Lisa Morris

Posted in Snapshots, UK | 2 comments

What is the last great ride you did that made you happy? I’m on my great ride! Since February 2014, I’ve been riding the length of the Americas ‘bottom up’ from the Antarctic to the Arctic. I’m 17 months, 25,000 miles and three continents in (we squeezed in a trip to the Antarctic too). So far, so nuts.

Oh, the stories! Can you share one? Here’s one. I call it “Spooning Strangers”. This happened during our 237 mile route from Uyuni to Chile through the Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve, which Jason and I had expected to be “slow going but not technical”. Famous last words!

We were riding with a KLR rider we had just met – Canadian Matt. The ride was hard-going but we were fresh. I forged ahead with confidence – energized by our positive group dynamic. There was a huge gulf between my sand-riding skills and what was required for flying over this thick soft stuff. We were getting way more sand dunes than we had bargained for. I endured three increasingly spectacular crashes, going well past my limits. My energy reserves and conviction started to plummet.

I should have felt euphoria when we finally descended onto the famous Árbol de Piedra (Stone Tree). However, the effort of sustaining this level of pace and exertion had felt a little like quarrying stone beneath a blazing sun. Even the Stone Tree felt like an anti-climactic lump of stone. And my day was far from over.

We finally realized that we would not make it to Laguna Colorada that day, so we set up an emergency camp.

“I don’t have any camping gear but I’ve got whisky,” Canadian Matt casually remarked.

Was he kidding? This wasn’t a night to be in a place like this with no gear! Strong gusty winds shook our two-person tent while temperatures plummeted to -22 C. As honourable Brits, Jason and I layered Matt with every insulating thing available. Including ourselves. We had known him for barely forty eight hours, but we spooned the guy front and back and shared all the body warmth we had. Packed in like sardines and extremely “cozy”, we all burst into helpless laughter. (laughs)

To give you an idea of how cold it was, a sheet of ice had formed inside the tent by sunrise. When we awoke, we could see our breath in the cold air. As the ice started to condense, droplets began to rain down on us.

We did reach Chile that day, shocked and joyous that we had done it!