We Fly So Close

I´m back on the Honda and following my Bolivian biker pals Henry and Rodrigo through Sucre´s outskirts. There´s some measure of Bolivian traffic that I shouldn´t be wholly comfortable with, especially in this awesome-cool, but vision limiting motocross helmet, but I wholly trust my guides not to lead me into a fatality - at least not so early in the tour.

Despite looking the part, in my helmet and body armour, I find my expertise on the bike still has some holes. As I´m climbing up a dirt road switchback, possibly up a gear too far, I feel the back of the bike slipping. My quick change of direction to compensate, wasn´t well calculated, as it seems I´m now not going to round the corner. I suppose that if I pump the throttle, the Honda will pull me through. I was wrong. My foot goes to the dirt to try and save myself, but it´s too late for that. Henry returns from ahead to find me picking myself and the bike out of the dirt, then making several hashed attempts at a hill-start. But, I´m still pretty happy with myself, and ready to charge on. The roads vary between rubble, grooved dirt and a surprisingly smooth stone cobbled road, and as I push up into fourth and fifth gears I soon feel the bike and I have become one.

An hour of riding later, I miss a turn behind Rodrigo, then stall, then try to restart the bike whilst turning in a small space. The delicacy of my clutch control is another hole. The bond between man and bike becomes closer as I topple again, and the bike and I start to fuse together by way of the hot exhaust and my synthetic trousers. I´m able to peel myself off the exhaust without any pain. I don´t think I´ve done myself any damage and I remain happy with myself, so we´re back on the road without delay for recovery or treatment.

On a cloudless day, the scenery of the mountains from three-thousand-eight-hundred feet above sea level, and a thousand feet up from Sucre centre, caps the ride. I´ve also got a free t-shirt, a holed and singed trouser leg, and a presumably permanent burn.

I´m pretty keen to get a bike on my return, but it´s almost certainly a terrible deadly-bad idea. On the other hand, Oli and I could join The Grave Diggers, start the London Chapter, and prowl around town looking dangerous. I like that idea a lot.