South America, Bolivia / Peru : Daily Diary

Day 12 : Monday 03rd October

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So what was it all about ???

Tahua - Quime Oruro
 
Today was going to be a high milage day. Our destination was Quime but becasue of Mark's accident we only gt as far as Oruro.
 
Earlier in the day we had stopped at a metorite crater. Which was cool. The crator was pretty big. We weren't allowed down into the crater. As access was restricted but it was spectacular.
 
We had planned to do about 480km today but things started to go a little awry around lunch time.
We were behind on our progress when we got to Oruro and to make thing worse we needed petrol for the bikes. Unfortunately, we were having trouble finding a petrol station with petrol.
People also wanted a Cash Point. Which just added pressre to the situation.
 
Mark (our Guide) and Diego (our support Mechanic) were trying to find us petrol and a Cash Point. While all this was going on the clock was ticking by and everyone was very conscious we still had a lot of miles to do.
Diego was off trying to get one of the bikes fixed. Leaving the Mark with the rest of the group.
Without Diego as our Tailend Charlie Mark was having to focus more on keeping the group together. Which, given the size of the group, wasn't an easy task.
 
Unfortunately, this all lead to Mark not paying as much attention to the road as he normally did. Which resulted in a horrendous accident when a Mini Bus pulled cross in front of him on a dual carriageway.
 
Due to the time we lost with the police and getting Mark to hosptial. Diego ended up finding us a place to stay in Oruro.
To be honest this was a very good thing. As it gave people time to get over the shock of what happened.
It was clear that Mark had been very baly injured and would not be continuing the trip with us.
 
This really brought home the risks of this type of trip.
I can say, considering his injuries, Mark made a good recovery.
 
 
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