Road to Beauty, Day 12: When the Toughest Day Turns Out to Be the Most Beautiful

When they left Araguainha, the girls still had 50km of dirt road ahead of them before they could hit the BR 363 to Rio Verde.

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In this first section full of bumps and puddles, the L'équipée women went through every possible kind of weather: heat, cold, rain and wind. Endless moments of putting on and taking off clothes. A stop to slip on the rain cover, soon followed by another stop to take it off. A stop to pull the leather jacket out of the luggage to ward off the cold wind, followed by another one to put it back away because the wind turned warm again… Finally, the sun started hitting strong: time for sunscreen!

Then the girls were thirsty, as dust and wind had gotten inside their mouths and noses, drying out their throats. Their backs and legs started feeling heavy… In addition to the adverse conditions themselves, a trip like this presents a huge physical (and mental) challenge. And yet, overcoming this type of obstacle is what the girls like the best. The tougher things get, the stronger, most beautiful they feel.

These Biker Girls are Bold... But Careful.

The idea was to continue to Rio Verde along the BR 363 after the sacred lunch nap ritual. However, at the gas station, the girls found out that the heavy rains from the past few days had almost destroyed the road, preventing them from going forward. It was time for a change of plans (it's essential to always have a good plan B): they would instead take the BR 163 towards Campo Grande, and then continue towards Pantanal.

Though this alternative itinerary provided a solution, it turned out to be far more challenging than what the girls expected: a large amount of trucks added to the torrential downpour turned this stretch into the most difficult one in the trip so far. "I found trucks more stressful than the dirt road, no matter how difficult it was," says Louise B. "When the wind and heavy rain came, our waterproof clothes inflated. We literally turned into balloons. It was really intense."

Beauty All Around

After the rain comes fair weather. Near Rondonópolis, the sun finally came out, revealing a Brazilian landscape completely different from anything they had seen in this country so far. The beauty of the colors literally took their breath away. The red earth walls typical of the Cerrado if front of the pure blue of the rain-washed sky composed a picture-perfect landscape in which the girls moved along like in a dream. The pleasure they took in this was deeply enhanced by the fact that they had just overcome their biggest road challenge since they set foot in Brazil. And there was still another (good) surprise in store for them... After a bend in the road, the girls came across a waterfall made of seven cascades where they stopped for two hours to experience another typical Savannah pleasure: dipping in its chilled, fresh and clear waters. This day turned out to be unique in every way.

Keep following the L'équipée girls' quest to discover what beauty means around the world at the Road to Beauty (opens in new tab).