- Crossing deserts is usually considered tricky
- Traversing a mountain range like the Andes is no small undertaking
- Getting through the dense Amazon rainforest, an adventurers dream
Combine the three of those. Take two British imbeciles. Given them a ridiculous vehicle, a low powered, half motorbike, half sofa hybrid. Then plonk them in the south of Peru, with 3000km of unpaved road ahead of them. Then throw in the unique combinations of jungle wet season, which renders many ‘roads’ impassable, and coastal desert summer reaching its hottest peak, together with brain damage inducing altitude over the intevening Andean range and you have a recipe for absolute carnage.
On January 1st 2012, Rich and Chris will head away from San Jeronimo in the South of Peru – near Cuzco. Broadly speaking we’ll head north west, up and over the mountains, west down to the coast, up a bit and then a few days later we’ll cut back inland, into the amazon and hunt for the town of Piura in the extreme north of the country.
There’s no “Gap Yaar” in sight. This is a sprint. 14 days of relentless day and night drivign to get us to our destination, just in time to find and airport and fly home before our bosses finish printing our P45s.
That is the challenge.
Our route
Seems there's a fault. Not with google maps, but with the route. "We could not calculate directions between Cuzco and Ayabaca". That'll be the lack of roads issue we've been told about.
There's nothing like the reassurance that the route is impossible irrespective of wet or dry season. Anyway. Ho-hum. the map below shows how we plan to set out from Cuzco in the South of Peru, wheeling north west through the Andes, up the coastal desert for a while and then heading into the jungle to find our finish at Ayabaca (Piura). I've established tonight that at least 3 places go by the name of Ayabaca (and several more by the name of Ayabacas) so asking for directions will be utterly pointless.
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