“You are totally crazy!” was the common responses we received when we announced to our friends and family that we are intending to complete The Caminho da Fe, a 317km mountain trek in Brazil by foot and mountain bike … including the ENTIRE Xavier family. Well, we like “crazy”, so we went ahead and started planning, taking into account realistic goals for Victoria (4), Helena (6), Bia (7) and Max (9).
Why are we doing this?
Our kids have been keen supporters of this year’s school charity Walkabout Foundation and they wanted to come up with ways to help them. Being active kids themselves, they love the idea of bringing mobility to those in need and thus giving them freedom to explore the surrounding without having to depend on others. As a family, we have always encouraged them to get outdoors, explore forest, build dens, dig for worms, play in the mud, you name it. We dragged them along surfing, rock climbing, abseiling, cycling tours (and para-gliding is also in the pipeline). In a nutshell, we love nature, outdoor adventures and we want to expose the kids as much as we can, especially as we are living in an urban city.
So, we put the two together and we decided to follow Walkabout’s motto and “Walk for those who can’t walk”.
Trek background
O Caminho da Fé, or The Walk of Faith, is a 317 km and over 8000m of climbing pilgrimage trail to the Cathedral Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida, the world’s second largest church after the Vatican. O Caminho da Fé was inspired by the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain and although its distance is shorter, its mountains are much steeper and harder to trek. Caminho da Fe passes through the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo along back roads, trails, asphalt and forest.
Why did we choose this trek?
The official start of the trek is in a rural village called Aguas da Prata, a small town on the border of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais which has been holiday home to Ricardo’s family for 3 generations. Ricardo, his brother, cousins and I have been obsessively mountain biking a variety of trails and know the area very well. It has some tough climbs and terrain, but you are rewarded by breath-taking views across the Mantiqueira Mountains.
What are our goals?
We have planned to complete the 317km in 10 days.
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DISTANCES
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TOTAL 317km
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BIKE
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WALK
|
|
Ricardo
|
317 km
|
200 km
|
117 km
|
|
Cornelia
|
317 km
|
200 km
|
117 km
|
|
Max
|
100 km
|
17 km
|
83 km
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|
Bia
|
70 km
|
10 km
|
60 km
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|
Helena
|
60 km
|
10 km
|
50 km
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|
Victoria
|
40 km
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n/a
|
40 km
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This means, we are aiming to complete a minimum total of 894km as a family!
Please join us on this challenge by helping us raising funds for Walkabout Foundation. It would mean a lot to us, if you would support the charity with £ and we would also welcome psychological support for us (the parents!) with encouraging words as we are not only training hard physically to complete the trek, but also mentally preparing ourselves for MANY tantrums lying ahead of us.
You can follow our journey on our blog, and IG (onceuponaphoto.london)
