Left the canyon and headed up onto a series of ridges, separated by canyons. This is supposed to have been the hiding place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid during their Bolivian interlude.. The views were still spectacular. Vegetation at this stage included some shrubs and small trees but that gradually shrunk and vanished as we continued. The ridges flattened too and we ended up crossing wide flat sandy plains through the afternoon. There were a lot of llamas - some with multicoloured ribbons on their ears.
There were a couple of shallow river crossings on the dusty roads. Colin jumped out and checked the road surface under the fast flowing water. We headed out into the second one, got almost the whole way across (only really 18" deep), turned to climb the far bank, changed gear . . . and bogged! He tried to rock it but we were going nowhere. Luckily we were up against the far bank, which was cut back to close to the raised floor level so we stepped pretty straight across.
The sand mats came out and there were a number of attempts to power out. There had been a yellow Caterpillar tracked vehicle either side of the river when we arrived but they both headed off shortly after. Maybe we should have approached them? This was about the time when a LandCruiser type vehicle arrived behind us, had a quick look (from the bank) then headed straight in slightly further upstream. All well and good until they stopped dead with their front wheel arch submerged and the rear arch almost under. They were obviously totally buggered so they slung their backpacks ashore and waded across. They turned out to be 2 backpackers and a guide, who hitched a lift back to the previous village with the next car.
Half sdubmerged landcruiser upstream
I just missed the opportunity to film this as I was walking towards the yellow Caterpillar. I turned around and started filming . . and there was Sam changing into shorts next to the truck.
They were poking foliage and sticks and stones and whatever under the wheels and then had to jack it up for some reason (maybe to adjust the sandmats). This meant that we couldn´t get into the back. This was fine for those who had windbreakers but we were both in sandals and tshirts. We huddled with Yvonne who offered a windbreak and cuddles. The wind was starting to pick up and we were encircled by a series of dark storms, which gradually converged with frequent forked lightning.
Attention was obviously focussed on truck recovery but the possibility of the river rising and even flash floods was considerable. Then it started raining . . lightly at first, quickly followed by hail. After huddling like penguins for a few minutes we were allowed to get back onboard, but by then the bank edge had collapsed and it was very slippery and a long uneven jump to get to the truck.
Within moments, it was wall to wall hailstones as far as the eye could see. People scrambled aboard and struggled to get the seats up to access clothes underneath. The floor was a sea of mud and many of the boys were coated with thick mud. The river level rose quickly but luckily the rain stopped after a few minutes and we were able to get out again.
What was red dirt became a white winter wonderland in moments
We were still almost barefoot and much of the surrounds was a slushy mess of pea-sized hailstones floating in icy water. Then . . . Oh JOY!! A big articulated truck arrived with a BULLDOZER. YES! They dragged the Toyota out first then crossed the river and hitched up at the front of Bob.
He has got the 4wd, now our turn. Queue beginning to form boths sides of crossing now.
The connection held and we were soon up on the bank. An hour or so earlier, a large 4WD had tried to jerk us free but we were hitched to his towbar and it snapped straight off. Bang the broken towball smashed into the front of Bob, luckily not into the cabin and through Colin.
This was never going to work
All up, we had been stuck for 3 hours and it was just dark by then. One more river crossing which we sailed across and then arrived in Uyuni about 7pm. This was our first night of being checked into a double room - with ensuite even! Everyone enjoyed hot showers. We waddled off to find an ATM and back to the hostel for a "Minuteman" pizza (delivery time 45 minutes). They had Tshirts marked Pizza with Altitude. It took so long that C took off to bed, feeling grossly sleep-deprived (as usual at high altitudes).
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