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‘You cover every possibility or everything that maybe could go wrong, but you’re never 100% sure of it’ – Les O’Donnell
THE INFAMOUS DEATH Road in Bolivia isn’t a place for nervous passengers – never mind nervous drivers.
The Yungus Road usually sees people travelling up it by bicycle, which makes it easier to stay away from the steep drops.
But three Irish men recently traversed it by jeep, during a three-part trip that saw them scale a volcano and left one of them suffering from altitude sickness.
The journey
Paul Doherty, Les O’Donnell and Denis Ferry had already taken in the Northern Lights during a 1,000-mile trek over Alaska’s ice roads (in the name of charity) last year.
This time, they headed to different heights: Bolivia.
They were already nervous about tackling the road – but when they got there, they discovered there had been a landslide about 5km from the top.
“Near the top of it is the most dangerous area – you can see all the crosses along the road where people have perished throughout the years,” said O’Donnell.
“We started at the bottom and worked our way up. It’s amazing – you basically start in the jungle and you work your way up and then you come into the clouds,” recalled Doherty.
When they reached the landslide, people told them “there is no way you are going to get through it” and “you might as well turn around”.
But still, they ploughed on – under waterfalls, along the narrow rock-strewn road.
“It’s difficult to breathe”
They drove through fog for quite a bit of the journey, which surely must have made things even more nail-biting. “It’s good fun when it’s a 2000ft drop to your left hand side,
then you’re on top of the clouds,” said Paul, recounting how they drove from 1000 to 15,000 feet.
“It’s difficult to breathe at the 15,000 mark but we were OK because we were sitting in the jeep,” said Doherty.
“Donegal roads aren’t the best roads in the country, so we’re used to bad roads,” said O’Donnell, tongue firmly in cheek, about 60% of the roads. “The other 40% were terrifying.”
“It was a surreal experience,” remembered Doherty.
It got even more surreal when they travelled up the volcano on the second leg.
Volcano trails
The second leg brought them to a Sajama National Park, and up a volcano.
They made the trip in a Toyota Land Cruiser, sponsored by Kelly’s Toyota in Letterkenny, and Les and Denis are both dab hands with mechanics.
They were thankful of that big car as they trekked through the park (which cost the equivalent of 20c to enter).
They stayed in a mud hut with a thatched roof in the park, and feasted on local food and drink that cost them €5 for the night. “It was amazing,” said Doherty, saying they went to bed fully clothed, wearing clothes made from deer fur that they bought locally. They also had clothes that were supplied by Carhartt.
Which is just as well, as one has to wonder how the clothing they bought there fitted, as the local people were extremely friendly – and small. “I’m not the tallest person going but I had to duck going into doors,” laughed Doherty. “The tallest person we met was abut 5ft.”
That was the beginning of their trek 17,541ft up the Sajama volcano – beating the Top Gear programme, which climbed a nearby but smaller volcano.
Journey to the ridge
Jason Black, an Everest climber, gave them tips on scaling the volcano.
“We didn’t realise until we were up there how the altitude sickness can affect you,” said O’Donnell.
He experienced a bleeding nostril for a week due to the altitude.
What was the journey like? “It was pretty intense,” said Doherty. “You are kind of on a buzz – you have adrenaline pumping through you.”
When they watched back footage, the could hear themselves breathing very heavily, which was due to the low oxygen levels up the volcano. At the time, they didn’t even notice they were out of breath.
But with all of his hopping in and out of the jeep to film and take photographs, Doherty ended up exerting a lot of energy, and wound up with altitude sickness.
They had brought oxygen and oxygen meters with them, so they could test their levels of O2. “Mine had fallen to 72, which is pretty bad,” said Doherty.
The altitude sickness started with a sore head. “What is actually happening is your brain starts to swell. You’re not just as sharp as you would be,” said Doherty.
The only cure for altitude sickness is to go down, and gradually the descent helped him feel better.
They certainly put the car through its paces. “We actually got stuck a few times and we had to lower the pressure of the tyre,” said Doherty. “We were basically driving on four flat wheels on the way up.” This helped the tyres get more grip.
Doherty describes the journey as “great fun – something you will never forget”.
I could show you all the pictures in the world of the jungle and from the top of the volcano, but until you’re there and you can smell it… If you could take the smell home with you, you would.
One bit he wouldn’t bring home, however, is the mysterious hissing he heard while setting up his tripod to film in the jungle… “I moved to other side of road, and got camera set up very quickly,” laughed Doherty.
Les O’Donnell said that this trip was tougher than their ice trek journey. “It was definitely tougher from an altitude point of view, and the language barrier, and we just weren’t sure about the road network and security in the country.”
In addition, they only had eight days for the trip, with six on the ground and two travelling.
The three men have the full support of their family. “They know there’s a risk there but at the same time they know we’re not goin gto do stomething stupid,” said O’Donnell.
The adventurous trio is already thinking about the next trip, and expect it will be another charity venture – but it won’t be for another two years, the friends reckon.
Sounds like they’re due a good break alright.
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Big companies trying to screw workers for all they can get! €711 million profit last year, yet they’re complaining they’re not competitive!!! Shareholder greed again!
Irish Cement Limited has extracted its profits over the past few decades by over charging its customers and keeping the price of cement in Ireland artificially inflated.
CRH (Irish Cement’s parent company) has been found guilty on numerous occasions throughout Europe of price fixing and operating illegal cartels all to the detriment of consumers and taxpayers. Most recently in Poland in 2009 when it was fined €25 million for the above offences.
After the cement cartel was uncovered in Germany in 2003 prices decreased by over 50%. Imagine how much local authorities have been over charged for cement related products throughout the Celtic Tiger. CRH claimed an annual turnover of €18 billion in 2011. How much of that belongs to the Irish people?
Irish Cement Limited can well afford to pay its workers!
Irish cement workers in Platin (meath) were always very well payed. Before the tiger days it was one of the best jobs in the area and even through the tiger days. Have to say that through the years I’ve had the misfortune of working for subbies in platin and found most of the workers to be arrogant AS**oles. They never wanted subbies in their canteen, would not even look in your general direction. Not as if they were being done out of work, subbies had to do any dirty work as this was beneath them.
In their old sister plant, premier periclase in Drogheda, If a contractor brought a machine in, say a JCB, then premiers union insisted on one of their men standing beside the machine (not doing any work) as long as it was on the premises, as it was deemed to be doing a man out of work.
I for one have no sympathy for any of the (so called) workers in Platin.
They might find out what it’s like to have to work for a subbie and have dickheads looking down their noses at you
That was a long long time ago tom. Your rant seems to stem from a hint of jealousy. How many times did you apply and not get in i wonder? Icl have already slashed their wage bill in recent years by redundancies and early retirements. . That 100 people is across 2 plants remember. Go back 2 years and the numbers were 3 times that. The monies owed are for bonuses which they are quite entitled to considering the bankers are still getting them and the banks DONT make profits of over 700 million euro a year.
@Karl, not Jealousy, More that I was surprised at the arrogance and ignorance of the majority of the employee’s.
It’s not a rant either it is fact that subcontractors are used for any “dirty work” as this is seen as below any general operatives duties in direct employment.
They lived in a bubble for years, Jobs for life and being basically unsackable made work place snobs out of sadly the majority of them.
Not sure where you are coming from, but having dealt with them at all levels for many years now, I am very familar with their ways
so tom because you were mistreated by men that have long since left that place the current relatively young workforce deserve everything they get? your holding a bitter grudge. and yes you were indirectly doing people out of a fulltime job and thats why they treated ye like that. but that was a long time ago. you have no idea what it is like to work in in recent years. the “so called platin workers” you are talking about are fighting for money they are owed. mark o brien makes a point in the comments below. you should read it. platin was a good job and always looked after the surrounding towns and clubs. but thats all stopped now because of greedy executives. your still coming across as being bitter that you never got a job there.
Lucky to be alive with you around,
You big girls blouse!
They are bloody lucky to have jobs
For God’s sake, lucky to have jobs they are not getting paid for! Mong
This kind of wage slave mentality, taken to its logical conclusion would mean that we, the great unwashed, should be grateful to even be payed for the work we do for our social betters.
It’s a moronic and self-defeating stance to take.
Yet again. “You’re lucky to have a job”. So do as you’re told and take whatever’s coming to you. Dickensian nonsense.
What I would like to know is how many government projects CRH got during the Celtic tiger years and how many T.D.s had investments and vested interest in that company. These large corporations will continue to abuse their employees in the name of profit until the Workers of the world unite and take them down. The elites continue to get rich at the expense of the regular joe. It’s only a matter of time before this game comes to an ugly end. People were kept docile and content for the last twenty years or so with the utopia of cheap credit. This is no longer the case. Now that reality has dawned the masses have become very agitated and are asking questions. I believe some equality needs to return to society as a whole, otherwise we are heading down a very dangerous road. The elites might not like what they find if they continue these policies. The French revolution comes to mind. Just because we are in 2012 doesn’t mean that history can’t repeat itself. When human beings have nothing else to loose they do strange things.
Richard Bruton, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation is a former employee and current shareholder of CRH. He has refused outright to initiate an investigation into the anti-competitive practices occurring in the cement and concrete industry even though they are costing the State and consumers millions upon millions of euro. Richard Bruton is a very good example of a politician with vested interests which are to detriment of those he is supposed to represent!
On aggregate I reckon they have a fairly concrete case, however many old companies work practices are set in their ways, curing these workers grievances with a bit of flexibility by CRH might crack the issue and cement better future working relationships.
With the Worldwide economic boom I think they have a good case.
The reason subbies were not allowed into irish cement workers facilities was because some subbies were stuffing toilet roll down the toilets and flushing them so they overflowed and p*ss and s*hit went all over the floor. In your comment you neglected to mention that subbies were built brand new canteen facilities showers and toilet block but they refused to use them because they were “too far away”
What are they owed the money for?
Work I’d say
There is no 9500 euro bonus for anyone up there anymore thats gone years ago. Workers have already taken a 20% pay cut while management have not taken any pay cut. Workers have not recieved their production based bonus and management have. Workers have been made redundant (approx 65% of them) while no managers lost jobs. When they laid off their workers they took on contractors to do the work they claimed they didnt have for the workers they laid off. Running costs for the factory have been slashed they are being payed irish cement up to €40 per tonne to burn rubbish in the kilns thus saving €25 million on importing coal. Workers who were laid off or took redundancy last year got paid their bonuses up to the point of being laid off so the precedent is set on paying this bonus to the workers for last year. People should understand there are two sides to every story sometimes three. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!!!!
This can get very messy… From the company’s point of view… If They don’t get pay cuts, then it’ll most likely be last in first out. Once they have it on the table that staff are costing “X” too much, then by hook or by crook that’s what’ll happen. Scary for those affected, but inevitable.
Regardless, If the labour court said the staff are owed money, that should be paid. Most likely a separate issue.
The key point here is that this is a profitable company looking for pay cuts. How can they possibly justify that? Another attempt to reduce the pay and conditions of workers in this country while shareholders (excluding those in the banks who got wiped when they were nationalised) the , bondholders and the high earners get rich off their backs.
The message from comments here seems to be this: unless workers are on subsistence wages, they should shut up and be grateful. Why do these people want to set back work conditions by a hundred years? Do they not realise such attitudes affect their own families, their children and their friends?
I’d be suspicious of these commenters’ motives. What’s in it for them?
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