What You’ll Need To Visit The Most Dangerous Roads
It takes a special kind of thrillseeker to want to visit the world’s most dangerous roads. These are some of the most treacherous, precarious environments on the planet, places where one wrong move could mean the difference between surviving and...well...not surviving. If you want to make a trip to one of these roads, then you have our congratulations; you’re almost certainly a more hardy and brave individual than we are.
With that said, it takes more than simple courage to get yourself to one of these locations. There are plenty more things on the checklist before you can begin your excursion, so we’ve put together a guide on what we think you’ll need if you want to visit the world’s most dangerous roads. When you’re armed with this guide and a strong self-preservation instinct, what could go wrong?
Funding
Travelling costs money. There are lots of things you’ll need to remember and account for in your travel budget, so it’s important to make sure you’re armed with enough money to make it through your trip, no matter which of the most dangerous roads you’re planning on visiting.
Courage
We know we’ve already said this, but it really does take someone truly special to want to brave the most dangerous roads in the world. These aren’t roads along which tourists regularly travel; they’re challenging, angular thoroughfares that could severely punish any mistakes you make while driving or riding along them. That’s why you’re going to need an abundance of courage if you want to visit one of these roads. Sometimes, turning back isn’t even possible until you reach the end thanks to how narrow the roads are, so once you’re on the road, you’ve effectively made a commitment.
A good vehicle
While not all of the world’s most dangerous roads can be traversed in a car, many of them can, and you’re going to need a vehicle that’s not only hard-wearing but also superbly easy to control. You need a car that will do exactly what you tell it to at any given time, because without total control over your vehicle, you’re putting yourself in unnecessary danger when driving on dangerous roads. Try to put your car through its paces by driving (safely) along as many precarious roads as you have access to, because then you’ll know whether your car is up to the task or not.
Knowledge of the road
This is perhaps one of the most crucial things with which you can be armed when you decide to drive on a dangerous road. You should know the layout of the road - its twists and turns, any particularly problematic areas, and stretches during which you can relax - off by heart. That way, you won’t be surprised or wrong-footed (or perhaps “wrong-wheeled”) by any unexpected developments. If there are any unique hazards - animal grazing herds nearby, for example, or risky areas in terms of inclement weather - you should know about these as well.
Plenty of driving experience
It stands to reason that if you want to tackle the world's most dangerous roads you should already have lots of driving experience under your belt. You absolutely do not want to make the trip to these roads if you’re a driving novice, no matter how appealing the idea may seem to you. Driving should be absolute second nature, and your vehicle should feel like an extension of your body. Of course, there is a first time for everything, and everyone starts their dangerous road journey as a beginner. Still, you should make sure you’re an experienced driver before you embark on any journey to a dangerous road.
A guide
If there’s a guide available for the road on which you want to travel, then under no circumstances should you attempt to drive the route alone. When the road is a tourist attraction, there will almost certainly be guides available, and they may even not allow tourists to drive without the assistance of a guide. When you can avail yourself of a guide’s services, you should absolutely do so, because they know the road much better than you and they can help you to navigate it without difficulty. Going along the road without a guide if one is available is just asking for trouble.
The willingness to turn back
In the nail-biting movie Free Solo there is a moment in which climber Alex Honnold makes an attempt to climb the El Capitan rock face without climbing gear. Honnold reaches a certain point before he realises that this just isn’t the moment, and he turns back, disappointed and frustrated with himself. While Honnold may have been annoyed that he couldn’t complete his climb, he had the right idea; sometimes, it’s just not the right moment. If you get a “bad feeling” when you’re on the way to your drive, it might be best to simply turn back and abandon the journey, because it’s better to do that and survive than to get into an accident.