Psychiatry conceptualizes voyeurism as a psychosexual disorder: the patient is excited by contemplating, by observation based on reasons that escape social standards accepted as normal. The voyeur has strange fantasies and often inflicts on himself what for normal people is suffering.
We are a rare and pathological species of nature’s voyeurs. We are excited by impassive mountains, wild and outrageous streams, naive prairies, huge rocks and silent grasses. We adore places where almost no one arrives, and even fewer people arrive cycling. For a “normal” person, it sounds sick for someone to cycle more than a hundred kilometers in a single day of travel and repeat the experience the next day, and then and then, and finally, when you get back, start planning your next trip. All basically to observe nature. We are members of the group of cyclists from Londrina called Pedais Vermelhos, friends and accomplices in the disease of voyeurism in wild places. We have the ethics of a true sect, with strict principles and a table of tourist values: every year, as soon as a bike trip is finished, we start dreaming of the next one. We are insatiable consumers of mountain trails, bucolic landscapes, villages. Adorers of the smell of the woods and the symphony of birds, cicadas and animals, we stay in any corner and invent banquets for nothing. We are crazy: completely crazy about nature.
Travels through Terra Brasilis
We have already traveled here at Terra Brasilis to several stunning places. Through Serra da Canastra in 2001, one of our first adventures. Through the canyons of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (in 2002 and 2018). Along Estrada Real three times, the first time in 2004, then repeated every six years — with each route including variants more enchanting and challenging than the last —, always starting in the ancient Ouro Preto and turning the golden key in Paraty, after suffering the torturous ascent of Lagoinha. We have already done the Caminho da Fé, leaving Tambaú (SP), crossing the Mantiqueira mountains, passing through Campos do Jordão, Aparecida and Lagoinha (SP), and then going down the toboggan from Cunha to Paraty (Rj). We walked through the enchanted European Valley of Santa Catarina more than once. We did the Circuito das Araucarias, a beautiful and very tough route also in Santa Catarina, which you always walk under the escort of gigantic trees with erect trunks and candelabra canopies. We have left Londrina cycling until we reached the coast three times, arriving in Itapoá (2002), in Santa Catarina, then Antonina (2009) and finally in Itapoá again (actually, going a little further, São Francisco do Sul, celebrating 20 years of our first adventure).
Adventures in the Old Continent
We’ve roamed the Old Continent too. We found out that there is no Camino de Santiago, because the path is made by walking, and we did it twice. We toured France. We cycled the Via Claudia Augusta, from Munich to Venice, going up the famous Danube River and the Lech River (less known, but no less beautiful) and crossing the Alps through the Reschen Pass, after cinderellating through Neuschwanstein, the castle of the crazy king of Bavaria that for a few moments made our lives a fairy tale. We have already crossed Switzerland, leaving Rorschach, in the northeast region of the alpine country, in the beards of Germany — and on the shores of Lake Constance —, and we cycled to Geneva, facing the most beautiful mountains and landscapes that the human retina is capable of contemplating . We rode our bikes in Scotland, leaving Glasgow and going to Inverness, on an epic journey that jumped through stunning valleys, such as the River Etive, through Inversnaid and Fort William, getting to know the Isle of Skye, Mister Paul’s house (next to the Eilean Donan Castle, the one from the movies) and the exuberant and immeasurable Glen Affric, until reaching the capital of the Highlands, where we discover that the Scottish national sport is not whiskey but hiking. We pilgrimage the Via Francigena, our toughest and longest adventure, from Geneva to Rome, conquering the Alps through the endless and icy mountains of the Grand Saint Bernard (2,496 meters high), climbing hills of the harsh Italian topography, until arriving, always by trails, to the Vatican, a total of more than 1,200 kilometers cycled. On another trip, in Ireland, we went to check out National Geographic’s research: the Dingle peninsula really must be the most beautiful and charming place in the world (we’ll give the final verdict after seeing the rest of the Planet). The Irish sun is elusive and shines lazily, cut by the fine and insistent rain, but the typical beer of each region is intense and unique. The island’s rugged coastline coexists with the languid and voluptuous ocean, in a sensual and relaxing encounter. At the Cliffs of Moher (for some people, just a precipice), centuries of waves from the Atlantic Ocean skillfully carve the walls of more than 200 meters of impenetrable rocks. After that, we made a tour of Tyrol, basically in Austria, but also penetrating Tyrolean lands in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In Tirol we had our first experience renting e-bikes, assisted bicycles, which allowed us to climb insurmountable mountains and experience downhills of infinite adrenaline.
Next adventure: Alpine Bike
The next adventure will be the Alpine Bike. A mind-blowing route, with the climb of a dozen mountains in the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alps. In the most audacious of them all, the Passo dello Stelvio, we will reach the sky and be able to pick pieces of clouds with our hands, at almost 2,800 meters of altitude. The first trip of the Pedais Vermelhos documented in text, photos and GPS files on the internet, the Alpine Bike will democratize our illness: you will see all the images and also know how each step and each moment of the adventure was built. From the initial idea and the draft of the script, a year before, to the definition of the final route, the date, the purchase of airline tickets, the choice of insurance, accommodation, food to, finally, seeing how everything went down. Not just the logistics, but also a bit of its theoretical and human basis: the friendly relationships on which the trip is built. Come with us.
