Uyuni was a railway town, but since the railways closed, it's focus had been on tourism.

That's the sort of bike you could do with, come rain or shine.

Not sure I'm going to be driving this one very far.

This one looks like it's been pretty well cannibalised.

Apart from the Bolivian flag in the middle in not too sure what the others are.

Speeding along the salt flats felt like we were in an episode of Top Gear.

None of the guides knew why this pitstop on the salt flat had been named Dakar.

I'm sure there is a Union Jack in there somewhere.

The salt breeze blocks that everything was made from.

It rained heavily while we were having lunch I was just hoping it wasn't all going to melt.

A bench made of salt, that dripping water from the roof has eaten away at.

I think this bloke just wanted to say he'd ridden his touring bike on the salt flats and some proof.

Our vehicle for the day, not the newest Landcruiser but reasonably comfortable.

Carol has been learning from the youngsters.

The expansion of the salt causes the upper crust to push upwards and create these irregular shapes.

Three different poses as they drove round us the times.

A Day On The Salt Flats

February 11 in Bolivia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

Our tour today was a late start at 10:30am. A few people had dropped out of the tour so it meant there were only 4 people in each of the two Toyota Landcruisers, which made for a much more comfortable trip. We had a young Scottish girl Lauren, and a Dutch woman Paula, in our vehicle, who had already been travel around Argentina and Chile, so we had plenty to talk about.

The first stop was the train graveyard. Trains from the late 1800s until the early 1990s were used to export the various mined ore and minerals via Chile. The graveyard was used to store unrepairable or redundant trains, which were then used for parts. Once the operators of these trains pulled out over 30 years ago, they just left everything behind.

Then to a place where we leant about how the salt is gathered and processed. Once the process is complete it's worth 14bs for 50kg, however, in the shop they were selling it for 10bs for 250g, now that is a mark up.

We then headed onto the salt flats, a little corner of the 12,000 square kilometers of it. To a place called Dakar, bizarrely a restaurant on the salt flats made from salt breeze blocks. It was a very nice lunch, but it cost 37p to spend a penny, so I held it in.

We then went further into the salt flats to take a strange series of photos. Everyone joined in and it was fun, if not a little odd. I then wanted to see what it would be like running at 3,650m, I lasted 3 mins at just under 10 min mile before I could hardly breath anymore.

Then onto Colchani where out of more salt breeze blocks they had built a maze and a series of sculptures. The maze was fun and quite difficult, but we eventually made it after bumping into the same people going in the opposite direction, several times.

The final stop of the day was for a sundowner, though it was more of a pour downer as we watched the lightening in the distance, the dark cloud almost touching the horizon and then felt the wind and rain come our way. We were supposed to spend a little more time out there to see the stars in perfect darkness but the weather put paid to that.Read more