The Trans-Amazon highway stretches it’s dusty way across the width of Brazil. Built in the early 1970’s the road was never really completed and a lot of it still remains unpaved. This is the dry season where the red dust coats everything and everyone.
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| A hard dusty day on the road |
Starting out in the town of Santarem on the Amazon I travelled south until I hit the Transamazonica before heading east for over 1000km to the town of Maraba.
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| Puncture after the first 7km!! |
The road was a mixture of dirt, potholed asphalt, some sections of good asphalt and scores of little, one lane wooden bridges. The dust behind a large truck was choking and overtaking was a little dangerous to say the least. The dust occasionally was a light tan in color which helped put a different layer on every part of my body. A lot of hard riding but every bit as fun as I had hoped for once there was a chance to open the bike up on the dirt.
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| Plenty of red dust |
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| Man and his dog |
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| Vultures help clean up the roadkill |
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| A nondescript town on the way |
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| Good section of dirt |
Having been told that highwaymen abound on one section of the road and not to stop for anyone I lost a bolt on my luggage carrier and had to stop for a tense 20 minutes on this lonely section to make repairs.
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| Ulysses, my French traveling companion |
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| Ferry across a river |
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| Wood bridge |
