If you haven’t already given my last post a read you should stop and do that now. Because this is nothing but a continuation of the remote mountain road where that left off. Still accompanied by Lars (www.lostcyclist.com) most days could quickly be summarised in a single shot usually looking something like this.
Photo: www.lostcyclist.com
Each pass took us a little higher than the one before and every new lake seemed to greet us with even bigger colours than the previous one had proved possible. We’d no doubt found the life-is-good sort of existence that had brought us there in the first place.
Then – por fin – came the proper passes. Three of them 5000+ meter above sea level and higher than I’ve ever peddled my poor (lucky!) bicycle before. And yes, as always. As air gets even a little thinner – life gets even a little better!
Paso Abra Arcata 5090 masl. Highest point of Mr. Bike’s life! Well done boy :-)
Apart from being pretty darn high and ridiculously beautiful the one thing that particularly caught my soul during this stretch was one I hadn’t expected. I think a few of you reading this are under the illusion of that I and others out and about on these stunts are – in any way shape or form – doing something extraordinary. Sometimes more than others I think we even fall for it ourselves.
This wasn’t that. It wouldn’t have been even if we’d wanted it to. These remote 5000 meter gravel passes were humbling to the point of no return. They had soul – literally. Because no matter how high or remote we went, not once did we leave everyday life of the souls that lived there.
Brother and sister playing outside their house on 4900 masl
Ignacio. Working his alpackas on top of a near 5000 meter pass in the middle of nowhere.
I don’t have a photo to proof it. But this man is wearing sandals :-)
Girl. GoreTex, GPS and fancy bicycle. Least badass human being in the region.
Days became weeks and slowly we were reaching some sort of end to our high altitude endeavour. That really didn’t matter though. Not yet anyways. Because every morning we opened our eyes to find ourselves in for yet another day in wonderland.
Though of course. Daily challenge no.1 was getting out of the sleeping bag!
Sand dunes on 5000+ meter above sea level!
Until next time,
Fredrika