Our next destination was the town of Oruro where we found some excellent climbing on GRANITE. Seb disagrees but I insist its granite! The bush camp was not ideal as we were right in the middle of a strange urban area. It meant going for a wild poo was most difficult. The area was exposed to the strongest winds which blew sand everywhere and tents were soon filled. It was also full of stray dogs which the locals told us to throw stones at if they got too close, the dogs knew it too as they backed off as soon as you bent down to grab one, nasty rabid things!
It was here that I had my next bout of illness getting up 4 times in the night either for vomiting or runny poo. Still feeling rubbish the next day I missed the whole day of climbing and just sat in the Doctors tent and boiled in the sun. Fortunately for me the Dr came home and insisted I moved to the truck where it would be cooler. It was a good job too because 5 minutes later a huge gust of wind toppled the large heavy kitchen tent onto the doctors tent crushing it to the floor! That could have been painful!
The next day I felt far better and went to climb, I was on a mission and felt extremely light having eaten nothing the previous day. Did 10 lovely routes including a 7a which is seemingly so good it appears in the lonely planet guidebook, which is most unusual.
During the day two Bolivian children came to check us out. They seemed to want to have a go so armed with some quickdraws and helmets (just in case) they set about running all over the rock. We were more interested in making sure they didnt run off with our gear so kept a close eye on them. Great kids though, full of laughter and happiness even though they clearly have nothing. They said thank you a lot after, better than my spanish.
We left Oruro and travelled to the salt flats with the intention of getting across them the same day. Somewhere along the way we took the wrong road and ended up on the wrong salt flats on the wrong road. It was with one of those juddering swerves that we plummeted throught the thin crust of salt and into the gooey mud underneath, and there we stayed.... for three days. We tried all the usual tricks, SEb and Tom went off to get a tractor, which refused to come out for risk of getting stuck (apparantly we were very silly for going across this part of flats). Huw Seb n I walked off in the opposite direction for several hours to find another town before getting a text (thank you mobile phones) to say a tractor had now agreed to help. Tractor man said pulling wouldnt work and set about jacking up the truck building up the hole underneath the tyres and then laying boards underneath the tyres. It was a painfully slow process but got us free in the end. All that time all there was to do was eat, sleep or shovel mud underneath the tyres. It was a beautifully desolate place but after 3 days the view and getting blasted in the face by salt got a bit monotonous. We found great amusement in one of the cook duty carrots which was shaped rather like the bottom half of a man!
Once free we found the correct road and made our way to the correct salt flats. After one of the best runs ill ever do aloing the flats at sunrise watching flamingos we crossed the flats with a guide. We had a lot of fun stopping at an island and using the endless horizon to make funny photos. ALso visited the salt hotel and picked up a bolivian hitchhiker who must have thought we were all mad after Woodys Pricilla queen of the desert routine on the roof of Ernie, happy days!
To see photos please click below!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150356903420059&set=at.10150356896330059.347030.643815058.501123779&type=1#!/media/set/?set=a.10150343293753780.351896.501123779&type=1
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