of Bolivia, which extends to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.
The salt crackles and cracks under the tires. We avoid jeep traces to really be alone. Fortunately, we already perceive a jeep from a kilometer distance. They appeared to us as small as ants. It is incredibly quiet, the air dry and clear. The night in the middle of the salt desert becomes one of the most impressive of the entire trip - the sparkling star tent lies over us like a bell and ends around us in the white. We are speechless. The first two days on the salt were enjoyed. Now 400 km are waiting for us absolutely vegetationless high desert. It goes up to 5,000 m high due to temperatures up to -20 ° C and hardly any supply stations -an absolute endurance test for our condition, the material and also for us as a team. But we are well prepared because we wear 25 kg of food in our pockets and are accompanied by a feeling of awe. The days are extreme. Permanently torn between suffering and joy, between struggle and fascination, this route brings us to our limits like never before. We push and pull the 65 kg wheels through the sand for hours, fight and scream against the wind and despair when setting up our tent - nothing works without windbreak.
The water freezes towards ice at night when we don't keep it on the body, plastic parts break through, sand lays down in the air pump and we can no longer inflate tires. At the same time, the route brings us to natural locations of extra class. Our extreme tour leads past hundreds of flamingos in breathtaking lagoons, smoking and bubbling geysers, imposing volcanic kankettes, and on hot springs where we do not miss the nightly bath. The colors of these landscapes can hardly be described in words. After nine days we reach the Migración exhausted. We leave Bolivia behind us and are now on Chilean soil. The border officials look at us incredulously. "Last week we had the most violent wind of the whole year - and you arrive by bike?!" Yes - and for us it was the most violent wind of our lives. A few kilometers behind the border, we come across the first asphalt road on sand and gravel roads after five weeks. We are happy like small children and fall to the ground. Lena and Hardy drove through Europe and Latin America with supernova in 2012 and 2013. With your tour you collect donations for the organization World Bicycle Relief to mobilize people in development regions with bicycles. More stories and pictures as well as information about your donation project are available at:
Text: Lena Kleine-Kalmer | Pictures: Hardy Hande
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