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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 1102 km round trip from Apiaí - roughly 19 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Xitue Ecological Station, Lauraceas State Park, Intervales State Park and Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The Ribeira valley, in the south of Sao Paulo state, holds the largest remaining stretch of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, and under it lies one of the great cave regions of the Americas. The park called PETAR, the Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park, covers hills of limestone that are riddled with hundreds of caves, many of them with underground rivers, huge chambers and elaborate formations of stalactites and stalagmites. The forest above is thick with ferns, bromeliads and trees draped in moss, and it belongs to the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, a UNESCO World Heritage listing from 1999.
Read the complete Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park is where the day begins. Next is Xitue Ecological Station.
The Xitue Ecological Station is a different kind of place from most on a route map, because it is not for visitors. It is a strictly protected reserve in the interior of Sao Paulo state, set aside for scientific research and conservation, and normal tourism is not allowed. It forms part of the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, the UNESCO listing that protects what is left of a forest that once covered the whole Brazilian coast and has been reduced to a small fraction of its former extent. Its role is to keep a piece of that forest intact, as a reference and a refuge for animals and plants that cannot survive elsewhere.
Read the complete Xitue Ecological Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xitue Ecological Station comes up about 167 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lauraceas State Park.
The Vale do Ribeira is one of the least developed regions of São Paulo state, a long valley of banana plantations, tea fields, small towns and thick forest, with a river that runs unimpeded to the sea. Because it was never heavily built up, it holds the largest remaining block of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, and the state parks of the area, among them Lauráceas, protect it. The name refers to the laurel family, which includes trees such as canelas and sassafras that grow tall in the damp forest, and which give the park its scent of spice when the wind moves the leaves.
Read the complete Lauraceas State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 301 km into the recorded legs you reach Lauraceas State Park. Next is Intervales State Park.
There is a place in the hills of south-east São Paulo state where you can hear a monkey you will probably never see. The muriqui, the largest primate in the Americas, lives in the Atlantic Forest of the Serra de Paranapiacaba, and Intervales State Park, one of the largest protected areas of that forest, is one of its refuges. The park covers more than forty thousand hectares of steep, misty hills, with giant ferns, bromeliads, orchids and trees hung with vines, and it is part of the Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves, listed by UNESCO in 1999. Toucans, tapirs and, rarely, jaguars share it.
Read the complete Intervales State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Intervales State Park, about halfway. Next is Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves.
The Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves are not one place but a scatter of about two dozen protected areas in the south of São Paulo state and the north of Paraná, recognised by UNESCO as a single World Heritage property because together they hold one of the biggest remaining tracts of Atlantic Forest. Poverty and forest have an odd relationship: the lack of big roads and industry is exactly what kept the trees standing.
Read the complete Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves sits at 552 km, about halfway. Next is back through Intervales State Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Intervales State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Intervales State Park comes up about 678 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Lauraceas State Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lauraceas State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 801 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Lauraceas State Park. Next is back through Xitue Ecological Station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xitue Ecological Station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xitue Ecological Station, late in the day. Next is Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1102 km.
Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park → Xitue Ecological Station is 167 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xitue Ecological Station → Lauraceas State Park is 134 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lauraceas State Park → Intervales State Park is 126 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Intervales State Park → Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves is 126 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves → back through Intervales State Park is 126 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Intervales State Park → back through Lauraceas State Park is 123 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lauraceas State Park → back through Xitue Ecological Station is 134 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xitue Ecological Station → Alto Ribeira Touristic State Park is 167 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.