Off on my bike : Bedengó to Feira de Santana

Euclides da Cunha.

I'm hoping to get seventy-five miles or so from Bedengó, I start early enough but a puncture less than thirty minutes along doesn't bode well, and honestly I am feeling broken, struggling to manage half an hour of cycling between breaks.  I find myself in a bit of a bleak mood, is it really possible to get to Rio at this pace?  Not if the road continues to be this way I fear... I need to average fifty-five miles a day, more with days off.  As it is, at 1:30pm or so I'm at Euclides da Cunha, thirty-five miles short of where I'd hoped for, and I just can't be sure of getting there before dark.

Horse walking.

So, find a nice hotel, have a little siesta, then Saturday night in Euclides - there's a proper party happening in the main square, pickups with big speaker systems in the back cruise around, kids are catered for with various trampolines, a bouncy castle etc., is all cool.  Must say it doesn't seem terribly poor here, for all I've heard about Brazil - I guess this is far from the big cities and their favelas.  I enjoy a pastel, clearly a cousin of our English pasty, they come in various forms, but commonly kind of flat and deep fried.  This one contains sausage and cheese...

Note the big cactus.

Onwards, next day I feel stronger and manage sixty-five miles, yay.  The country is changing as I move South, stony ground with goats picking at parched looking vegetation giving way to grassy slopes and actual crops, mostly maize.  Could be in Europe, except maybe for the tree sized cacti sprouting here and there.  Sunday night in Araci, there's a party happening here too, slightly fewer musical pickup trucks, can't say I'm too sad.

Access to the fields.

Then a long day to Feira de Santana, this time two punctures in the first hour, I only have one spare tube but the roadside repair holds.  Make it to the outskirts as the sun sets, now to find a hotel... Hum, normal method of heading to the centre isn't going to work, this is a substantial city with a big centre.  I should have booked in advance, as it is, my GPS knows of hotels here but they are pricey, no help for it though, well, only thirty pounds, won't break the bank.  Though I see little difference to the place I paid less than a quarter of that for yesterday.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.