Expedicionários do Pará

06:15 Sunday 22nd May 2011. Despite yet more late night hospitality from Alex and friends, getting up today was easy as a full days adventure and fun lay ahead. The following played a big part in shaping my decision not to ride flat out north west into the unknown...
I’ve never been a member of a motorcycle club and I’ve never ridden with one. “How terrible must that be?” I’ve often thought considering I’m most happy riding solo, free as a bird. Well, on this occasion quite fun actually. The twenty five Expedicionários do Pará with their fifteen motorcycles and a pick up (including me and Des) were all met, fuelled, fed and detailed at 08:00 just outside of Belem. Paired off with another rider we rode the first 62km in a tight formation with me having to quickly learn the various hand signals that travelled from front to rear of the formation for various given circumstances. As we all rode as one with the colour, noise and huge flags I couldn’t help but feel part of the club. I even had a pillion join me, Beth, who was able to help out with pictures as we went. The final 3km was all off road through mostly dry mud but the frequent heavy downpours meant for some seriously deep puddles where the mud was of course far from dry. Still, the final location dictated that this was entirely necessary and so two up big Des didn’t flinch as he thundered us through and over every obstacle like Sherman tank. The final destination of the ride was a small Amazonian village where the inhabitants were to receive some charitable donations and social work from Alex’s Expedicionários do Pará. Alex being the club’s president saw that the operation went along smoothly as the clothing, stationery and cosmetics that we’d all brought along had been distributed to the cut off community. A big lunch for all then was cooked up by the club’s chefs and once the children had had a practical lesson on teeth cleaning it was playtime as various games were played with prizes issued. It felt like such a privilege to be part of this mission and before I knew it we bid our goodbyes to the villagers and rode back through the mud and onto a nearby beach. A couple of hours were then had generally messing about in the Pará river (not quite on the Amazon River yet) before we all saddled up and headed back to Belem. Over the last couple of years I’ve been lucky enough to experience some of the world’s best riding destinations and places but this day out has to rank right up there with the best of them. Fantastic.