Category Archives: Bike Rides

Account of some of my bike rides and cycle-touring experiences.

Bike Rides, Pilgrimage

We are born with nothing but faith

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“Faith“… when you hear (or read) this word, what is the 1st thing that comes to mind for you? Religion?

I can’t blame you. I would argue there is no religion without faith. Thankfully, though, the scope of the word is broader. If you write “faith meaning” in Google Search, the religious meaning actually comes 2nd. We are born is this world with nothing but faith.

Unlike many other animals who are up on their feet a few hours after being born, it takes humans many years to become self-sufficient. Even without knowing, we are born with the faith that either our parents or society will care for us. There are perhaps more meanings to this word that I could possibly write about here, but I want to focus on this one particular meaning: Faith in mankind.

I confess that in the last 2 years, especially this last month (Feb/Mar 2022), I have lost some of my faith. Wars and an increasing number of corruptible and power angry human beings lead to this innevitably, I think.

Although I am not a member of any church, I consider myself a religious person. Unlike other people, for my religion to survive I feel I cannot rely on faith alone… it must involve some level of science and evidence for me. I am not the kind of person who can base my beliefs in wild profecies, Biblical or otherwise, although I do believe that “…there are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. I do believe there are forces in motion in the Universe that our science may take dozens of centuries, perhaps tens of thousands of years to explain, if we don’t annihilate ourselves first. Our science is just starting to produce a huge network of things in this planet and beyond, so perhaps our universe being, … well, a lot older than us, is in essence a huge network of beings, covering a wide range of planets, realities and dimensions in which living (and “non-living“) humans are just a small part. Where our individual place is in this network is impossible to say, but perhaps many of the things we call “random” or “coincidences” are in fact the works of this network. If we knew ALL the laws that govern the Universe and had a computer powerful enough, we could perhaps even predict it.

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Caro (Carolina) on the left and Meli (Melissa) on the right.

Last weekend I received the visit of two Warmshowers guests (if you don’t know what Warmshowers is, visit this page). They were Meli (Melissa) and Caro (Carolina) from Costa Rica. Meli and Caro are on a 2 years journey that started when they flew from Costa Rica to Madrid 3 months ago and presently found themselves at my house last Friday. Among the many obstacles they already had to overcome was the loss of their passports in Spain (according to them a 5 seconds distraction… thieves were likely after money only, but took the passports instead) and a number of other smaller problems, all to fulfill the dream of learning a bit more of this world and explore it with as little impact to nature as possible, by the power of their legs.

Their bikes were really heavy and Caro, had a serious problem in her bike: Only the front disc brake was operational. So I took them to Trek Bicycles here in Bracknell, a new shop I didn’t even know existed as they opened their doors less than a month ago. I must say that, having a general knowledge of prices and values here in the UK, I thought it would cost Caro an harm and a leg to have the problem resolved, especially from a brand such as Trek. Indeed, Trek wanted to charge her as much as £120 for the repair, but upon learning about their story they waived ALL labour fees out, sold the parts at cost and not only fixed the rear brake by replacing the entire braking system with a brand new Shimano one (except disc), but also replaced the pads on the front brake and topped up the braking fluid. They also did an overal inspection on the bike to make sure it was as safe as it could be in the couple of hours the bike was with them.

In my opinion, when you see this kind of attitude, you must bring it to public knowledge because there is too much business and not enough kindness going on in the world these days. To me, personally, it restored a bit of my faith in mankind, that was so damaged lately. My kudos to all in Trek Bicycles Bracknell for understanding that business without kindness is very likely not the most meaningful part of this network I mentioned above. We cannot eat money nor take it to the grave with us, but who knows… perhaps the relationships we add to our individual network in our life-times is something we can indeed take to the grave and beyond (I guess, for Christians is akin to going to heaven).

After all the most urgent issues had been resolved we had a wonderful evening in which my children cooked a delicious dinner for us and the next day (Sunday) I rode together with Meli and Caro to their next Warmshowers host, in Aldermaston by the river Kennet, some 33 km away (67 km in total for me). It was my 1st long distance ride in the year (yes, I should feel ashamed) and the day was beautiful as you can see in the pictures below. Meli and Caro don’t have a fixed plan. They are now riding to meet a friend in Bristol and then they don’t know yet if they are going to Devon or Wales (most likely north). I wish them a safe and pleasant journey in the UK and then back to the continent for their 2 years adventure.

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Camino Ingles to Santiago, as part of the NCR 4.

Before I close this post, one interesting thing I learned on this ride was about the signs for the Camino Ingles (English Way) to Santiago on National Cycle Route 4 (NCN 4), which in Spain typically starts in Ferrol (or A Coruna). I rode from Bracknell to Bath a few years ago and these signs weren’t there. It makes sense though… I think pilgrims (on a bike or on foot) would go from London to Bristol on NCN 4, then south to Plymouth on routes like NCN 3, 33, 2 and so on. There is a ferry from Plymouth to Santander, which is part of the “Camino del Norte” (Northern Way to Santiago). Maybe centuries ago it was possible to sail from somewhere in the south of England to Ferrol or A Coruna. The website on the link above suggests English templars used to do this route to Santiago from England to ask Saint James for protection on their way to Jerusalem. Anyway, it was very nice to see these stickers as they reminded me of my own “Camino” journeys in 2015 and 2019.

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Bike Rides, Pilgrimage, Portuguese Way, Touring

Portuguese Way: Introduction (Camino de Santiago)

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This post is "natively" only available in English.

Between the 25th of August and the 4th of September 2019 I cycled nearly 660 Km on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago, from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Map of Paulo's Camino Portuguese
Map of Paulo’s Camino Portuguese

I recorded a short vlog about this trip a week before I left. In this video I explained my motivation to do this pilgrimage, so I will not repeat myself and go straight to the point with this introduction.

Upon my return, I’ve asked a few friends that have, and have not, done pilgrimages before, what would they find useful in this introduction and they asked me 7 questions in return.

I have answered all 7 questions in the video below, together with a photo show of the 210 pictures I liked most out of the thousands I took during the journey. I’ve added them to a photo gallery on the bottom of this post, in case you want to see them in a higher resolution.

If you don’t like to read, I essentially talk through these questions in the video, but in the text below I added a little more detail.

The 7 questions I got were: (Click to jump to the answer)

  1. How long did the pilgrimage take? (Time)
  2. How much did you spend? (Expenses, Cost)
  3. Was finding the way easy? (Navigation)
  4. What were the worst experiences you had on the Camino?
  5. What were the best experiences you had on the Camino?
  6. How Safe is the Camino?
  7. Where did you sleep? (accommodation)

Click here to jump to the picture gallery.

    1. How long did the pilgrimage take?
      For me it took 11 days! Started from the Sé Cathedral in Lisbon on Sunday, the 25th of August, around 12 noon and arrived in Santiago on Wednesday, the 4th of September, around 4:00pm.
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    2. How much did you spend?
      I spent €685.42 in the entire journey. That includes all expenses from the moment I arrived at London Heathrow Airport, on my way to Lisbon, to the moment I left Santiago de Compostela. It also includes the fees I had to pay to the airlines (TAP and Iberia) for transporting my bike. As you may not live in London, or in the UK, your journey to Portugal and from Spain may be quite different than mine, so if you only count the pilgrimage days, the total expense was €451.14 and as it took me 11 days to reach Santiago, the average per day was €41.01.
      I’ve created a Google Sheets page containing all my expenses, as well as the telemetry from my Garmin Devices, such as distances travelled, altimetry, average heart rate and so an.
      I believe it is entirely possible to do the Camino spending much less than I did, but perhaps you’ll have to limit yourself to eating only 2 meals a day, cook your own food and just walk and sleep. If you plan to do the Camino with as little as possible, I would recommend that you reserve a minimum of €30 a day for your journey.
      If you are looking to stay at “Donativos” (hostels where you pay just as much as you can) or accommodation under €12 a night you will find it somewhat challenging, especially in Portugal, as the number of beds in such places is small and fills up quite quickly. The cheapest albergue I stayed in these 11 days charged €6 a night. It was in Briallos (ES) and it was a publicly owned “Xunta de Galicia” albergue. Keep in mind there is a price rise expected for all “Xunta” albergues in 2020 (I think they’ll go up to €9 a night). I am not aware of any accommodation under €12 a night in Portugal. The “Casa do Sardão” hostel, was one of the most typical and attractive albergues I stayed in Portugal and it charges pilgrims €12 for a bed (well worth it though).
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    3. Navigation: Was finding the way easy?
      The answer to this question is not a yes or no. In Lisbon there are very few signs pointing the way. I found only 3 and 2 were very faint. Signage improves after Coimbra, but you’ll still find stages where signage is excellent and others where signage is poor. After Porto, signage tends to be very good, however, if you are cycling you have to keep in mind the original Camino is meant for walking, not cycling, so there are signs pointing to ways you cannot (or should not) ride on your bike.
      I am also almost certain there were arrows pointing to disused paths of the way as the Camino appears to have changed over the years. I frequently stopped to ask for directions and some locals said a few times, pointing with their fingers, “it used to go that way, but now it goes this way”. Remember that, generally, walkers go against traffic and cyclists move with traffic. That means if you are cycling, most signs will be on the opposite side to you and they are typically small and not always easy to see. Taking into consideration you have to be aware of the traffic around you, finding a little sign, sometimes 20 – 30 m away, takes a lot of attention and good eyesight. It becomes a game of “find the yellow arrow”. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Considering the number of times I got lost and had to rely on Google Maps or the Map loaded on my Garmin Edge 820, my route was actually pretty close to the “official” route of the Camino, if there is such a thing.
      My recommendation is that you search for the GPX file of the Portuguese Way (I found this one wich became my reference route), download it, open it with Google Earth (or other such software) and study the way. That helped me find the way out of Lisbon with relative ease. I will also post copies of my own route in the blog, but they will contain the mistakes I’ve made. There is a gap of about 10 Km in my GPX route, as having the navigation feature always on in the Garmin caused the device to consume a lot more battery and that caught me by surprise as I was about 10 Km from Azinhaga on the 2nd day of the Camino and the Garmin Edge suddenly “died” (my Garmin Forerunner watch had already died earlier that day). In my usual bike touring rides the battery of the Garmin Edge 820 I use lasts for at least a couple of days, but without the use of the navigation feature.
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    4. What were the worst experiences you had on the Camino?
      There were moments of frustration, no doubt, but I honestly cannot complain. I have not suffered any injury, nor had a mechanical fault that prevented me from continuing, nor was a victim of any “bad intentions” like theft, aggression, etc. I think if any of these things had happened, I would have a good reason to highlight them here.
      With that in mind, some of the lighter frustrations came from…
      – The airlines that damaged my bike in transportation and charged me extra to transport them on top of what I had already paid for luggage;
      – My own mistakes;
      – The amount of urban traffic in some places and
      – The poor signage in others. 

      I also found it difficult to find pilgrim accommodation in some places after 4:00pm and had to resort to staying in more expensive places, but that would only have been a real problem if I could not afford them. Since I gave myself a comfortable budget to do this pilgrimage, this was not an issue for me. I was, however, committed to try to do the Camino as much as possible in a “pilgrim’s honoured” way.
      Some frustration also came from the challenging type of terrain I had to face with a heavy bike and the fact I was somewhat unprepared for that level of difficulty. Again, this is no one’s fault, but my own. The Camino, following the yellow arrows, is very challenging for cyclists. It’s absolutely not meant for touring bikes, so I would recommend you evaluate this well before you leave. If you plan to follow the yellow arrows on a bike, a sturdy mountain bike is highly desirable. Also, from Lisbon to about Coimbra, the Camino is very urban in most parts. Done on busy roads and going through industrial areas. Not exactly the notion of nature’s paradise one would expect.
      This was also one cycling trip in which I got very frustrated with my tech, much of it due to my own fault as well. These include video recording hiccups, which meant I have no footage for a portion of the Camino or when both my Garmin devices ran out of battery as I explained before (“Strava cyclists” will understand the frustration).
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    5. What were the best experiences you had on the Camino?
      Honestly, just doing it! It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. I loved the views of the many places I’ve been through and the people I met with whom I had a chance to have a conversation with, in the hostels I stayed and even if just cycling very slowly alongside them for a few minutes. If any of them is reading this, I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to know you, hear your stories, your reasons for doing the Camino and other experiences you had as pilgrims.
      Some of the best experiences also came from the most challenging ones. The times I looked up a hill and thought I would not be able to climb it up, but then I did. Obviously hills are supposed to be hard to climb, but the reward when you get up there is not just the feeling of accomplishment, but the visual delights of the views. Other worthwhile experiences include things like the sounds and smells of the forests I cycled through or the coastal paths I cycled by.
      And then, there was also the simple culinary delights of a 3 course pilgrims menu, typically for less than €10 in some places, which often included excellent local wines. In Carreço, Portugal, the pilgrim’s menu at Sergio’s included a starter, a main course, desert and a full bottle of white all for €8.50. A pilgrimage is certainly not a dream holiday for many, but then a pilgrimage is often only a holiday in the sense that those who, like me, live busy professional lives, can only do them during their holidays, hence the reason young people on a gap year and retired people seem to be dominant on the Camino.
      People go on pilgrimage for a multitude of reasons, but certainly not to lay down and relax. It is quite demanding physically, even if you are fit and in a good state of health. The paths are more often than not full of sand, gravel, stones, mud and boulders which becomes especially difficult if you are climbing up or even going down steep hills.
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    6. How Safe is the Camino?
      All I can tell you is that I had no issues whatsoever in my Camino. There were moments I left my bike completely unattended with almost everything on it (with the exception of my documents, money and the more expensive electronic equipment). In some of these moments I locked the bike, like when I entered the Sé Cathedral in Lisbon and then at the Paroquia Dos Martires church as I was looking to buy a pilgrim’s credential which I had forgotten back home. In these moments the bike was outside on a very busy central location for at least 30 min and nothing was missing when I came back.
      I also felt safe cycling on the roads, despite the heavy traffic in places. There were a few exceptions in which I thought some drivers drove a bit too close for comfort, but in the vast majority of times the Portuguese and Spanish drivers respected a safe distance. I cannot stress enough though that some roads are really busy and you should always be careful, regardless if walking or cycling the Camino. Walkers will have to walk on roads and hard shoulders in several occasions too.
      Despite all of this, I can’t think of one moment in which I felt like I was in serious risk.
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    7. Where did you sleep? (Accommodation)
      The network of pilgrims’ hostels, or Albergues as they are known, is not as extensive in the Portuguese Way as it is on the French Way (from Saint Jean Pied de Port), yet that doesn’t mean it is not sufficient.
      I used 2 resources to find accommodation:

      1) Gronze.com: Probably one of the best online resources for all Caminos to Santiago. One catch is that the site is only available in Spanish, but you can use Google Translate to automatically (machine) translate the site. The site gives you all stages for all Caminos and a list of accommodations for each stage, which include not only pilgrims’ hostels, but hotels and other types of accommodation as well (camping areas, etc).

      2) A Google Sheet list of (currently) 536 places along the Portuguese Way of the Camino (all variants: Lisbon-Porto, Coastal, Central and Spiritual), created by a user named “Anonymous Goose”.This is a great resource, maintained by volunteers and frequently updated based on information received by pilgrims. The list gives you the phone numbers for all the places, in addition to estimated cost, number of beds, type of accommodation, website (when available) and physical address as well as recommendations. The list is extensive, but I printed it and used it together with the printed Gronze stages (only carried in my handlebar bag the sheets for the stages I was planning to do for that day).

      As far as my own experience goes, the places I stayed are all listed in the Google Sheets page I mentioned in question #2. I can only say that they were all clean, comfortable and functional, some even luxurious for pilgrimage standards. I am not going to say more than that as what you expect for your Camino might be very different from mine, but if you choose to stay in the same places I did, I can recommend all of them to you. Few important things to mention for cyclists, although this wasn’t an issue for me, not all places I stayed had a space to store the bike. I think I was lucky that in the places where that could have been a problem, I was the only cyclist that night, so it was always possible to find a little corner to leave the bike. For example in Coimbra I left the bike at the reception by the exit door of the hotel I stayed. If there were more bikes that night, that would have been a problem as the space was quite tight.Back to Top

So these are the 7 questions I received, but if I missed something you want to know, or if you have other questions or want more detail about my experiences on the Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago (while you wait for the Blog posts to be written and the videos to be published), just get in touch by leaving a comment here or message me through the contact form in the Blog.

Bom Caminho!  Buen Camino!

Picture Gallery.

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Bicycles, Bike Rides, Pilgrimage, Touring, Via Francigena

Via Francigena Day 8/29: From Brienne-le-Château to Arc-en-Barrois, France

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Via Francigena Day 8/29: From Brienne-le-Château to Arc-en-Barrois, France [GPX File]

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"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities", Stephen Covey.

In this post…

  1. Introduction
  2. The statistics and metrics of the day
  3. The most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts
  4. Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 29, from Brienne le Château to Dolancourt
  5. Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 30, from Dolancourt to Bar-sur-Aube.
  6. Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 31, from Bar-sur-Aube to Clairvaux
  7. Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 32, from Clairvaux to Châteauvillain
  8. Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 33 (1/2), from Châteauvillain to Arc-en-Barrois (Mormant)
  9. Pictures of the day.
  10. Pictures of the Guest Book pages in the pilgrims hostel of Brienne le Château.

Introduction

Blog post about the 6th and 7th day published during the journey on the 23rd August 2016
Blog post about the 8th and 9th day published during the journey on the 22 of September 2016

This post complements the post I published on the 22nd of September 2016 in which I described the experiences I had on the 4th of August 2016 while riding between Brienne-le-Château and Arc-en-Barrois, in France. I am not going to repeat the content of that post in this one again, but I will try to add a few highlights for each one of the stages below. I encourage you to read the previous post before continuing on this one.

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Statistics and metrics of the day

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Most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts:

This was another long day in the pilgrimage, despite leaving Brienne-le-Château a bit later than I wanted to. I had opened the house in the morning to let some fresh air in and prepared my breakfast, so prior to leaving I had to make sure everything was the way I found it and then ride back to the tourism information office in town to return the key.

This day was a bit atypical in relation to the entire journey as I did not complete (or finished) a stage of the Lightfoot guide. That stage was stage 33, that according to the guide is between Châteauvillain and Mormant. Reason being when I arrived in Châteauvillain, around 4:30pm, I had to take the decision to stop there or continue to the next village in the guide (Mormant). I knew Mormant was a tiny village and looking at the list of accommodations, I also knew there would not be a lot of options of places to sleep. If I couldn’t find a place to sleep in Mormant, I would either have to wild-camp (not really my cup of tea) or ride another 30 Km to Langres, which would mean I would get there quite late in the evening. So I decided to take the safe route of riding to Arc-en-Barrois and, if upon getting there I couldn’t find or didn’t like any of the places to sleep I would then decide if I wanted to continue or not. I believe it was the right decision.

As I already wrote about the experiences of this day in the post I published on the 22nd of September 2016, I don’t think it would be productive to write the same thing here again. Some of the highlights of that post were the theme park in Dolancourt, the beautiful Clairvaux Abbey, the fact that the stamp for Châteauvillain in my pilgrim’s credentials was obtained from a news agent in town (the only business I could find open), the ride to  Arc-en-Barrois through a beautiful forest and the arrival there (getting lost and riding 6 Km more than needed again) as well as setting up my tent, which is all captured in the videos below too.

So, before continuing on this post, I invite you to take a look at the post mentioned above  (opens in a new tab) and come back to this post when done.

Oh, before I end this section of the post, when I arrived in Arc-en-Barrois, thankfully the Tourism Information Office was still open (which is quite unusual in France, considering it was a Saturday) and I was able to get my pilgrim’s credential stamped there. Right across the road from the office there is a very cosy hotel called Hotel du Parc, which I decided not to stay, as the rate there was above €60 for the night (against the €3 I was told I would have to pay in the camping site), but I end up going back for dinner that night as I could not find anything else open and I was starving. The meal and the beer were fantastic and the price was reasonable (€23).

Just as an unrelated footnote on this section, I have already published all the photos of this day’s ride in a Flickr album (link in the post mentioned above), but the pictures in that album are in a lower resolution because the computer I had with me during the pilgrimage struggled to process the watermark and get them uploaded. At the time I thought I would just upload them again when I came back in full resolution, but Flickr is no longer free now, so I have created an album in the EyeCycled Facebook page with the pictures (Facebook pictures and not high res either, but it is still free)  and that is the picture gallery you will find down below.

You will also find below the pictures for every page in the Visitors’ book of the Pilgrims Hostel in Brienne-le-Château. I enjoyed reading the messages previous pilgrims left in the books and I thought so would you.

I hope you enjoy the videos and the photos.

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Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 29, from Brienne le Château to Dolancourt

Video Length: 3 min 50 sec

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Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 30, from Dolancourt to Bar-sur-Aube.

Video Length: 3 min 59 sec

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Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 31, from Bar-sur-Aube to Clairvaux

Video Length: 3 min 20 sec

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Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 32, from Clairvaux to Châteauvillain

Video Length: 4 min 20 sec

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Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 33 (1/2), from Châteauvillain to Arc-en-Barrois (Mormant)

Video Length: 5 min 49 sec

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Pictures of the day.

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Pictures of the Guest Book pages in the pilgrims hostel of Brienne le Château

If you did the Via Francigena and been to this hostel, will you find your note in them? (August 2016)

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Bike Rides, Brazil Rides, Faith's Way, Pilgrimage

Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 4: From Casa Branca to Vargem Grande do Sul (D. Cidinha)

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Caminho da Fé - Faith's Way: From Casa Branca to D. Cidinha's Hostel via Vargem Grande do Sul [GPX File]

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In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. Stage 07: From  Casa Branca to Itobi + Video
    4. Stage 08 (+ 1/2 of 9): From Itobi to Vargem Grande do Sul (Dona Cidinha’s Hostel) + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 4th day of this 12 day / 600 Km journey between the town of Casa Branca and the rural hostel of Dona Cidinha (Dona translates to Mrs. in Portuguese, hence Mrs. Cidinha) via the town of Vargem Grande do Sul, all in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, based on the experience I had when creating videos for the Camino de Santiago in 2015, when I started this series my intention was to divide the distance between the major towns or urban centres as separate stages, otherwise the videos would become too long to watch. It turns out, however, that many pilgrims prefer to overnight away from urban areas in one of the many rural hostels along the caminho.

So, if I was to follow this rule, stage 7 would be between Casa Branca and Itobi, stage 8 between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul and stage 9 between Vargem Grande do Sul and the village of São Roque da Fartura, however as I stopped in Dona Cidinha’s hostel that night, half of stage 9 is covered here and the other half will be covered in the next post.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

    • Distance traveled from Casa Branca to Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel : 59.73 Km
    • Total duration of this journey: 7h 6min
    • Total moving time: 4h 39m
    • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
      • Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel (they do not speak English), +55 19 9 81700069
    • Total expenses on this day: R$ 99.00
      • Food: R$ 29.00 (Burger in Itobi)
      • Accommodation: R$ 70.00 (Includes Dinner and Breakfast)
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 880m
  • Average Speed: 8.0 Km/h
  • Average Moving Speed: 12.2 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 61.6 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 124 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 160 bpm
  • Calories burned: 2,556 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
CF04, Garmin Stats
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Casa Branca and Dona Cidinha’s Rural Hostel on the day 4 of my Pilgrimage.

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Stage 07: From  Casa Branca to Itobi + Video.

Pilgrims who want to experience the “true” pilgrimage experience (if there is such a thing) have to accept that pilgrims’ hostel are often a difficult place to sleep. Some people have trouble sharing a room with just one person more, imagine several. As described in the previous post, The pilgrim’s hostel  of the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca has 2 large bedrooms. The one I stayed in has a little common area with a sofa, a TV and a dinning table and the room itself with 3 beds and a bathroom / toilet, which is a bit of a luxury. I don’t mind sharing, but there is nothing like having a room just for oneself. No worries about noises from people snoring (one’s one or others) and those that have to go the the toilet in the middle of the night. As I was fortunate to be the only one in the room that night, I slept very well. Bed was comfy and the temperature was perfect.

The next morning breakfast was served in the hall and was very simple. Consisted of bread, butter, different types of jam and some fruit. Coffee and milk were also available. This was the moment I stamped my pilgrim’s credentials and also signed the guest book (they leave the stamp and the book on the breakfast table). I did not meet the pilgrim ladies from the day before, but I met Andrea, who was setting up the breakfast table.

After breakfast I packed the bike and left, making the mistake of taking the room key with me. I had put the key in the back pocket of my shirt to return it to Andrea in the breakfast room, but in the hurry to leave (as it was already a bit late by that time), I forgot to do it.

I rode to the town centre of Casa Branca and visited the cathedral. The cathedral is quite impressive for the size of the town. I spend quite some time there taking pictures and appreciating the paintings in the walls and ceiling. It was at that moment I realised I still had the room key with me, so I phoned Andrea at the hostel who told me to leave it at the cathedral and someone would pick it up later. It was a relief not having to cycle back the distance from the cathedral to the hostel.

The GPS data tracked by my Garmin shows that I rode 15.61 Km between Casa Branca and Itobi, which is consistent with the distance shown in the official map of the Caminho. I did this in 1h 59m by bike, but this includes the stop at the cathedral.

I’m not going to describe the journey to Itobi as you can watch it on the video above, but as highlights I can mentioned the small forest fire that the town’s public service was putting off on the outskirts of Casa Branca and the fact that when I arrived in Itobi, I followed the yellow arrows that led me away from town. Although the same thing happened in Cravinhos on the 1st day of the pilgrimage I was still under the impression that the arrows would always take you first to the town centre or to the nearest pilgrim accommodation, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I rode about 3.5 Km and then turned back to the town centre, a 7 Km waste of time and effort, but that is part of a pilgrimage. At least I had the opportunity to have a really nice burger in Itobi after stamping my pilgrim’s credentials at the Ypê Hotel, the only credentialed pilgrims’ accommodation in the accommodation list of the friends of the caminho association.

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Stage 08 (+ 1/2 of 9): From Itobi to Vargem Grande do Sul (Dona Cidinha’s Hostel) + Video

OK, as explained in the above introduction, the next stage should cover only the distance between the towns of Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul, however, as I arrived at the Prince Hotel (Hotel Principe) in Vargem Grande do Sul, it was still early in the day for me, so I decided to cycle the further 15 Km to Mrs Cidinha’s hostel, which I had heard good things about before leaving to do the caminho. This is the reason why this video is a little longer than usual and why stage 9 will be broken in two. So let’s call this the stage 8 plus 1/2 of stage 9, shall we? The next half of stage 9 between the rural hostel of Dona Cidinha and the village of São Roque da Fartura, will be covered in the next post.

If you are just covering the distance between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul (stage 8), the Prince Hotel is one of the credentialed places for pilgrim accommodation in town. The hotel is practically inside the grounds of a petrol station, so it might be a little difficult to find. They will also stamp your pilgrim credentials and offer you a pilgrim rate if you decide to stay there.

The GPS data tracked by my Garmin shows that I rode 18 Km between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul, which for some reason is 3 Km more than indicated in the official map of the Caminho. After Vargem Grande do Sul I also rode a further 15.37 Km to the rural hostel I slept that night. It took me 1h 31m to cover this distance and a further 2h 36m to cover the distance between Vargem Grande do Sul and Mrs Cidinha’s rural hostel.

The journey between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul was largely uneventful, with exception to the fact that as I arrived in Vargem Grande the battery of my GoPRO ran out, hence the reason why there is a tiny portion of urban cycling missing from the footage, but nothing that matters. For walking pilgrims, please beware that about 13 Km of this route is along side the Father Gino Righetti road, which is paved and has moderate traffic. I did follow the yellow arrows, but unless I missed one, the distance tracked by my Garmin was 18 Km, which for some reason is 3 Km more than the distance shown in the official map of the caminho.

After stamping my pilgrim’s credential at the hotel, I rode into the town centre and did a quick stop for a picture at the town’s main church and continued the journey. As in any activity, distraction comes at a price. I somehow missed a pair of yellow signs painted at the lamp post indicating a right turn at the next crossing and that has also costed me an extra 2 Km of cycling. Thankfully I realised I was wrong early enough. After I watched the footage I came to the conclusion that the signs where indeed a little hard to see, so I have pointed them up at the video to avoid any other pilgrims making the same mistake.

In the outskirts of town there is a crossing over a dangerous highway. The arrows appear to invite the pilgrim to jump over the concrete barrier in the middle of the road, but please do NOT do that. Turn left towards the round-about at the bottom of the road (just about 250 m away) and use the round-about to cross to the other side. As I write this post a few years after being there, I am reliably informed that the route has changed slightly and that the yellow arrows now guide the pilgrims directly to the round about, but decided to leave this warning just in case.

The journey to Dona Cidinha’s hostel was the toughest part of the day. The small sand and dust filled dirt roads (at times), had hills that forced me to push my bike several times. That should explain the reason why I covered the 18 Km between Itobi and Vargem Grande do Sul in 1h 31m, but the 15.37 Km from Vargem Grande do Sul to Dona Cidinha’s rural hostel in 2h 36m.

I arrived at the rural hostel as the sun was setting on the horizon, which was a really nice way to end the day. The hostel is in a hill and the views from there are great. Dona Cidinha and Mr Francisco were already expecting me as I had phoned ahead. Again I was fortunate (?) to be the only pilgrim in the hostel that night, so I had the entire house for me (the hostel is a in separate building from the house of the hosts). Mr Francisco brought the home made dinner for me that night and it was delicious. They are a very nice and gentle couple and I truly recommend that you stayed with them if you don’t mind the fact the the hostel is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and that there is no WiFi there (4G signal was OK though). The hostel is large and in its 4 bedrooms and living room it can accommodate about 20 pilgrims at once. They have a large bathroom / toilet inside the house and a small toilet in the outside barbecue place, where there are also several tables and chairs. The bedroom I stayed had a double and a single bed. The other rooms have a mix of bunk beds and single beds. The living room has a sofa and a TV and also contains a single bed and a bunk bed. The hostel has also a large and fully equipped kitchen with a long table, a fridge, a freezer and a microwave oven.

The guest book contains a few notes in Spanish and English indicating that, despite its remoteness, people from several nationalities visited there. The walls of the hostel are covered with pictures and post cards sent by previous visitors and you can really spend hours looking at all of them if you want.

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Pictures taken on this day.

Click on any picture for full detail

The following pictures are photos taken from the Guest Book pages of the pilgrims’ hostel at the Catholic Church of our lady of the exile in Casa Branca, São Paulo, Brazil.

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also. Thank you all for your time and “Bom Caminho!”.

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

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Short rides, Touring

EyeCycled to work on a cold December morning

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Bicycles Christmas TreeAs this post comes just two weeks from Christmas, I think it is appropriate to start by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2019! I wish you a happy, prosperous, healthy and very happy new year with a lot of cycling activities, be them for pleasure, commute, travel or sport.

Since about September I’ve been cycling regularly to work. September and October I’ve managed to cycle to work and back in average 3 times a week, but as this is the UK and the weather is not one of the best points here, that has gone down to mostly 1 time in the week, occasionally two.

The distance from my door step to the office is of just under 17 Km (just over 10 miles) and it usually takes me just under an hour to get there. I then, obviously, have to cycle back in the evening, so each time I do it, it adds about 33 Km to my Garmin / Strava mileage and, best of all, lets me eat about 5 equivalent Big Mac burgers that day (not that I eat that much or that I eat McDonalds at all, but it should give you an idea – about 1,600 C calories against 300 C for a Big Mac apparently).

Some friends and colleagues have asked me about the ride, so in the cold, but beautiful morning of the 4th of December I decided to mount my Sony Action Cam on my helmet and record the ride.

Hope you enjoyed the video and the music.

I am very grateful to everyone who I shared my life with this year and for all the love, care and learning experiences we were able to exchange. God bless you all!

Thank you!

The Little Things by Loveshadow

Now the Summer’s gone
And December’s here
And you’re looking back 
At all the things you’ve done this year
And it’s cold outside
‘Say it’s going to snow
So be thankful that you’ve somewhere warm to go

Cause when you stop to count your blessings
It’s The Little Things
Oh the simple things that money just can’t buy
There’s always someone who would be grateful for 
The Little Things 
Oh the things we take for granted in our lives

Free to feel the sun 
Warm upon your face 
Just to walk outside
Knowing you’re still safe
Food enough to eat 
Water clean and a bed
Four walls around you 
And a roof overhead

Just a warm embrace and a smiling face, just a place to be with enough to eat, to be free from pain sheltered from the rain , just The little things.
To be given care, with enough to share, just hear you say you’re not far away.
Free to walk or run watch the rising sun, It’s The little things.

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give).
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Folding bikes, Short rides

EyeCycled not gone! Sunny Sunday ride...

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IMG_20181118_121220I can’t blame you if you think EyeCycled is gone for good. I have not posted anything in ages 🙁

This is NOT an excuse… I don’t need to find excuses, I admit I have neglected EyeCycled. My justification is simply that I can’t find it in myself right now to spend the time EyeCycled demands to keep it going .

Relive ‘Twickenham, Teddington, Bushy Park, Hampton Court, Kingston’

I continue to cycle and the bicycle is still one of the most important things in my life. At least 3 times a week I cycle to work and back (that is 20 miles / 33 Km each day) and once a week I drive 90% of the way and cycle the remaining 10% with my newly acquired Dahon folding bike. The problem is when I get home, especially on the days I ride 10 miles back, it is so late and I am so full of having spent all day in front of a computer screen that I simply cannot find in myself to spend and entire evening editing videos and writing blog posts. As I said, this is not an excuse, but I am just living this moment of my life right now.

I still have plans for EyeCycled and I do work occasionally on EyeCycled stuff. I am still working on videos from my Faith’s Way IMG_20181118_140330(Caminho da Fé) pilgrimage in Brazil last years and started a post on a bike ride I did in Little London (Londrina, Brazil) last year also. It is not that I completely stopped doing something. I am just doing it very slowly (very!).

IMG_20181118_143036Today was a special day and I want to share it with you, so you know I am not lying.  I rode with my youngest son and his Godfather from Twickenham to Teddington, where we met the rest of the family for brunch at a Polish Café and after that we rode to Bushy Park to see the deer and to Hampton Court Palace for a few pictures of this landmark and from the Thames. From there we rode to Kingston Upon Thames, did a little coffee / hot choc stop at the YMCA Hawker by the river and then back to where we started through the Teddington Locks. Those familiar with London will know or have heard of these places.

IMG_20181118_144220At almost 18 Km, it was my youngest son biggest bike and despite the fact he took a tumble at the Thames path (nothing serious, just distraction) he said he really enjoyed the ride. I am so proud of him…

IMG_20181118_161139Anyway, this is where this short post stops. I’ll leave you with the pictures and a few videos I recorded along the way and please, be patient with me. EyeCycled is not dead! 🙂

Thank you for your support!

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Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give).
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Short rides, Touring

Royal Wedding Ride to Windsor Castle

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Bracknell Town Centre (The Lexicon) to Windsor Castle, via Ascot [GPX File]

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In two days (19th May) the UK is going to celebrate the Royal Wedding of Prince Henry of Wales (or Harry, as he is more popularly known); Princess Diana’s second Son. He is marrying actress Rachel Meghan Markle at the St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle where the Queen and Prince Philip live for most of the year. I will not get into any details about their wedding as the media has been and will be covering the event extensively and in every minute detail. On the days prior to and on the wedding day, I expect the town of Windsor will be completely taken by government officials, security personal, diplomats, rich people, not so rich, but curious people and tourists, so for me in particular Windsor is a “no go” destination in the period.

Thankfully, the 7th of May was a bank holiday in the UK and it was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the skies were clear and the temperature was ideal for a bike ride. So, as I mentioned the royal wedding at the end of the video, I decided to call this ride the “Royal Wedding Ride to Windsor Castle” and I took the opportunity to start it from Bracknell’s, new town centre, called “The Lexicon“, so I could show it to you all as well (the old town centre was demolished a few years ago to give way to the construction of The Lexicon, an investment estimated at approx. £750 million).

Windsor is a regular cycling destination for me. If you look through the blog you’ll see I have recorded several rides to Windsor over the last 3 years. Actually, let me do this job for you…

On the 19th of July 2015 I published a post containing a 9 min 37 sec time-lapse video starting from Bracknell’s train station, but using a different route which takes me by the entrance of the Legoland Park in Windsor and then through some private roads of a farm which I suspect belongs to the crown.

On the 20th of September 2015 I published a post containing a 1h long video in “normal mode” of my ride from my home in Bracknell to Windsor Castle. On this post I also published a 10 min video of my walking around the centre of Windsor starting from Windsor Castle where the video above stopped.

On the 18th October 2015 I again posted another post of a mid-autumn bike ride to Windsor containing the video of the ride from Bracknell to Windsor and the way back from Windsor to Bracknell . The first video is only 2 min and 31 sec long as it was a 5 second interval time-lapse recording. I did use the same route and rode from home to the old Bracknell Town Centre, but on my way back to Bracknell, I used the same Legoland Park route as on the post of the 19th of July one.

On the 8th of February 2016 I published a post containing 2 videos: An 8 min and 37 sec time-lapse video from Bracknell’s South Hill Park, using pretty much the same route as the one I used in this post, and also a video of the way back to Bracknell , using the same Legoland Park route as on the way back of the above post.

These post show only the rides to Windsor that I recorded. The distance between my home to Windsor is, for me, the perfect training length and I have often also used Windsor as a destination to do “full load” test rides in advance of long touring trips such as the one I did to Rome in 2016.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also.

Thank you for your time!

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

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Short rides

Adventures close to home

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  1. Introduction
  2. 19th of April 2018: The Devil’s Highway + Video
  3. 26th of April 2018: Bracknell’s “mystery” tunnel + Video
  4. Pictures of these rides.

 Introduction

I haven’t posted about anything other than my cycling pilgrimages for a while and I must confess I got a bit bored of writing only about them, but if you’re looking forward to seeing more of them, don’t worry, they will continue.

Of the 29 days I spent cycling from Canterbury to Rome in 2016 I’m still working on the 7th day and of the 12 days I cycled from the town of Sertãozinho to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil in 2017 I am still working on the 3rd day, so I am fully aware I’ve got a lot of work to do.

This week, however, I wanted to share something different with you.

… Something simple…
… Something every one can do, regardless of age and physical fitness…
… something “homie”…

Few weeks ago, my friend Richard, who is the father of one of my son’s school colleagues, met me at their school and we started talking about my time in Brazil last year and my cycling in general. He said he had been wanting to take up cycling again, something he had always enjoyed, but with the burdens of modern life sometimes gets neglected. Does this sound familiar?

So, we’ve been riding together once a week for a few weeks now and I truly enjoy his company.

There are many things that motivate people to start cycling. For some is the feeling of freedom, being on your bike, not depending of any external engine or fuel other than strength of your legs and enjoying the wind in your face and so on.

For others is the (desire or need of) physical exercise or some time to relax. No one can deny the benefits of cycling for the well being of a person, physical and mental.

One other thing, however, that motivates people, me in particular, is the ability a bicycle has to reach practically any place a person on foot would and to do that faster than walking, hence cover more ground.

You can travel by bike for days, cover great distances and explore fantastic places along the way. With the appropriate bike you can take that very uneven and narrow path full of gravel, stones and sand of MTB trails or ride among the pine trees of a forest, get muddy, go up or down hill and find nature at it’s best, untouched and clean, keeping it as such.

But who said such places cannot be found all around you? Have you explored every inch of a radius of 20 miles / 30 Km around you?

I’ve been cycling regularly in Bracknell, the town I live, since 2012 (and “unregularly” well before that). Bracknell is not a big town, but is not a village either. The Bracknell Forest area covers a region of 109.4 km², so there is plenty to explore. I’ve moved to Bracknell in 1995 and although I’ve spent a few years away, working on jobs abroad, my time in Bracknell is getting close to 16 years now, altogether.

Richard has lived in Bracknell for 23 years, so together we have almost 40 years of Bracknell Forest experiences. One would expect we would know every corner of this place by now. Yet, every time we go out we find something new, some place neither one of us has ever been before.

I am willing to bet, this isn’t unique to us. I bet wherever you (the person reading this post), live you will also find places nearby you’ve never been before. It’s been said that the place we least know is the place we live in. Some of us will have probably explored more while on holidays than in the places we live in.

May I suggest you add a little bit of spice in your everyday life, get on your bike and go looking for places nearby you’ve never been to? That street you’ve never been to before, just a few blocks away, might have houses with an interesting design or architecture or gardens full of flowers that are visible from the road. Maybe there is a little river, stream or creek nearby with clean water and perhaps even fishes or toads in it. Or perhaps the local forests or parks have wild life you’ve never expected, or a lake or tracks that lead to wonderland. You’ll never know how deep the rabbit hole goes if you don’t take the initiative and peek inside.

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19th of April 2018: The Devil’s Highway

When I get out on my bike I normally leave home with a general idea of the direction I want to go. I try to cover the 4 cardinal directions (North, East, South and West) on a rotatory basis. On this ride I wanted to go south. My initial idea was to ride to Crowthorne and then perhaps go in the direction of Finchasmtead, but as we started our ride, Richard told me he had never heard of the Devil’s Highway.

Devil’s Highway, huh? Did that spark your attention? Well, it should! The richest feature of a web page is the ability to link to other pages, so I will not go into much detail, since I’ll be leaving the links for you to jump to the information, if interested.

According to the writer Gregory Norminton, “The name is rooted in superstition: for in the Dark Ages, it must have seemed that only the devil could build anything so straight and strong.”

The Devil’s Highway is actually the remnants of an old Roman road connecting Londinium (London) to Pontes (Staines) and then Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester).

G0141300So, in this ride Richard got to know a bit of the history of the Devil’s Highway, but to my surprise we also found a place in Sandhurst I had never been before. I was trying to reach the gate to the Wildmoor Heath Boardwalk, as this was another place Richard didn’t know about. I had been there only once before and got a bit lost trying to find the gate. In the process of getting lost we rode through the Snaptrails park, “an attractive 3.5 hectare Green Flag awarded park located to the west of Owlsmoor in Sandhurst“, according the the official Bracknell Forest County page and I must agree. We would have never found this park if we weren’t lost and on bikes.

We managed to find the Wildmoor Heath Boardwalk as well, just took a little longer and on our way back home we rewarded ourselves a pint at “The Prince”, a local pub in Crowthorne .

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26th of April 2016: Bracknell’s “Mystery” Tunnel

The Facebook post that triggered my curiosity
The Facebook post that triggered my curiosity

I am a member of a local Facebook group called “We Love Bracknell“. Bracknell residents post all sorts of things in this group and on the 23rd of April someone posted a picture of a “tunnel” or an underpass that apparently not a lot of people knew existed, including myself. To me that is too tempting of a challenge and I made myself a mental note that on my next ride, which was 3 days later, I would try to find this tunnel.

According to some comments left by the poster, he seemed to think this tunnel was build as a way to enable local farmers to move livestock (cattle, horses, etc) from one side of the A329M motorway to the other. Whether that is true or not it is hard to say, but it does certainly make sense for an otherwise forgotten structure that links no place to nothing.

I looked in Google Maps and the images suggested it was possible to reach the tunnel from the fields behind the Coppid Beech Hotel. That wasn’t easy and I don’t recommend to anyone attempting to find this structure from this side. There are point of very narrow tracks covered by thorny branches from both sides, which can easily rip your skin off if you are not careful and made it impossible for us to continue on our bikes. We had to abandon the bikes and tried to find it on foot. We managed to get to just approx. 100m from the tunnel’s entrance on top of the A329M’s railway bridge, but when we looked further in that direction we both thought the path would lead to the Jennett’s Park round-about as the tunnel’s entrance wasn’t visible due to vegetation covering it.

Not knowing we were so close, we gave up and tried to reach the tunnel through the small roads and lanes behind HP’s headquarters (Moor Ln). We’ve spoken to a number of people along the way and their response about the existence of this tunnel was 50/50. A couple we spoke to confirmed the tunnel existed, but that the access to it was very difficult, as we found out. Another gentleman working at a car repair shop also confirmed the tunnel, yet his mate working besides him had never heard of it. Further down the road we hit a locked gate. I asked another gentleman that was nearby and he said he had lived for 30 years in that location and had never heard of such tunnel.

Well, I knew it existed because of the picture in Facebook and the challenge started to become even more tempting under such conditions. It feels like a gold race.

IMG_20180426_173730Due to the locked gate, we gave up trying to reach the tunnel from that side and took the railway overpass behind the Dell building towards Jennett’s Park. There is a gate to Peacock Meadows at the point were Peacock Lane becomes narrower (at the last round about to Jennett’s Park) and that gate leads to the field at the end of which you’ll find the tunnel, near the power distribution tower. You can only see the tunnel when you get close to the tower as it is covered in vegetation on this side as well.

At the end of the day the tunnel wasn’t so exciting after all, but as Mr Spock of Star Trek once said “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but is often true“. The search for the tunnel was in itself the reward. Not surprisingly, before looking for the tunnel the tunnel we rode around Bracknell just to increase the mileage of our ride and we decided to take a shared pedestrian / bicycle path from Harvest Ride called Quelm Lane, which I had ridden on a few times before, but Richard didn’t. What I didn’t know was that along this path there is a park called Braybrooke Recreation Ground with a calming lake. The park’s football field is visible from the path at one point, but the lake isn’t. When Richard asked what else was in that park we decided to investigate and it was well worth it.

After finding the tunnel we decided to head home through Jennett’s Park, but there was one last thing to show Richard. The Copse in the middle of the Peacock Meadows field in Jennett’s Park. I had been there many times before, but at different moments of the year. I was surprised by the sheer beauty of the carpet of bluebells in this small forest of the field. Not only visually appealing, but a wonderful smell as well… Truly a feast for the senses.

We both rode back home we an immense sense of satisfaction

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Pictures of these rides.

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also. Thank you for your time!

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

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Brazil Rides, Pilgrimage, Touring

Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 02: From Cravinhos to Santa Rosa de Viterbo

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Caminho da Fé / Faith's Way: From Cravinhos do Santa Rosa de Viterbo [GPX file]

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In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. Stage 03: From  Cravinhos to São Simão + Video
    4. Stage 04: From São Simão to Santa Rosa de Viterbo + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 2nd day of this 12 day, 600 Km, journey between the town of Cravinhos and the town of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, both in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, I broke the entire journey into 21 stages, as per the official map of the Caminho. There will be 1 video for each stage of the journey, so the blog post for this day contains two videos. One covering the journey between Cravinhos and São Simão and the other between São Simão and Santa Rosa de Viterbo.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

  • Distance traveled from Cravinhos to Santa Rosa de Viterbo: 59.02 Km
  • Total duration of this journey: 6h 40m
  • Total moving time: 4h 57m
  • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
  • Total expenses on this day: R$ 92.50
    • Food: R$ 17.50 (dinner at a local restaurant)
    • Accommodation: R$ 75.00 (Breakfast incl)
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 658m
  • Average Speed: 8.9 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 45.2 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 132 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 158 bpm
  • Calories burned: 2,815 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Cravinhos and Santa Rosa de Viterbo
Elevation, Speed and Heart Rate between Cravinhos and Santa Rosa de Viterbo (Click to open full screen).

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Stage 03: From  Cravinhos to São Simão + Video.

A good night of sleep was all it took to recover from the exposure to sun, the dust and sand and the mistakes of the previous day. The breakfast table at the hotel had plenty of the most important things to sustain me for the entire day (among others ham, cheese, scrambled eggs, variety of jam and bread, fruit and cereal).

I had washed the clothes of the day before in the bathroom and they were all dry. The hotel has a backyard where I was able to also wash the bike with a hose and add some oil to the chain. Pilgrims in a hurry to get to their destination, perhaps would have to wake up very early in the morning to accomplish all these tasks before leaving, but fortunately that was not my case. I woke up around 8:00 am and only left the hotel at around 10:30am.

After leaving the hotel the challenge was to get back on track and I did not see any yellow arrows pointing the direction from the hotel. The plan was to ride back to town and continue from the point I had made my mistake the day before, but well before the town centre I rode by the other hotel in the official list of accommodations, the Girassol Hotel, right before the petrol station I stopped to ask for directions.

I never cease to be impressed by how easy it is to make friends in Brazil. At the petrol station I met fellow pilgrim João Candosim who pointed me to the yellow arrow some 100m after the petrol station and later became a Facebook friend.

If you watch the video of the prior stage and the one for this stage, you’ll see that from a certain point the images should become familiar as I followed the same route all the way to the “Frango Assado” petrol station at the edge of the Anhangüera Motorway (SP-330).

A note of advice, especially for pilgrims on bicycles, is to be aware of the stray dogs as you leave town. They all came running to me barking a lot, but I believe none of them had the intention of attacking me. They were just letting me know that this was their territory. I dismounted the bike and looked at them without fear and they soon calmed down.

I did a quick pit-stop to get some cold water at the same petrol station I asked for direction the day before and met a couple of “bicigrinos” (bicycle pilgrims) like me who were also planning to ride to Aparecida from that point. They had left from Ribeirão Preto that morning and were riding on the motorway (which in Brazil is allowed) despite being on full suspension mountain bikes, which would be ideal for the dirt tracks of the Caminho. There is no right or wrong. Each person’s pilgrimage is their own.

After the petrol station I continued on the dirt track and few kilometres later I got the a place with a small statue of our lady. Was a nice and well preserved place, ideal for some rest, water and a little prayer. I also replaced the gimbal batteries and to my bad luck forgot the spare batteries there. They were later found by fellow pilgrims, but sending them back to me was not economically viable.

I was replacing the gimbal batteries after each 90 min of use, which was enough time for the batteries to charge inside my handlebar bag were I was carrying a big 25,000 mAh power bank. Having lost the spare batteries meant that for the rest of the journey I would have to stop using the gimbal, while the only remaining batteries were charging (charge times varied from between 45 min to 1h). I continued recording the journey with the GoPro without the gimbal while the batteries were charging, but this meant a huge increase in the shakiness of the images, which you’ll probably notice in the video.

A good portion of this dirt track was along the motorway and there were some interesting views along the way, including the view of burned fields which are unfortunately common this time of the year due to high temperatures, lack of rain and other less natural reasons.

Up to the point where I crossed under the motorway there were significant less sand and dust than the day before (firmer ground), but after that point the tracks become very sandy and dusty again, to the point that, if you are on a bike, you’ll probably have to dismount and push quite often. In this stage you’ll have to ride or walk on a state highway (SP-253) for a few kilometres before continuing on a dirt track along the paved road. I felt safe on that road as it has a nicely flat and wide hard shoulder to ride on and most drivers were opening a distance between me and their cars as they crossed.

Just before arriving in São Simão you’ll have to cross railway tracks and I waited so long taking pictures that by the time I was ready to cross them I had to with for the incoming cargo train to pass, which took several minutes as it was a very long train.

The town of São Simão is small and the yellow arrows were close to each other, practically eliminating the possibility of getting lost. Before arriving at the São Simão Hotel, the one option for accommodation on the official guide and the place where you can get your pilgrim’s credential stamped, I stopped to talk to a couple of gents that were washing some cars and asked if I could throw some water on the bike to get rid of the dust. They asked me where I was coming from and where I was going to. They had heard of the Caminho da Fé, but neither one of them knew that the yellow arrows were in their town were there to guide the pilgrims to Aparecida do Norte. Now they know 🙂

The São Simão Hotel was a welcoming place. Got my pilgrim’s credentials stamped and filled my water bottles with cold water. They also offered me some fruit, but I declined.

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Stage 04: From São Simão to Santa Rosa de Viterbo + Video

As I left the São Simão Hotel I did a small detour to visit the grandmother of a fellow pilgrim who I got to know through the Facebook group of the Friends of the Caminho Association. Once I explained who I was and why I was there, Mrs Vera Burin and her daughter Angelica welcomed me, a stranger, almost as if I was a member of the family. This is one of the most amazing aspect of the Brazilian culture. The ability to trust and welcome strangers. A bit like how the Irish view them, “a stranger is just a friend that you’ve never met before“. The difference between Brazil and Ireland, however, are the obvious dangers due to the high level of criminality, mainly in big cities. Yet, people still trust and help each other. I like to leave my sincere “thank you” not only to Mrs Ver and her daughter Angelica, but also to her grandson, André who told me about them and asked me to go say “Hi”. Unfortunately I was a bit of in a hurry at the time and had to decline their invitation for coffee, but it was wonderful to have met them.

As a pilgrim, however, I’ve been the receiver of other people’s generosity in other occasions too and every time this has happened it strengthen my belief that most people in the world are good and that the good in the world by far outweigh the bad. Perhaps it is because there is so much good that we have difficulty in eliminating the bad in our societies.

As the batteries of the gimbal were still charging in the handlebar bag I decided to place the camera in the waterproof casing and mount it on the handlebar. That increased the level of shakiness a lot, so in later recordings, when the use of the gimbal was not possible I started to mount the camera on the helmet as I believed the shaking would not bad as bad on my head as it was on the handlebar. The difference was not significant though. I also tried to use the gimbal more on rougher surfaces, so when I was riding on paved roads I’ve often stopped using the gimbal and put the batteries to charge instead.

Leaving the town of São Simão you will walk or ride for about 3 Km on the SP-253 highway. The hard shoulder on this road wasn’t as wide as before São Simão, but the drivers appeared to be respecting a healthy distance between them and my bike. Care is however advised.

After about 3 Km on the SP-253 you turn left crossing over the road to get back to dirt roads again and a considerable amount of sand and dust. By that time the gimbal batteries were fully charged and I was able to mount the camera on the chest mount again.

P1090289At some points the dirt road becomes quite narrow and some of these roads had a much higher level of traffic than the previous dirt roads I had to ride on. As cars and trucks passed me they lifted a lot of fine dust which made breathing harder than usual due to my asthma. A lot of coughing at some points on this road (some highlighted on the video). Also pushing the bike was necessary in quite a few portions of this track as the sand was simply too deep to even attempt to ride (no traction at all). In spite of this, there were also some beautiful portions of this track among pine trees and forest which offered some shade and helped protect from the sun a little.

As you approach Santa Rosa de Viterbo you’ll re-join the SP-253 again, which makes it worth noting that for those who don’t want to follow the “official” Caminho way, the journey will be a lot shorter and quicker if you stick to the road. It may be also more dangerous to cycle or walk on the road though, so that will be a decision you’ll often will have to make if you want to comfort of paved roads against the challenges of cycling off-road. As you arrive in the outskirts of Santa Rosa de Viterbo you’ll be happy to know that there is a 1.5 km segregated bike lane alongside the road right into the town which makes cycling a lot safer.

The Malim Hotel is the only place listed in the official accommodation guide. The guide indicates there are two options of accommodation in the hotel: A R$ 60.00 option and a R$ 85.00 option, but I believe the guide was a bit out-of-date, perhaps due to inflation or price rises. It is always a good option to call ahead and ask what the going rate is if you want to avoid any surprises. I paid R$ 75.00 for a small room with a private bathroom, but no air-con or TV. Fancier rooms will cost you about R$ 90.00.

Finding the hotel is easy. You just have to stick to the main street and the hotel will be on the left hand side.

The hotel has a bike rack on the back which is protected, but you need to be able to lock the bike in place as staff will not be looking out for your bike. It felt like a safe place to me, but I locked the bike and removed anything of value from it anyway. On the back there is also a hose and a place for you to wash your bike, if you need to.

After a good shower and some rest I left the hotel on foot and walked for about 10 min to a restaurant called Issagawa Neto & Cia that was recommended by the hotel’s reception. There weren’t many open places to eat at that time and the town is quite small. You’ll have to option of set 3 course meals for as little as R$ 17.50 with a soft drink and the food is tasty and plentiful. You will leave with your bellies full.

Went back to the hotel, browsed the web a little and checked email. The Hotel has free WiFi and the signal was good in the room I was in.

Although there were a few mosquitos in the room I was able to sleep very well. Always good if you can take a can of odourless repellent with you. In some places mosquitos may be an issue especially in hot nights and rural areas. That’s how my second day ended.

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Pictures taken on this day.

Click on any picture for full detail

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also. Thank you all for your time and “Bom Caminho!”.

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give). You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly. Become a Patron

Please rate this post by clicking on the desired star (1 = Awful, 5 = Excellent)
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Bike Rides, Brazil Rides, Faith's Way, Pilgrimage, Touring

Faith's Way (Caminho da Fé), Day 01: From Sertãozinho to Cravinhos

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Caminho da Fé / Faith's Way Day 01: Sertãozinho -> Cravinhos [GPX File]

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In this post…

    1. Introduction
    2. Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)
    3. From  Sertãozinho to Dumont + Video
    4. From Dumont to Cravinhos + Video
    5. Pictures taken on this day.

Introduction

If this is the first post you read on this series, I recommend you take a look at the introduction post published on the 28th of February 2018. That post explains what the Faith’s Way is, my reasons for doing it and provides information that might be useful to you, if you decide you want to do it too.

In this post I will cover the 1st day of this 12 day, 600 Km, journey between the town of Sertãozinho, were I started my pilgrimage, and the town of Cravinhos, both in the federal state of São Paulo.

As explained in the introduction post, I broke the entire journey into 21 stages, as per the official map of the Caminho. There will be 1 video for each stage of the journey, so the blog post for this day contains two videos. Once covering the journey between Sertãozinho and Dumont and another between Dumont and Cravinhos.

You can download the official map of the Caminho from the website of the Friends of the Caminho Association. From there you can also download a list of credentialed accommodations for your journey. Most places in that list are simple family owned pilgrims’ hostels. Some in very rural locations (farms) others in more urban areas. Some establishments are hotels. Family owned Pilgrims’ hostels along the way have usually a set value that includes the meals as well, typically dinner and breakfast, but all hotels listed there will also offer a reduced pilgrim’s rate provided you present them your pilgrim’s credentials.

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Measures and expenses for this day (Garmin Telemetry)

  • Distance traveled from Sertãozinho to Cravinhos: 71.54 Km
    • Please read item number 4 in this post, as this includes navigation errors on my part.
  • Total duration of this journey: 8h 25m
  • Overnight location at the end of the journey:
  • Total expenses on this day: R$ 120.90
    • Food: R$ 58.90 (pizza delivered to hotel, managed to eat only 1/2)
    • Accommodation: R$ 62.00 (Breakfast incl)
  • Total Elevation Gain on this track: 1,178m
  • Average Speed: 8.5 Km/h
  • Max Speed achieved: 46.5 Km/h
  • Average Heart Rate: 146 bpm
  • Max. Heart Rate: 180 bpm
  • Calories burned: 4,286 CAL
  • Click here to see the Garmin Connect page for this activity
First day on the Faith's Way
First day on the Faith’s Way

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From  Sertãozinho to Dumont + Video.


Being interviewed by Glogo TV Network at the hotel's parking lot.As planned the night before I woke up early and went downstairs to have breakfast with the TV crew of Globo TV. They took a lot of shoots of the crew having breakfast and helped me with some pictures. Before leaving we shoot the interview outside at the hotel’s car park, which, for several reasons, such as external noise and mistakes, required many takes. For example, during the interview I mentioned that the recordings were going to be done in Time-lapse format with a GoPRO 4, and the mere mentioned of the brand invalidated the take (advertising).

From everything that was recorded during the interview in that morning, only a tiny portion was actually aired. In my 3 seconds of fame in national television I appear saying the Caminho was mostly done on dirt tracks, hence the reason it was going to be difficult. At first this sounds kind of obvious, but what was missing there was the fact that we were speaking about my previous pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and Rome (Via Francigena) and how most of them were on paved roads, so, since the Faith’s Way is mostly on dirt tracks, I considered this pilgrimage would be a lot harder than the previous ones, even though the distance was shorter. That’s OK though. Glad to have had the exposure I did.


P1090200After the interview the drone operator followed me in their car and did some aerial shoots of me as well as instructed me to do certain things, which otherwise wouldn’t be in my nature to do, such as to raise my arms at the statue of our lady by the town’s gate. Due to these activities I actually left Sertãozinho quite late, at around 10:30am. About 1 Km after the small statue of our lady were the last aerial shot was taken by the drone operator (you’ll see it in the video), I crossed underneath the motorway and took a small road out of town which soon turned into a dirt road.

A guy on a motorbike rode parallel to me for a few meters and the biker asked me questions such as were I was going and if I was alone. I was honestly very reluctant to talk to him as many robbers use this method to steal. Thankfully that wasn’t the case and my ride to the small town of Dumont was uneventful, despite the very thin sand and dust on the roads as it hadn’t rained for over 2 months there.

Almost the entire path is done among sugar cane plantations, so the views aren’t that great, but there are places worth a few pictures along this way.

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From Dumont to Cravinhos + Video

Coffee Plantation on the left and the small town of Dumont in the background
Coffee Plantation on the left and the small town of Dumont in the background

As I arrived in Dumont I stopped for some pictures and to determine were to stamp my pilgrim’s credential. I figured out that the pilgrims’ hostel in the list of accommodations was actually outside of town and moved on.

This hostel is maintained by the Veronezi family in their property outside of town. As I arrived at the Veronezi farm, I turned left and went to the meat shop (Casa Veronezi) were the lose stones at the car park caused me to fall off my bike for the 1st time. It was a really stupid fall due to the fact the front wheel skidded on the lose stones on the ground and my right foot got stuck in the pedal straps. Unfortunately I ended up tearing my Castelli leg warmer in the process, a little piece of cycling wear I was very fond of 🙁

Met with Alvaro at the meat house who directed me to the hostel were I met his mother Ms Helena Veronezi. Alvaro runs the meat house while Mrs Helena takes care of the pilgrims and runs the hostel. Very nice people. Ms Helena stamped my credentials and offered me water and fruit. As I left the Veronezi’s I was told there would be a locked gate by their fish pond, but that I should just ask their daughter to open the gate for me at the bar near the lake, so I did.

Zé Goleiro Bar
Zé Goleiro Bar

Continuing on dirt tracks among the sugar cane plantations I got to Zé Goleiro bar (José, the Goalkeeper’s bar), an establishment that has been there in the middle of nowhere since 1937 which is now run by Zé Goleiro´s son as Zé Goleiro died in 2009. Very interesting place with a lot of stuff hanging from the ceiling.

The map of the Caminho indicates the distance between Dumont and Cravinhos is of 37 Km, but the map doesn’t indicate the point in Cravinhos where those 37 Km end. The two establishments listed in the accommodation guide for Cravinhos are somewhat on the outskirts of the town, especially the one I decided to spend the night in, the Cravinhos Park Hotel, which out of the two appeared to be the better one and did accept credits cards also (although not highlighted in the guide).

As I got to Cravinhos, I made the mistake of assuming the yellow arrows would lead me to these establishments. Unless I’ve missed an arrow somewhere, they didn’t seem to. I honestly only saw yellow arrows pointing in the direction I went.

Red line is the path I took. Blue line is the path I should have taken.
Red line is the path I took. Blue line is the path I should have taken.

Unfortunately, as stubborn as I am, I continued blindly following the arrows out of town, only stopping at a petrol station some 7 to 8 Km out of town to ask for directions. To be honest, there wasn’t anyone available to ask for directions outside of town anyway, but I should have turned back earlier.

Once the staff at the petrol station told me how far back I would have to ride to get to the hotel I was faced with the decision of going back or moving forward. I decided to go back because it was already getting dark and according to the map the nearest town was 31 Km away, perhaps a little nearer since I had already done about 7 Km out of town, so I decided to go back. This led me to ride an additional 18.69 Km, in other words, I rode 55.69 Km in total between Dumont and Cravinhos that day. So take notice of that, if you plan to start your pilgrimage from Sertãozinho as I did.

I have arrived at the hotel in the dark of night, which wasn’t cool, but it all belongs to the adventure. In a pilgrimage you should always expect the unexpected.

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Pictures taken on this day.

Click on any picture for full detail

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If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send me a message through the contact form. Please subscribe to my Blog and/or to my YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss the next one and help me spread the word by liking and sharing my Facebook Page and Tweeter feed also.

Thank you all for your time and “Bom Caminho!”.

Do you like these posts? Why, then, don’t you pay me a coffee to help with the blog hosting cost and as a caffeine incentive to keep me going through the long hours of the night? (Suggested amount: £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€ or whatever you want to give).
You may donate through my Patreon Page or through PayPal directly.

Become a Patron

Please rate this post by clicking on the desired star (1 = Awful, 5 = Excellent)
[Total: 4 Average: 5]