Late one afternoon we were driving along this desolate dirt road, the main route between Uyuni andTupiza Bolivia. The towns are 200km apart. The wind was blowing so hard it was creating sand drifts across the road not unlike snow during a ground-blizzard.
The sun was sinking low when we came to a place where the sand had completely obliterated the road. No tracks passed through the drift and we could not see the other end of it.
Mike went on a scouting expedition to see if perhaps locals used the nearby dry river bed as a passageway when this happened. No, no tire tracks in the river bed and deep soft sand made up our 100 foot long drift. The wind was howling.
By the time Mike got back I had decided we were not going to attempt crossing the sand drift. No way, no how. I figured we’d head back to Uyuni and try a different route the next day. Ever the optimist and always up for an adventure, Mike suggested we try it.
In the heated debate that followed (after pointing out I did not think our marriage would endure getting stuck in the sand in the dark on this desolate road), I blurted out, ‘Some day when you’re with John Gill you can attempt something like this!” Some sentences convey more than their actual words. We turned around.
Mike suggested instead of abandoning our efforts altogether, we find a place to camp and try again in the morning. A good compromise, we found a place off the side of a side road. We spent the night speculating what would have happened had we made the attempt and what we might find in the morning. Plan A, Plan B, Plan C….
Burly Beast in the desert
View from the slider at our oh-so-remote campsite
Anticlimactically, by the time we got back to the drift the next morning a few vehicles had crossed, packing down the sand and our crossing was a breeze.
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