CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 518 km round trip from Paraty - roughly 9 h 56 in the saddle. The stops in between: Praia do Sul Biological Reserve, Sítio Roberto Burle Marx, Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N and back through Sítio Roberto Burle Marx. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Paraty sits between the mountains and the sea, and Morro da Vila Velha, a hill beside the old town, is a good vantage for seeing why. The mountains of the Serra do Mar rise steeply behind, covered in Atlantic forest, and the bay in front is dotted with islands. Portuguese settlers took the site in the sixteenth century, and in the eighteenth it became the port for gold from Minas Gerais, carried down the Caminho do Ouro on mule trains and loaded onto ships. UNESCO listed Paraty and Ilha Grande together in 2019, recognising both the culture and the nature.
Read the complete Morro da Vila Velha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Morro da Vila Velha is where the day begins. Next is Praia do Sul Biological Reserve.
The southern shore of Ilha Grande, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, is one of the few pieces of Brazil's Atlantic coast that is protected as a strict biological reserve, meaning ordinary visits are not allowed. The Praia do Sul reserve was created to guard a long, curved beach backed by a lagoon, a mangrove and a fringe of forest, and it is one of the places where sea turtles come ashore to lay eggs. The island as a whole has no cars, only footpaths, boats and a tradition of fishing villages, and most of its interior is covered in Atlantic forest, which survived because the island had a prison for much of the twentieth century and was kept off limits.
Read the complete Praia do Sul Biological Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Praia do Sul Biological Reserve comes up 67 km in. Next is Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.
Roberto Burle Marx changed the way the world thought about gardens. The Brazilian landscape architect, painter and plant collector, who died in 1994, designed the wave-patterned promenade along Copacabana beach, the gardens of the Ministry of Education in Rio, and hundreds of other parks and gardens, using native tropical plants in bold, abstract compositions. In 1949 he bought a former coffee estate in Barra de Guaratiba, in the far west of Rio de Janeiro, and turned it into his home, studio and laboratory, filling it with thousands of plant species collected on expeditions across Brazil. Sítio Roberto Burle Marx was added to the World Heritage list in 2021.
Read the complete Sítio Roberto Burle Marx write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
133 km in you reach Sítio Roberto Burle Marx. Next is Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N.
Two granite monoliths stand over the western edge of Rio de Janeiro, and they draw very different crowds. Pedra da Gávea, at about eight hundred and forty metres, is a massive block with a flat face that looks, from some angles, like a human profile, and it has attracted legends, including one about Phoenician inscriptions carved by sailors thousands of years ago. Experts think the marks are natural erosion. Pedra Bonita, a smaller sister, is where hang-gliders and paragliders launch from a wooden ramp, floating down over the forest to land on the beach at São Conrado, in one of the most photographed flights in the world.
Read the complete Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N, about halfway. Next is back through Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sítio Roberto Burle Marx write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sítio Roberto Burle Marx sits at 267 km, about halfway. Next is back through Praia do Sul Biological Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Praia do Sul Biological Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Praia do Sul Biological Reserve comes up 333 km in. Next is Morro da Vila Velha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Morro da Vila Velha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Morro da Vila Velha closes the day.
Morro da Vila Velha → Praia do Sul Biological Reserve is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Praia do Sul Biological Reserve → Sítio Roberto Burle Marx is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sítio Roberto Burle Marx → Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea - Tijuca N → back through Sítio Roberto Burle Marx is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sítio Roberto Burle Marx → back through Praia do Sul Biological Reserve is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Praia do Sul Biological Reserve → Morro da Vila Velha is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.