Heyho Readers! How are you? It's getting cold, but we'll not give up cycling! This time I explored something different.
It's been a while since my last blog and I'm discovering that writing a blog on the same day I cycled is somewhat hard, after 50 kilometers doing trails you'll feel kinda tired. However, the idea here is to share, not to rush, so let's go.
Last week I had been avoiding long cycling explorations, just the normal path to go to work, but that doesn't count - there were several reasons why. I was not having time to give my bicycle a proper maintenance for longer tours; work at school was insane, not leaving much time for resting after long cyclings; and the weather!
So how do I start? Ah! The Weather.
I had planned to go to a nice waterfall 40 km from my town and everything was conspiring on my favor, only the cold, let's talk about the cold. Just thinking about taking out my cozy clothes to dress the cycling ones freezes my bones.
Last week we saw the lowest, it went down all the way to 3°C with 80-90% humidity, making the cold even colder. Two times during the week I woke up and decided to work on Steemit instead of going out... yes the force was stronger than me. I started feeling frustrated. Was the weather really going to dictate my motivation?
I decided then that the weekend I'd put an end to my itching legs, I really wanted to cycle.
- Tomorrow is the day. No matter what! - I told myself.
After working at the school last Friday I went home, prepared my meals, cleaned my bike and set the objectives. The strategy was simple - Sleep dressed with the cycling clothes so it would be easier to wake up and jump out of bed. Aaaaand it didn't work. I opened the window early in the morning on Saturday just to find a really gray day with hard inclinations for some rain. I felt like I had lost the battle against my own mind. Where is that super motivated guy when I need him?
Change of plans. Let's try again on Sunday. I woke up, opened the window, gray day. Bloody bastard! This time I wouldn't give up, no way I would stay home again. With that in mind I left home with the intention of exploring some cool places before going to the beach to have lunch, turned out to be awesome, apart from a small accident. I'll talk about that later.
The place of choice was the old train bridge over the São Gonçalo river, it's been years that I wanted to go there to check how it is, normally I only see it from the car's bridge or from the docks, which are far away. I took a quick look on satellite images to check for some trails and turned out there's one. Perfect!
Awesome little trail, starts getting off from the main road into a small bush forest until it meets the rails, that are still active, linking the port of Rio Grande (2nd biggest in Brazil) to the rest of the state. Amazing, why have I gone there only now - I was thinking. Not only the bridge is a super cool engineering project but there are two abandonned houses asking for some in depth exploration - I didn't want to invade. All that excited me, I wanted to know more about the history of those houses; only if I still had my grandfather who used to be a station chief back in those days, unfortunately he's passed away when I was 1.
I took some photos with my cell phone and did some bit of messing around while I waited for the train, that was parked on the other side of the bridge. However, the worker in charge came to check what the heck I was doing, he also informed me that the train was not going to pass. Kinda disapointing but...
The train bridge taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
Here are some other prespectives - I love this old steel constructions and how they are all riveted instead of bolted, can't imagine how many hours it took to place the rivets one by one.
Love it in P&B - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
My faithful squire - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
Still gotta find the history behind this houses - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
While working on this blog I've done some research about the history of this bridge and I've discovered that in 1949 a train loaded with stones heading to Rio Grande didn't stop while they were doing maintenance on the bridge, it resulted in a train wreck. The only solid evidence I found was this video on youtube, where it shows the wreck and some more images from a flood in 1956. I should research more as I'm really curious now.
Cycling there I rode over rails, rocks, down stairs, down banks and all sorts of cycling craziness - No problem, no accident. Then I made the most stupid move ever while trying to cross the rails back to the road... for some reason I pressed the front brake, which led to my front suspension to compress a lot, which led to me to rolling over forward. Hello floor, give me a kiss you beauty!
Bike to one side, Arthur to the other. Fortunately nothing serious happened, just a bruise to my pinky finger that, now, I can move. To be honest, I was more upset for dropping my bicycle then for my pinky finger being crushed by a rock. Anyway...
With my cycling honour being thrown into the trash I continued my journey, stopping to take this cool picture of another 'castle' in my city. What's wrong with old wealthy people that they liked to build castle houses? This one belonged to the famous João Simões Lopes Neto, an important writter from the late 19th to early 20th century. This is also asking for some exploration as it seems to be abandonned.
How about a series of abandonned places? Would you like to know?
Simões Lopes' Castle - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
João Simões Lopes Neto (Pelotas, March 9, 1865 - Pelotas, June 14, 1916), was a Brazilian writer and entrepreneur. According to scholars and critics of literature, he was the greatest regional author of Rio Grande do Sul, because he sought in his literary production to value the history of the gaucho and its traditions. Simões Lopes Neto only achieved literary glory posthumously, especially after the launch of the critical edition of Contos Gauchescos and Legends of the South in 1949. Source: Wikipedia
From here on I did the same old trainning to the beach, that you guys already know; just with a couple smaller explorations to a protected zone, where there's a nice forest - I've blogged about that too. At the beach I ate a lovely Pastel (yey, this time I remembered to take a picture) and then headed back home for Brazil x Switzerland.
Yum Pastel - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
The Classic Beach Photo
Don't be fooled, it was cold - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
Cool ship entering the channel - taken with a Motorola Moto E - Click image to enlarge!
Funny fact: It took me couple minutes to set the TV for the game, hence I missed the goal; then during the break I decided to take a shower, came back and I had missed the Swiss goal. Come on!
THE JUICY INFO FOR BIKE GEEKS
Would you like to know more about my city? Drop a message down below, I love talking to you all.
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~Love ya all,
Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broken backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
I'm Arthur. I blog about Adventure Stories, Brazil, Travel, Camping & Life Experiences.
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That bridge looks fantastic! I didn't mention that there was a castle beat those parks I visited last week. It's on an island with a private road and no trespassing signs so I didn't try to access it. You can kind of see it through the trees but not well enough to get a picture.
Heeey @robmolecule, thanks for the support man!
Dude, no trespassing signs sometimes sound just like an invite hahahaha, but I don't dare to trespass, did that once in a mine and got caught. Not a cool feeling.
Maybe with authorisation?
You know the sad story, this 'castle' is famous here in my city, when I was a kid I remember going there with my dad, they used to have a museum with some stuff belonged by Simões Lopes, well, it was his house afterall. So, there were projects running too, with disabled kids and all, really cool.
Then years passed, the government runned outta money and now it's abandoned. In a lapse of some years, so sad.
Great story and your photos are awesome xx that bridge one with the sun... WOW.
That pastie looks yum too. Glad yiu got out of bed. I should get up sometime today too...
Ahhhhhhhh so it's called 'pastie' in english, dumb me didn't know so I just wrote in portuguese hahaha
What if I tell that the light is the tchooo tchooo train comming my way? But he didn't =s was so excited to see it passing and shaking the bridge, and it didn't.
Love it that you passed by to leave a comment @riverflows xoxo
You gotta be careful of trains my dear!! 💚💚💚 And yes... pastie
Actually, pasties are usually baked, where as pastels are fried.
Heyho @veckinon, glad to see you.
There we go, in portuguese we call them all Pastel but one is fried Pastel the other is baked Pastel. You say Pastel Frito ou Pastel Assado.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Wohoo awesome @c-squared! your support is always an honour and much appreciated, thanks bunch!
I actually loved the train photos. I found them so appealing to the eye!
Awesome, thank you very much for the comment @smanuels. Trains are indeed really cool.
very nice shots ! I really appreciate your work.
Heey @danielw, thank you very much man you support means a lot.
Another beautifully written story and lovely photos. Nice adventure too.Good that you at least go the push to move around for this after long struggle.
Oieeee @dorth, thanks my brother! Yeah it's hard to cycle long distances when the weather doesn't help, but what can we do, right? hahaha gotta move the legs.
Thanks for the support!