Day 7 - sand gallore!!!

Just landed into Antofagasta after another twelve hour day
- and what a day it was! We left Iquique in the early hours and
managed to get ahead of the racers up on the sand flats before they
crossed. There was probably forty people in total and it was one of
the most spectacular days of sand riding I’ve ever done. Pure
powder that could only be ridden at speed meant I was clocking
speeds of up to 110kph across massive sand flats, drifting to turn
as a skier would on a hill – just mind blowing!! The trucks were
lashing it, some loosing control of their direction at times and
one plowed through a small crowd of fans gathered on a hill top,
amazingly with no casualties! Bikes and cars alike struggled with
the three feet of powder after all the race traffic and at one
point a helicopter misjudged how near we were on a ridge – just
take a look at how close my iPhone caught the image! I had a superb
day, felt like a million dollars and wrapped up the race portion
with a 100 mph three hour sprint to the hotel to jump in a cold
shower. I must say I never thought I’d be handling this pace with
the front of the pack. Today was exhausting and with two bikes
taken out of action and three running out of fuel mid desert, I
seem to have run another day issue free (touch wood!). Chile, on a
side note has more sand than any country I have ever experienced.
The near thousand k’s of coast I’ve ridden haven’t given break to
one field or one flower bed – nuts! Ok – knackered – here’s a few
pics I caught on my iPhone today…

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