The Estrada Real

The Estrada Real

Leaving Barretos, and its Rodeo Festival, behind, we headed towards Ouro Preto and the start of the historic Estrada Real that leads south to Rio de Janeiro.

On the way we visited Furnas reservoir and took a boat tour on the lake. We met a group of friendly young Brazilians on board and we joined them for a lovely lunch afterwards. Francine was peeved as our Lonely Planet does not make any mention of this beautiful area of canyons and gorges.

We arrived at Ouro Preto and, naughtily ignoring all the ‘no trucks’ signs, drove through some very narrow cobbled streets to a parking below the town. Parking overnight in a small square, we explored this historic town with its steeply cobbled streets and many baroque-style churches. It reminded David very much of the old towns in Portugal (unsurprisingly). Ouro Preto was the focal point of the gold rush in the 17th century and many grand buildings still survive.

On our way south we saw a MAN/VW garage and called in to ask about an oil change and a fan clutch problem. The team are super friendly and one member of staff, Marco, having lived for a while in Ireland, spoke English. They could not help with the fan clutch (there is no spare part in Brazil), but we got Big Bertha’s oil changed and waved farewell.

We then made our way south on the Estrada Real through more historic towns to Petropolis, located just north of Rio high up in the hills. Again naughtily parking in the centre of town (we get away with a lot on UK plates), we explored the magnificent houses, on Kofler Avenue, built by the Brazilian nobility that chose to live here to escape the heat of Rio. Don Pedro II (the last emperor of Brazil) and his family had a fairly modest palace here (now open to the public). We also discovered an excellent cake shop and the local brewery.