CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Out of Salvador and back again: 1175 km, roughly 12 h in the saddle. On the way it passes Morro do Pai Inacio, Lencois, Mucuge and Ibicoara. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 29 km this is Chapada Diamantina Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Salvador is the oldest city in Brazil in the sense that matters, because it was the first capital, founded by the Portuguese in 1549 and ruling the colony until 1763. It sits on a peninsula at the mouth of the Baía de Todos os Santos, a big bay with islands, and its old centre, the Pelourinho, is a hillside of colourful colonial houses, baroque churches and cobbled streets, listed by UNESCO in 1985. The name Pelourinho means pillory, which tells you something about what once happened in the square.
Read the complete Salvador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salvador is where the day begins. Next is Morro do Pai Inacio.
Morro do Pai Inácio is a flat-topped hill that rises out of the scrub of the Chapada Diamantina in the interior of Bahia, standing a little above a thousand metres. It is the sort of place where the earth seems to have been cut and left. The sandstone plateaus of this region, called chapadas, are ancient, eroded into cliffs, canyons and tabletop hills, and the Morro is one of the most photographed. From the top, a short, steep walk of perhaps fifteen minutes from the road, you look out over the valley of the Rio Utinga and the plateaus beyond, in a view that stretches to the horizon.
Read the complete Morro do Pai Inacio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Morro do Pai Inácio comes up about 422 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lencois.
Lençóis is the town that the diamond rush built, and it still looks like it. In the 1840s prospectors poured into this corner of Bahia, and the name is said to come from the white tents they pitched along the river, which from the hills looked like sheets laid out to dry. The stone houses along the cobbled lanes are a leftover from that money, painted in faded colours, with a river running clear and tea-brown just below the square, stained by the plants upstream rather than by anything dirty.
Read the complete Lencois write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 451 km into the recorded legs you reach Lencois. Next is Mucuge.
Mucugê has a cemetery that nobody expects. Walk up from the main street and you find the so-called Byzantine cemetery, a field of small white chapel-shaped tombs on a dusty hillside, a legacy of the diamond miners who made this town rich in the nineteenth century and then left it half-empty when the stones ran out. It is a quiet, slightly eerie place at the end of a long day on the road.
Read the complete Mucuge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mucuge, about halfway. Next is Ibicoara.
Ibicoara is a small town at the southern end of the Chapada Diamantina, in the highlands of Bahia, far from the more touristy centre around Lençóis. The town sits at a cool altitude, which makes it good for growing coffee, and the hillsides around are covered with plantations, as well as potatoes and other vegetables. It is known for its waterfalls, in particular the Cachoeira do Buracão, an eighty-five-metre cascade that drops into a great rock amphitheatre, reached by a walk and a swim across a pool, and often described as one of the most beautiful in the region.
Read the complete Ibicoara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ibicoara sits at 595 km, late in the day. Next is Salvador.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salvador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1175 km.
Salvador → Morro do Pai Inacio is 422 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Morro do Pai Inácio → Lencois is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lençóis → Mucuge is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mucugê → Ibicoara is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ibicoara → Salvador is 532 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.