Around The World In 80 Waves

Two hours into my drive south eastwards I turned off the main road in order to head down to Pavones.

I had been reliably informed by a number of people that this was a good road and that I should have no problems getting there in the Volkswagen. 

Getting past the fallen tree I encountered early along the journey was a concern but had I known what was coming I would have scoffed at it. 

As you can see here it is a dirt road where just enough dirt is on top of the large rocks for you to bump across. However I didn’t see anybody else on the road that wasn’t in a 4×4.

I got this picture to demonstrate how bad it was thinking that it couldn’t get any worse. How wrong could I have been? 

I had to cross several rivers and the surface you see leading up to this bridge was more typical of what I found.

I.e.  absolutely no coverage over the rocks at all. That there were no potholes in this shot, and by that I mean the sort of gaps in the road that a big lump like myself could comfortably sleep in, is. 

One section was so bad (and I regret not taking a snap, but had to focus on trying to get the car across it at the time) that I can only equate it to trying to drive from the waters’ edge at a beach like Brighton or Llandudno and make it up to either promenade over the loose stones which were anything up to the size of house bricks. Any one of which easily had the capacity to game over the car! The only way to tackle this was to reverse back and then take a run at whatever you might have thought was the best line, with the wheels spinning on all kinds of things and ominous bashes being heard against the underside of the car. Barely making it to the top of one hill and then looking down the much longer slope on the other side I seriously thought ‘well the car is staying in Pavones because I have no chance whatsoever of getting back the other way.’ 

Aware of the risks to the underside of the car I had to go so slowly on the flat, barely getting to 20mph at any point and the 40km of road took nearly two hours. I have to say that it is without doubt the most stressful drive of my life! Going so slowly also meant there was no air blowing into the car, so I was getting all the more wound up as I suffered in the heat. 47C according to the thermometer!

As if the roads themselves were not bad enough the bridges were simply frightening. I went over one, which I later discover has been called the German bridge ever since a family from the fatherland didn’t tackle the necessary high-wire act 30 feet up in the air in their car well enough, going over the edge and ending upside down in the river killing them all! I can see how easily this could happen because the bridge, and I use the term loosely, was simply a few planks of wood precariously balanced on a few fallen trees. There are no barriers whatsoever and unlike Top Gear I didn’t have anybody to tell me ‘left a bit, right a bit, etc.’ so I was doing it entirely blind just hoping that the line I chose across the bridge, that was only as wide as the bug, was going to get me to the other side and that the bridge which was creaking rather too seriously would remain intact.

I have no problem in telling you that I was genuinely afraid doing this and that I was in bits by the time I arrived in Pavones. My hosts told me about the Germans and where to find the picture you see above of another bridge crossing failure which has happened here. Just to rub the salt in I was also told that if you go the very long way round it is tarmac practically all the way until the last slope down into Pavones. I dont want to jinx things but based on that it would seem that the bug might be rolling out of here after all. However I can categorically tell you I will not drive that road again, ever. I would prefer to drag all my gear the 40km out using only my third leg!