Why this ride
A road-accessible heritage corridor linking major cultural landmarks. It links naturally to Historic Town of Ouro Preto.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Belo Horizonte Ouro Preto and Mariana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 110 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 06
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
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.
Editorial context
Coordinates are curated start-via-end route seeds. They are not a surveyed centreline or navigation geometry. Run road snapping, topology checks, access checks and a live-status review before publication.
Access context
Do not auto-publish. Snap to a routable road network, verify current closures, legal motorcycle access, surface, permits, border controls and local safety information.
Seasonal context
Apr-Oct
Scenic road chapters
Estrada Real Core Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 9 km this is Estrada Real Core Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 9 km
- Named road
- Estrada Real Core Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte means beautiful horizon, and the name comes from the ridge of the Serra do Curral that closes the view to the south of town. It is a large city, a bit over two million people, and unusually for Brazil it was planned: it was laid out in the 1890s as the new capital of Minas Gerais, replacing Ouro Preto, with wide avenues and a grid cut across by diagonal boulevards. The result is a place that feels more ordered than many Brazilian cities, though traffic is dense and the hills make it a rider's workout.
Read the complete Belo Horizonte write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Belo Horizonte sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Ouro Preto.
2. Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto means black gold, after the dark, iron-stained nuggets that set off the rush here at the end of the seventeenth century. For a while this town, then called Vila Rica, was among the richest and most populous places in the Americas, and its money went into churches, bridges, fountains and the steep, tilted streets you will be climbing and descending. UNESCO listed it in 1980, among the very first Brazilian sites, and walking in the centre you can see why: hardly a modern building disturbs the skyline of terracotta roofs and whitewashed towers climbing the hillsides.
Read the complete Ouro Preto write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ouro Preto comes up 39 km in. Next is Mariana.
3. Mariana
Mariana is where Minas Gerais begins, at least on paper. It was the first town the Portuguese founded in the gold country, in 1696, and later the first capital and first bishopric of the whole captaincy. It was named for Maria Anna of Austria, the queen of João V, which tells you who the town was meant to impress. Today it sits at around seven hundred metres in a bowl of green, forested hills, a calm university and mining town of some forty-five thousand people, and it is the natural place to begin the Estrada Real, the old colonial road along which gold and diamonds went to the coast and everything else came back up.
Read the complete Mariana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
110 km in you reach Mariana.