I am in Bolivia!!!!................................ er................ actually I am not but I am so bad at keeping this up to date I will use some journalistic licence.

To be honest I find this really hard to do. The stuff in the forum, the comments in threads I am ok with. But somehow this feels like showing off all the time. I am amazed people keep following what I do.

So with that in mind I am going to stop being a lazy so and so, and get this thing back on track. Now South America was set as a year in my mind. Well it just hasn't gone like that. I have again been really enjoying riding my bike. I set out to travel as much to ride as anything else. I am at heart still a kid, damned if I am ever growing up. I tried it once and it just didn't agree with me! Riding my bike makes me happy, sounds daft but it's quite deep in me. When I was getting to grips with leaving and doing this I read other people reports and remember scoffing at the speed some people covered the ground. And here I am doing the same thing and enjoying it immensely. Big mileages have raced by. The bike has been pushed way harder than a loaded adventure bike should be, both on and off tarmac. I have enjoyed my road riding more than ever, and I really was fed up with the roads a while ago. I am awake, alive and flowing. I have for the first time in a long time, a reason to be. And if that isn't what this thread, this website and this whole endeavour isn't about then we all need to give up! Life is good people. I am very lucky to still be involved in it............................ especially after some of my overtakes...................... Man these trucks are huge!!!!!!!!!!

So Bolivia. Fantastic place, wonderful people, reminds me of West Africa a little. People are the important thing. The infrastructure is there but it's the people that make the place thrive. Everything is done on the street. Forget big shops and chains. Just take a walk and start asking. Wonderful, real contact, real trust, real connections. An example, I met a chap in a hostel in La Paz. He asked about food and I said I was going to walk down the street and see which Cooking Mama had the biggest crowd. We walked and then sat down. I still have no Spanish so I look, smile be respectful and ask to be fed. Big Mama smiles, laughs and feeds dumb tourist. We eat real food, we eat good food and we have fun. I have no idea what half the stuff I eat is, but it is always good.

I entered Bolivia with no mapping on the sat nav and just the one page paper map in the lonely planet. So no idea where I was going again. Asked at the border for directions and rode away. Damn near fell off on a straight road with no one else on it. I was looking around so much at the fantastic scenery I hit a big pile of gravel and nearly dropped it! Hahahahaha. Wild camped the first night at 14,000 something feet. Felt like I was camping on the set of the original Star Trek planets. I eventually made it to Uyuni, got a bigger A4 map! and checked out the Salar. Strange place. A whole lot of nothing, like the flats in Botswana but solid and so bright under the sky. The road to La Paz was there, mostly. Just great, no real idea about fuel, lots of guess work. You know keep the volcanoes on your left and don't fall off type stuff.

Got to La Paz in the pouring rain. Nice city, mad place but great fun. Stayed a few days so I could check out the Death Road. The trip up to the road is amazing. The Jungas Valley is huge and a real pleasure in its own right. A massive ribbon of good tar through an incredible rock valley. The road was found and off I go. Now I have to say I have ridden other roads that I thought were more risky and more dangerous. And before people wade in, yes there is a bypass now so it is not full of big trucks, however it is still used by trucks but I think they only go down and not up. Mountain bikers are the biggest user now! There are a lot of crosses on the road and I suspect these are biker going down faster than they anticipated! It is however a stunning place, absolutely beautiful to ride and enjoy. To walk it would be a fantastic days trek. I rode down and then turned around and came up. The last few kilometres were done is a huge thunderstorm, lightening, heavy rain, the lot. I so wanted an AC/DC soundtrack blasting away at me. Again, when I shouldn't I started to push and play! Damned foolish place to do it but I just can't help it. Uphill on gravel with my unloaded bike spinning away. too much fun! And unlike Lesotho I didn't fall off this time! Hahahahahaha. Alfie would be proud. Hahahahahaha.

From La Paz a quick blast to Lake Titicaca with a puncture to keep me on my toes! A night at Copacobana right on the shore. Here I had some bad water, despite boiling it. Man did it make me ill. I have been ill three times over this travel, all three times it was water. Never food. I took the ferry over the lake. Just one of the coolest, chilled to things to do. I miss the water, always feel good when I see lots of it. Strange really, I don't like to sit on a beach and rarely swim in the sea. But having lived surrounded by it for so long I need to see it occasionally. The ferry ride was cool. Master and commander was a million and one years old, and knew more about life than I ever will. I felt like an excited kid!

At the border I was treated to my first bit of corruption. After doing the paperwork the police decided they wanted a chat! Weak, lads. Very weak! No money passed hands and off I went! On to Peru...................... which is where I am now...................... er no I'm not. But I will be when I write it up, 'onest Guv'nor................

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