Salt Roads and Sacred Mountains - Chile, Argentina and Bolivia

Three countries in two weeks, climbing out of the driest desert on earth and across the Andes to the largest salt flat on it. The ride starts and ends in San Pedro de Atacama.

From there the route crosses the Andes into northern Argentina, turns north into Bolivia for the Salar de Uyuni, and comes back down to San Pedro. The Salar is the centrepiece: 10,000 square kilometres of salt crust with nothing whatsoever to navigate by, and in the right season a few centimetres of water lying across it that turns the whole thing into a mirror. There is no other surface like it to ride on.

Altitude is the defining condition here rather than the terrain. Large parts of the route sit well above 4,000 metres, which affects the riders and the bikes equally. Vintage Royal Enfield Classic 500s are carburettor machines, and thin air is something you feel directly through the throttle rather than read about afterwards. It is worth arriving with a day or two in hand to acclimatise before the riding starts.

Groups run to nine riders plus five pillions, which makes this the largest of the Wild Tracks South American tours, and a mechanic and a support vehicle travel with the group throughout. Accommodation is in private rooms with local meals included. For riders who want genuine high-altitude desert riding on a machine that has no business being there, this is the one in their range that delivers it, and the Salar de Uyuni on its own would justify the fortnight.