Our front tyre dug deeper into hot black volcanic sand as the rear sent plumes of charcoal-looking smoke into the sky. The weight of riding two-up with all our luggage wasn’t helping and we still had another 10km to go.
We pushed on, determined to reach the volcano before heat exhaustion kicked in. You know the drill: weight back, light on the ’bars, heavy on the gas and let the bike do its thing. Except, we had weight all over and heavy on the gas just kept digging us in further.
There was no choice but for Alissa to jump off and walk through the deep sections and, on the stretches where we could get a good run, we closed our eyes and gassed it until the ’bars became too wild to handle.
Stopping for a drink, we admired the locals on battered scooters and
