Day 551 22nd January 2018
58 miles (Sao Mateus to Linhares) Average speed 12.8 mph Top speed 36 mph
Another tough day but a much faster one.
I was up at 8 for brekkie of ham and cheese rolls with melon, cake and another orange fruit with a green skin and coffee and caju juice. After a couple of calls I left at 10.15 and was greeted by the usual morning hill to warm up the legs. The hills were not quite so big and a little shallower so I got more return most of the time by pedalling hard on the way down, but it was still hard work with little respite. After an hour I rested with some iced water from the fridge in the hotel and dried my stuff in the sun. There was a bit more cloud cover today too, which makes things a little easier. I then stopped for a bottle of guarana at a friendly restaurant with a good cheap buffet but it was only midday so I continued hoping to find similar further on.
I went through a National park with a sign of wild cats and monkeys and big lizards and saw one dead on the side of the road, I don’t intend camping there. Then on another up and down there were road workers out waving red flags to slow down the traffic.
Traffic jam
After about two miles of going up the inside of parked up cars I came to the reason why. There was a terrible accident involving about 7 cars and an overturned truck. There were injured people and police and ambulances and paramedics everywhere. The lorry was across the whole road apart from the hard shoulder enabling one lane of traffic to pass but it was a real mess. As I’ve stated many times before the Brazilian driving can be very bad. Even this accident didn’t change their actions though and they continued to drive on the tail-lights of the cars and lorries in front. It was a real mess and I was glad I was ten minutes behind this disaster. I pushed my bike along the grass verge as the traffic came the other way and I could see the carnage close up. Unbelievably there were people selling their goods to the waiting cars, news spreads fast and they were there to make a quick buck. As I passed the waiting traffic on the other side lots of people were asking me what had happened.
I stopped in Sooretama to buy lunch in a supermarket of pastries and a two litre bottle of Sprite, it’s thirsty work cycling in this heat! I looked for a good spot to eat but the only shaded place was a bus stop. As I sat there watching the traffic and lots of ambulances coming and going, I was amazed that nobody gets out of their way and they seem to sit patiently in traffic.
It was only ten miles to the campsite according to the map, so I made that in good time, but there was no campsite. I spent time asking in different shops and bars, one only 500 metres from it, but no one knew of it, so I carried on to Linhares, which turned out to be a well-off area with lots of expensive hotels, so I ended up in this hotel as it looked like the cheapest available.
I showered and went for a beer in a local bar watching footy and then went for a great burger (defined by needing two hands to hold it) and chips.
Great burger (large) with chips
I returned to the first bar to watch some more from São Paulo. They play on waterlogged pitches there. They’ve been having crazy flash floods. This really is a farcical game but great entertainment. It’s São Paulo v International in the youth cup. If you can find it on you tube it’s worth a watch. The middle of the pitch is a lake. Lightning has now taken over and the teams have left the pitch.
Incredibly, they are back out to play the last 30 minutes in the rain. The teams have warmed up and are ready to play, the rain has stopped, but after talking to almost everyone in the stadium the ref has now given up and said come back tomorrow. That should have been decided at least two hours ago. I only ordered another beer as they were about to start again, I should have gone to bed!!
Hotel 69 reais