Off on my bike : Muriaé to Rio

A long day, didn't really appreciate the scenery.

Just three more days.  Keep moving.  I managed some chicken soup last night, and a bit of breakfast, can't face any more solid food though.  Need energy of course, sugary coffee and bottles of fizzy pop will do.  Keep moving.  Not able to pay much attention to the surroundings, or take photos, it takes all I've got just to push the pedals.  Long day, nearly seventy miles and hilly.  Puncture, sigh, OK fix it.  Keep moving.  Night falls, don't want to ride in the dark, if there was a hotel I'd stop, but no, lights on, make it all the way to Além Paraíba, and through it, must be a hotel, yes, just as the main road leaves town.  Stomach feels... better, I have a burger and a beer, then bed.  Two more days.

Itaipava brewery.  Can't have too many breweries.

Definitely feeling less sick, but still weak and tired, my body needs a rest, not more biking.  But no help for it, there are more hills to climb.  Seems like a day full of them, the afternoon is pretty much one big hill, well it is scenic at least.  Destination is Itaipava - turns out the beer of the same name is brewed ten miles north of town.  Heavy traffic on the road in, not seeing any hotels, reach the centre, still nothing, try to ask for directions but get the usual stream of gibberish.  See some signs for pousadas, but following them seems to lead out of town and uphill.  Not liking this place.  People at the bus station try to help, one shows me a map, OK, that will do, I head off.  See a pousada sign, ask at the pizza place next door, no it's a shop, but wow he speaks English.

Why didn't I have flags?

Hotels here very expensive he says, go to Petrópolis instead, only five kilometres away.  He reckons a hundred and eighty reais here, more like eighty there.  Hmm.  But when I find his suggested hotel on the GPS, it is fully ten miles off, as the crow flies.  So, back to the bus driver suggestion, it's not too far away.  Of course, it's a love motel... I have passed a lot of these, some like this on the edge of a town, many a few miles outside, I've avoided them, my requirement to stay a whole night with nearby bars and eateries not really being what they're for.  But, it's nice enough, you can tell women stay here and not just truckers, actual hot water, even shampoo!  They do want a hundred and fifty reais, but I beat them down to one hundred.  Then, back to the pizza place, worth it just to speak English, I also get a special price pizza and beer, stomach feels like it can cope.  Things aren't so bad.

All downhill from here.  Sort of.

Last day.  LAST DAY!  Nothing can stop me now, certainly not more massive hill, up to over a thousand metres this morning.  Near the top I meet more crazy cyclists, two Brazilian guys who have also ridden across the country to reach the Olympics, we cross the high point together, very cool.  Then a mad plummet down to near sea level, somehow my cheap bike's plastic brakes cope.  Pizza guy last night said the last thirty kilometres into Rio would be dangerous and made shooting gestures, hum.  In fact it seems fine, barring the bits of more or less motorway, don't enjoy those much.  Then up to my accommodation, and yes I mean up, turns out to be at an elevation of some one hundred and fifty metres, perched on a near vertical slope, in fact the road it's on is also the old railway line heading to the Cristo Redentor statue.  Getting there involves crazy steep climbs, also numerous false starts as the turn I hope to take proves impossible as I'm either on an elevated road, or in a tunnel.  But I get there, oh wow I actually did it.  At some point a retrospective of this largely insane adventure may happen - first though, the little matter of the Olympic Games!

Sunset in Rio!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.