Wednesday: Uyuni and a day on the salt

Today's destination is the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivian salt flats). The largest in the world they cover over 10,000 square km, and according to one of our group, are used to calibrate satellite altimeters.

Entry to the flats is through a grubby small town through which streams of tourists flow in 4x4s to reach the flats. The salt is very dirty as you approach the main flats, but gradually the white becomes 'cleaner' the further you go. There are several salt hotels on the edge that look like regular white brick buildings, which are in fact made entirely of salt.

Salt brick bay window

Once on the salt we follow Cory to the roundabout a few clicks into the flats. We stop there to soak up the international atmosphere with all the flags planted on the roundabout and the myriad of tourists from around the globe striking various poses against the salt backdrop. Here there is also another salt hotel but we have the opportunity to get up close this time. Like the others it is constructed from salt bricks, each displaying its striations of layered salt, alternating clean and dirty. The bricks are sliced from blocks that are extracted from the salt flats and the layering results from the deposition of salt over thousands of years. Inside the hotel is a museum of statues carved from large salt blocks and despite salt being dissolved by water the hotels do not need to be rebuilt often and they are a near permanent feature on or around the flats. There are no toilets in the hotel (at least for casual visitors) as there is no way for the waste to be disposed of; I suspect hotel guests do have toilet facilities via a septic tank.

Salt sculptures

There are also several islands on the flats that have a unique vegetation adapted to the harsh climate, wind, cold, etc. We certainly felt both and had to stay wrapped up well while we were there.

The salt on the flats is completely... err.... flat (hence the name, derrrr!), apart from a hexagonal pattern of fine raised ridges, which are composted of fine salt crystals. This must be a product of the evaporation process after the flats are flooded every year by the seasonal rains. The surface itself is very hard and surprisingly grippy. It takes a while to get your head around the fact that you have grip as for all intents and purposes this looks exactly like a huge sheet of ice, and we all know: bikes and ice don't mix!

From the roundabout we head towards the centre of the flats and because there are no roads, no limits, and no restrictions, we all pin the throttle and zoom. Eventually, once out of sight of the hotels and any other tourists we 'camp'; the support truck stops and starts preparing lunch and a brew. From this base camp we all start playing.

The clouds are more interesting (note: on salt one has two shadows!)

We take turns doing flat out runs in various aerodynamic configurations: head down; head down, legs up; head down legs right up, in a near plank. The most we see on the speedo is about 85mph. The surface, although flat, is not smooth and restricts our top speed. We video, take photos and get up to all sorts of malarkey.

Gerard on a high speed run (with Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds in the background)

On the Bonneville salt flats they say you catch "salt fever" and on the Salar de Uyuni there were certain behaviours of our group that can only have resulted from a fever of some kind. They say what goes on tour stays on tour, so that's all I'll say! ;-)

:
well thumbed from my BlackBerry