It is really not difficult, he said. Just a tiny bit of sand, he said. Next moment I am crossing 19 km of sand dunes on my way to Jericoacoara.
Most of the time the roads were really good and the sand was indeed not that deep. But well, there were some deep parts and tricky bits and pieces which made it really difficult to ride my bike through.
On my way there I fell three times and luckily the sand was really smooth while the crashes did not hurt…
After 4 hours and a final 20 km strip on a slippery road full of mud we arrived (finally) almost in Jericoacaora.
Apparently, you need to take a guide which brings you into town. No signs and sand dunes possess a quite challenging terrain and according to the guide it should be no problem to master this exercise. Just deflate a bit your tires and off we go, lol.
It was my first real off road sand driving experience and initially I thought, hey, this is really not that difficult.
Certainly this changed after a while and the sand got really deep. Even though my tires were deflated (front tire 10 PSI and rear tire 24 PSI) I did not manage to ride my bike through these passages.
My steering bar started to “shake” and as a first reaction I tried to countersteer which meant… yeh… I was falling, lol.
The second and third time the same scenario but this time I tried to accelerate and not to steer the bar. Well, again without success… I was falling again and again, lol.
Not sure if my poor experience or the heavy weight of my bike is to blame for… ???
When arriving in Jericoacoara I had huge expectations of the place because everyone told me how amazing it would be. I could not share the same enthusiasm of my travel mates and possibly the weather was not ideal these days. It rained quite a lot and the sky was grey for the entire time.
Also, I had the feeling it was a tourist trap and really expensive while getting ripped off by the locals. Especially the guides which bring you to the little village charge you whatever they want (I payed once 40 and the other time 60 Reals).
No doubt the town is super cool and we enjoyed the gastronomy the most with its many lively bars, restaurants and live music.
The beach was ok and even the walk to the sand dune “por do sol” did not really impress me that much.
The day after we arrived, we decided to visit the lagoa paraiso which is famous for its hammocks in the water and fantastic sunsets. Again, the weather was miserable and the pictures on the web must have been photoshopped big times. It was really disappointing…
At least we were lucky to arrange a buggy which brought us back into town instead of a 4×4. I never thought this could be so much fun and enjoyed the ride through the sanddunes… a real highlight of the stay.
Well, actually I was looking forward to driving back again with my motorbike to further work on my off road skills, haha.
This time I fell only once, lol.
