Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 10 2006, 11:53 AM

Hey Guys,

Here's a 914 road to stay away from.

It's in Bolivia and called the Stremnaya Road of Death. Interesting place.

Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 10 2006, 11:55 AM

The last part of the road.

Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: bd1308 Oct 10 2006, 12:13 PM

Posted by: turboman808 Oct 10 2006, 12:45 PM

Dam that doesn't look safe. I would ride my bicycle on it but would be afraid the place would give away under a cars weight at any moment.

One thing I noticed in traveling is some countries have really poor engineers. One that really comes to mind is staying at a friends apartment on the 5th floor in a building in Bucarest. Stairs where about 1/2 inch think concrete with one steel rod going thru them and all broken. Very interesting walk when your drunk.

Posted by: Cap'n Krusty Oct 10 2006, 01:45 PM

Check out these pix.

http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/bolivia.htm

BTW, there was an hour long show about this highway on the History Channel (or maybe the Travel Channel) last week. The host was noticably nervous during much of the trip. As the programmers on the Discovery network are known to milk every last cent out of their investment, you'll be able to catch it many times over the next few days, weeks, months, and even years. It's an old road, built over decades, and at great expense, especially for a country that has no money. Life is tougher in some places, guys, and any road is better than no road at all .......
The Cap'n

Posted by: Twystd1 Oct 10 2006, 02:11 PM

thats a good road, compared to the roads i drive to mining camps in mexico.

i just got used to it.

the first month i was driving roads like the ones in the picture.
i thought i was going puke from fear.

now i can sleep for hours sitting shotgun in pickup truck in the middle of a monsoon rain storm.

never knowing if the road was going to collapse under the weight of the truck.

on roads that look exactly like the ones here.

ya simply learn to trust the process.
ya get VERY ZEN after a while. i learned i had to allow a huge paradigm shift to survive the interior of mexico.

it's a crazy place to travel. especially when you don't if and when you are coming back.

i love mexico. pure and simple.
Twystd1

Posted by: obscurity Oct 10 2006, 02:42 PM

Both the pictures and the link from The Cap'n remind me of the movie "Sorcerer" staring Roy Scheider about desperate men hired to drive badly aged dynamite through some anonymous South American jungle for an oil company.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076740/

Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 10 2006, 03:00 PM

Wow, guys expecially Twystd1

You guys have exciting lives.

I drive the 5-mile long bridge between Northern MI & the MI Upper peninsular with the wife. She moans & hids her face on the car seat with a death grip on my leg. She would freak out on those roads & I would be in fear of my life with her in the car. I remember a few years ago someone driving a small car (Yugo??) went over the bridge's railing into Lake Michigan on a windy day. I don't like that bridge.

I think I'll stay on flat U.S.A. roads.

Tom

Posted by: Thomas J Bliznik Oct 10 2006, 03:08 PM

Forgot to show a picture of the Machinaw Bridge. It's a long way down & you could land on a lake freighter.

Tom


Attached image(s)

Posted by: RS22b Oct 10 2006, 03:26 PM

yeah i heard about this on the History Channel last week. So mad i missed it.
guess i can catch it soon like ya said.

I would totally take out my rally car and take that road on! that would be some sick fun and driving for sure.

_billy

Posted by: Brew Oct 10 2006, 05:40 PM

"I would totally take out my rally car and take that road on! that would be some sick fun and driving for sure."


I'm with Billy! That road looks like it's be a thriller for sure!!!

Time to Google Travel Channel!

Posted by: RS22b Oct 10 2006, 05:45 PM

beat you to it, haha

http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=191769&action=detail

gives details as to when its on next and a "long" description.

Posted by: JPB Oct 10 2006, 07:31 PM

Them roads are way to cool!! I think the bummer is if it got blocked in a couple of ends and someone would have to climb around it.

Freeky unreal schmit man.

Posted by: Cap'n Krusty Oct 10 2006, 07:32 PM

I got to thinking about this, and Googled it Virtually all the hits use almost the same exact phrases, leading me to think the description is bogus. It certainly doesn't look like the road in my earlier link, and doesn't look anything like the one shown on the history channel. And, it's too dry. The word "Stremnaya" sounds Russian, not Spanish. I don't doubt this road exists, I just don't think it's in Bolivia. The Cap'n

Posted by: GeorgeRud Oct 10 2006, 09:10 PM

I saw the episode on the History Channel, and it's definately in Bolivia, goes from La Paz out to the boonies. Amazing engineering feat and quite scary to think of people building this with pick axes and other other hand tools.

Driving it would not be my idea of fun, buses and trucks seem to fall off regularly intno 2000 ft. deep ravines. Makes Californa ravines seem quite tame.

Posted by: Hawktel Oct 10 2006, 09:21 PM

23 Million Bolivians before the road, down to 21 million now and dropping...

Common, it was kinda funny..

Posted by: RS22b Oct 11 2006, 08:45 AM

i thought so, haha.

i was implying that it would be fun without all those trucks and buses on there.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! BLEEP!

Posted by: brer Oct 11 2006, 09:46 AM

when you finish that sunday drive you can head east to the Karakoram Highway.
pack your RPG.

Posted by: Howard Oct 11 2006, 09:58 AM

WCC 08? Think 914 Biathalon.

Posted by: jimtab Oct 11 2006, 08:07 PM

I agree, great movie even if it is a bit predictable....

Posted by: BarberDave Oct 12 2006, 04:15 AM

I order to be a bus or truck driver in Boliva you have to be out of your FU_KING
mind. But first, this comes from a guy that any use of a step ladder is a white knuckle job. If god wanted me on that road he would have given me wings. Dave

Posted by: johannes Oct 12 2006, 06:22 AM

This excellent movie is a remake from french movie "le salaire de la peur" (Wages of fear) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046268/ by Henry Georges Clouzot. Also excellent movie, worth watching ( Top 112 at IMDB )

Posted by: Longstreets Oct 13 2006, 11:53 PM

You're right Cap'n !

Those pictures are labeled incorrectly all over the net.
That road is located in Sichaun Province,China.
I am unable to find the name of that place or the exact location
so it's probably a remote section of the "Silk Road".
Why would it be the "Road of Death"? It's totally enclosed !
The original website posting these pictures is here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=115605

There is no Stremnaya Road in Bolivia or anywhere else that I can find.
Somewhere some joker is laughing his ass off because he pulled a fast one.

The Yungas Road in Bolivia is known as the "Road Of Death"
http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/bolivia.htm

I am apalled to see this kind of misinformation so widely circulated but
I will keep my eyes open for the correct name and exact location.
If anyone can help in this regard please do.

Later.
Longstreets.

Posted by: JPB Oct 14 2006, 07:34 AM

They have not had a single bicycle fatality yet on them Chinese roads since they are such fine ride...drivers.LOL

Ten sssssssspeeeeeed bike, thats crazy!

Posted by: Phil Durt Nov 8 2006, 06:08 PM

OK I got to the bottom of this, there is a Road of Death in Bolivia, but your pictures are not it.

The road of death in Bolivia called La Paz-Yungas road

http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/bolivia.htm

Heres what your pictures were of: Guoliang Tunnel. in Taihang Mountains in Huixian County, China

"We chose the tunnel. Sitting by the elderly driver I was lucky to hear the story about the tunnel. Before 1972, the path chiseled into the rock used to be the only access linking the village with the outside world. Then the villagers decided to dig a tunnel through the rocky cliff. Led by Shen Mingxin, head of the village, they sold goats and herbs to buy hammers and steel tools. Thirteen strong villagers began the project. It took them five years to finish the 1,200-metre-long tunnel which is about 5 meters high and 4 meters wide. Some of the villagers even gave their lives to it. On May 1, 1977, the tunnel was opened to traffic. When I was mulling over what the tunnel looked like, the van started a very steep ascent. I looked up and could not move my eyes away - it was so beautiful! All of us were excited. We found ourselves in extremely gorgeous surroundings - against the blue sky, with a path frighteningly narrow, and the cliffs piercing the sky. All of my fellow "donkeys" stopped talking; some were busy taking photos, some were just dumbfounded. The golden sun shone upon the ground and through the air vents in the rocky wall of the tunnel. We were sometimes in the dark and sometimes in the light. I was deeply moved and even wanted to cry, for the sacred Guoliang Tunnel and for what the villagers have done - to triumph over nature. Isolated village In about an hour, the small van slowly took us to the unsophisticated village surrounded by the towering mountains. The village, more than 1,200 meters above the sea level, seemed as if it had retreated from the world. Everything there was made of stone: the village gate, roads, bridges, houses, tables, stools, bowls and chop sticks. It is said the village originated from Guo Liang, a peasant army leader who used to fight there in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). There are currently about 83 households in the village with 329 people."

Heres another picture:

Posted by: Cap'n Krusty Nov 8 2006, 06:25 PM

Might be why the folks in the picture look Chinese, not Bolivian. Ya think? I admine your perseverance, BTW. The Cap'n