Another Hairbrained idea…
The adventure motorbiking trips, Africa 100 and Africa 200 in 2012 and 2015, were just off the charts. It was not long before the topic of another gathering of the usual crowd of hairy bikers and maybe a few novices surfaced. On a 2016 Safari with Jim, ubiquitous G&T in hand and the balmy African evening stimulating our thoughts, we explored ideas from circumnavigating Madagascar to traversing the continent of Australia. After some lengthy discussions and debate it was decided that I would put a team together to recce a link between the iconic geographical features of the Atacama Desert with the very Southern Tip of South America. And so late in that same year I convinced my long time family friends, Malu and Fran from Buenes Aires, as well as the battle hardened veteran, The Philistine, to embark on a recce of this crazy route.
With limited experience and only some local Spanish persuasive powers we set off. Our findings were in another league in terms of terrain, scenery, food, wine, culture and routings, and so it did not take Jim much persuading. Tracing the spine of the awe-inspiring Andes mountains and crossing the border between Chile and Argentina 5 times, this was going to be a 5000 mile trip of a life time and done in less than 30 days. I thought Africa was the ultimate Biking paradise, but I think we may be in for a real treat….
The Bok