tHE BiKEs From Bra Zil - part 4

retreating from the furthest east we would get on the continent. A very nice hotel in Campinas was the target, again a big day of over 500km and into endless corn and sugar cane fields.

This day was probably as close to riding in Australia as any of our previous days – more traffic and better roads aside and the occasional weird thing like the Statue of Liberty, it was servo lunching just like at home. On the subject of food – Brazil is the buffet capital of South American and did we enjoy some beauties, the best on days when we would arrive early into a town and hit the buffet then back to the hotel room groaning under the weight of superb meats of every variety (chicken hearts were even one selection!) not to mention the desserts (postres), a favourite of Cindy’s.

Yes that seems perfectly normal

Day 40 was a continuation, another big day of just over 600km. These days seem long but average speeds are whatever you want them to be – no highway police yet discovered anywhere so far on the trip. Toll booths every 50km or so and police checkpoints cause some slowing, and in Brazil we actually had to pay tolls rather than scoot through a free moto lane or around the end of a boom gate. Speed cameras were common, and a rumour started that each hefty indiscretion was recorded against our number plate which we of course had given to customs when we entered Brazil. That rumour moderated behaviour somewhat, Brazil posted speeds drop dramatically for a variety of mysterious reasons and one can find oneself drifting along at 140kmh through an unpopulated 60kmh zone. Maybe I will just be arrested rather than fined?