Today was all about some good off-road riding. We met up at a service station on the edge of town to congregate and come up with a plan. I didn’t really know what that plan was but it would entail a lot of riding through the Minas Gerias countryside.. sounds good to me 🙂

The road/trail was in very good condition and easy for any of the new riders. There were a few sandy spots but they weren’t a problem. The main issue was all the dust that was kicked up by the 15+ bikes.. if you were at the back it was worse. Overall though, the riding was great and the scenery fantastic.

We came to a spot where we didn’t know which fork in the road to take. We took a right when we should have gone left. This resulted in us crossing the same bit of river a few different times since we had to back track when the trail ended at a farmers ranch. 😆

Our “support” vehicle driven by Marcel. He’s the guy who organized this entire event and is also responsible for many of the excellent photos here (I stole some from him). Thanks Marcel!

The girls rode in the back of the truck while the guys rode solo across the river (safer that way).

After our first river crossing (which was the one were I dumped my bike in the water!), we gathered for a celebratory pose. This goes out to all YFF’s on ADV out there.

Absolutely filthy dirty and soaking wet but entirely fun. 🙂 Ya don’t get much better than this..

We eventually got to our first destination of the day; a scenic clearing with a waterfall. After parking the bikes, we had a short hike and a river crossing to get there but at this point that’s no big deal and just adds to the fun.

We all went for a swim to cool off and wash away some of the dirt.. and holy $%^& was this water cold.. seriously, it felt like glacier water in Patagonia or Alaska. We only stayed in for about 15 minutes as tolerating much more than that wasn’t fun.

Afterwards we were back on the bikes and heading to a small little restaurant/lodge that’s also in the middle of nowhere.

This little place was very popular. I think a lot of Brazilians who live in Sao Paulo come up here for a 3-4 day weekend to get away from the busy city life and enjoy the quite countryside. Many people owned dirt bikes and would spend their time riding the trails and stopping at places like this. Very cool.

More Moto-Mikey decals plastered around South America.

After eating lunch, most of the group hiked up the hillside to find another waterfall. I decided to hang behind.. a shady hammock and a cold beer were calling my name.

Again more beautiful waterfalls in this area. This is the one I decided to skip out on:

Looking back down at the restaurant/lodge. Absolutely beautiful countryside.

After hanging out at the lodge for a while, we rode back into town. The setting sun made for some spectacular photos.

Sunset over the Serra da Canastra:

Back in town, Roberto and I stopped at a local bar for a few drinks and to rest for a bit.

Afterwards, we headed back to our hotels to clean up and change clothes. Later one everyone would meet up for a nice dinner at a bistro here in town. This was to be our final gathering together.

Dinner was another great time together with my new Brazilians friends. I sure am going to miss these guys..

 

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The following day everyone packed up their bikes and headed home. I needed to stay for an extra day to take care of the usual chores like washing my absolutely filthy gear along with a load of laundry. I also did a little bit of work on the bike including a clean/oil job of the now very dusty air filter and also some chain maintenance. It was also nice to lounge around for a bit and just relax also 🙂