You know those stunning twisty mountain roads you see on Instagram nestled in the side of the Swiss Alps, or that clip from the start of James Bond’s GoldenEye where an Aston races a Ferrari down the slopes of Monaco? Yeah, well these aren’t those roads. You won’t spot any 458 Spiders tackling these bad boys. These are the most dangerous, almost non-existent, batshit crazy sections of tarmac (some not even) from around the world.
‘Waterfall Road’, Nepal
This road doesn’t really have a proper name, though you can find it between the rural Nepalese towns of Manang and Besisahar if you’re game. Clearly, the road was carved out pre-waterfall, though besides that not much more is known about it. There’s nothing further to say, really, only that the clip below is absolutely unbelievable and fun fact, it was only filmed about a week ago.
James W. Dalton Highway, USAÂ Â
This 666-kilometre ‘highway’ stretches across some of the most desolate landscape of North America. With only three small villages along the way, Alaska’s Dalton Highway was etched in infamy long before Ice Road Truckers brought it to your television screens.
The below video was taken by Kyle Anderson during his trip along the highway between Coldfoot Alaska and Yukon River Crossing. He describes his experience in the clip’s caption.
“I got stranded on the road several hours after this video was taken, and wasn’t able to get moving again until the plows made it to me at around 8:30am the next day. Luckily I had warm gear and brought extra fuel. I had a range of 20 miles when the plow got to me. I could barely keep the car running because the blowing snow had gotten packed into all areas under my car and in the engine compartment, including my air intake.”
Yungas Road, Bolivia
It’s much more likely that you’re familiar with this by its colloquial name – ‘Death Road.’ We think it’s fair, and we’re sure you’d agree, that any road with such a title deserves a place on this list. Claiming 200-300 lives per year, much of the twisty mountainside track is bookended by a 2000Â foot drop on one side and a sheer rock wall on the other. The original Top Gear boys know these dangers all too well.
Passage du Gois, France
This 4.3-kilometre causeway is passable for only a few hours each day, connecting the island of Noirmoutier with mainland France. The rest of the time it is submerged in the Atlantic by incoming tides. Unfortunately, this video ends just when it looks like it’s about to get good (i.e the car sinks and pandemonium ensues).
Kolyma Highway, Russia
Better known as the ‘Road of Bones,’ this highway *cough* is the only way to bridge the gap between the Far Eastern Russian towns of Yakutsk and Magadan. Via the town of Tomtor, the total length is 1900 kilometres, and it derives its namesake from the Gulag prison labourers who died during its construction and who were subsequently interred in the fabric of the road.
Back in 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman navigated the treacherous traverse during their round-the-world expedition from London to New York on motorcycles.
