Whilst I've ridden up the Strava section, in Melbourne, Australia that's affectionately known as Deadman's Hill (or Middleborough Rd to most folk) I have to say it has nothing on the legendary status and scenery of today's ride. That's right despite it being a rest day, a number of us choose to get on a bike and ride.... "Death Road"!
Essentially, it is one of the few routes that connects the capital, La Paz to the Yungas region of northern Bolivia. ascending from around 4,650 metres (15,260 ft) at La Cumbre Pass, to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) at the town of Coroico. It was apparently given it's infamous name by the Inter-American Development Bank when they found that some 200 to 300 people were dying on it every year. Why? Because it's largely a single-lane road without any guard rails and clifftop drops of up to 600 metres (2,000 feet) and during the rainy season, rain and fog can severely hamper visibility, and water runoff can turn the road into a muddy track.
Whilst it's been replaced in the last few years, given the death toll, by a motorway some distance away and it's fine on the back of a bike, it's not somewhere I would want to have traveled back in the day and certainly not in a bus or largish truck.
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