Day 11 Cochabamba to Sucre

Our famous early starts are proving to be our key strategey in keeping to schedule - if we hit issues we can normally pull through by the end of a day. This day was to be one of those days, it started off well enough with some amazing roads that were not gravel or tar, but cobble stoned highways. To our suprise this road surface was a compromise between gravel and tar seal, it was good to ride on.

We had to turn off at a small village and head into the Andes for about 60Km to meet highway 5 well this was awesome for us dirt bikers as it was a cross between a farm track with bits of shingle chucked in. We were just getting to a gnarley creek crossing up front when Sam C caught up and reported Sam T had another f***ing puncture. I am not sure how Sam pissed the gods of riding off - how do you get a 5 inch nail in your tyre in the middle of nowhere. This became a test for the designated mechanic team, Sam C taking the lead to get the tube out and repair it. Keeping true to our adventure all was not as simple as that - the tube was absolutley blown apart with no chance of repair, the spare that I had was melted to the panniers by the previous team, so that was out. We had one spare left, so we proceeded to get that on and pump it up with the precious supply of C02 canisters. 2 canisters later we realised the tyre was not inflating, the spare tube also had a bloody hole in it. We finally repaired that one and got the bike on the road.

We had lost an hour or two so we had to double back and take the long way around and not risk any more punctures or mishaps. Sam T was suffering as the photo below depicts.

We arrived in Sucre and were welcomed by Brians favourite hostess, Gabriela. Sam T hit the sack early and the rest of us were not far behind as we were up early for another run to Uyuni in the morning.