1st of April - Ollagüe to Uyuni - 266km 7h46
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Early in the morning we crossed the border to Bolivia
Not much at the Bolivian fence :-)
Nobody stopped us with our extra gasoline, neither the border officials nor the customs...:-)
(in Chile it is definitely not allowed to carry petrol in plastic bottles)
Bolivia is not included in the Garmin maps for the navigation system. Back in San Pedro I loaded some maps for Bolivia from the internet. But those ones are not "routable", means you find some roads and also most of the villages but you can only navigate by direction with this "mice cinema" :-)
Similar to what I did in Mongolia: Knowing the direction, setting some waypoints in advance and choosing one of the many earth roads or tracks which "are offered" in the desert. Checking from time to time and adjusting the direction. After approx. 50km driving I got used to it again. In the beginning it is (for me) always a strange feeling: You are just out in the open, you can ask nobody, all of a sudden you feel absolutely lonely on this earth...and responsibility for any action out there arises and sharpens your mind.
Releasing the tire pressure while crossing the first Salar (salt lake). We observed some soft spots in the usually hard surface.
Mirages (Fata Morgana) at the horizon...
just amazing
Euink ! :-)
Quinua, a sort of grain growing here on a height of 4.000 m !
Yeah! Let's start on THE Salar: Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt lake on earth.
I am sorry, but we couldn't stop taking pictures. One feels like being on another planet.
Hahaa! Close to the Inca Huasi island in the middle of the Salar we broke through the surface. One has to be careful close to the Salar borders!
.JPG)
All soft here...huuuhu
.JPG)
Poor moto! All materials suffer badly from the salt crust mixed with whatever minerals...
.JPG)
.JPG)
The Dakar 2014 went also thru here
.JPG)
Somebody got wet?? :-)
.JPG)
The driver as well. And I got a full load of saltwater into my face thru the open visor
The eyes burning like hell from the salt
Because we didn't come the touri tour from Uyuni we didn't know where to exit the Salar...and we just went thru this "lake district". Boah ey..at one point the whole bike digged in nearly a meter and we nearly fell into the pool. Oh man!
.JPG)
Everything is salt :-)
First impression of Uyuni...I guess we arrived in Bolivia.
:-)
Not much at the Bolivian fence :-)
Nobody stopped us with our extra gasoline, neither the border officials nor the customs...:-)
(in Chile it is definitely not allowed to carry petrol in plastic bottles)
Bolivia is not included in the Garmin maps for the navigation system. Back in San Pedro I loaded some maps for Bolivia from the internet. But those ones are not "routable", means you find some roads and also most of the villages but you can only navigate by direction with this "mice cinema" :-)
Similar to what I did in Mongolia: Knowing the direction, setting some waypoints in advance and choosing one of the many earth roads or tracks which "are offered" in the desert. Checking from time to time and adjusting the direction. After approx. 50km driving I got used to it again. In the beginning it is (for me) always a strange feeling: You are just out in the open, you can ask nobody, all of a sudden you feel absolutely lonely on this earth...and responsibility for any action out there arises and sharpens your mind.
Releasing the tire pressure while crossing the first Salar (salt lake). We observed some soft spots in the usually hard surface.
Mirages (Fata Morgana) at the horizon...
just amazing
Euink ! :-)
Quinua, a sort of grain growing here on a height of 4.000 m !
Yeah! Let's start on THE Salar: Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt lake on earth.
I am sorry, but we couldn't stop taking pictures. One feels like being on another planet.
Hahaa! Close to the Inca Huasi island in the middle of the Salar we broke through the surface. One has to be careful close to the Salar borders!
All soft here...huuuhu
Poor moto! All materials suffer badly from the salt crust mixed with whatever minerals...
The Dakar 2014 went also thru here
Somebody got wet?? :-)
The driver as well. And I got a full load of saltwater into my face thru the open visor
The eyes burning like hell from the salt
Because we didn't come the touri tour from Uyuni we didn't know where to exit the Salar...and we just went thru this "lake district". Boah ey..at one point the whole bike digged in nearly a meter and we nearly fell into the pool. Oh man!
Everything is salt :-)
First impression of Uyuni...I guess we arrived in Bolivia.
:-)
