Into the Pantanal
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2004
1
156
169
Trip End
Jan 26, 2005
Campo Grande,
Brazil
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
So we arrive bright and early and as it happens the company we were planning to do the Pantanal trip with live just across the road and they pretty much adopted us as soon as we stepped off the bus and we decided to head straight out onto the trip that very morning!!!! This meant we had a 2 hour mad dash to find a long-sleeved shirt and a baseball cap plus have showers, have brekkie, etc etc (I had a very close encounter with some serious bad taste shirts!!! Dave you would have been proud!) Finally we were ready for the off and jumped on a minibus to take us on the first part of our journey into the Pantanal! One more thing to mention though...how big do your reckon Campo Grande is...you know...middle of nowhere...well my preconception was from reading 'The Testament' by John Grisham where the main character has to go looking for a missionary in a local tribe somewhere in the Pantanal so I envisioned Campo Grande being pretty small, no mod cons as such and everyone moving around by boat! How wrong could we be...the place is bigger than Huddersfield and has probably got better shops!!!! Crazy!!!!!!
Anyway after a couple of hours on the minibus, we swapped vehicles for an aging 4x4 and turned onto a dirt track! This was more like it...heading into deepest, darkest Brazil and as we got further away from the road, it really started to feel like it too! Infact describing the jeep journey afterwards, I would say it was bumpy, dusty and dangerous as random branches threatened to decapitate me on several occasions as I'd managed to bag the worst seat at the back and everytime we went over a bump, me and this other bloke felt like we were about to fly out of the back...so when we finally arrived and I could see again after clearing the dust out of my eyes, it was quite a relief to get feet back on firm soil again! Hee Hee! Real safari experience for you though! We arrived about 9 in the evening and it was pitch black...only the sound of insects and animals....oooooooooo...things started to come to life quickly though as our camp prepared dinner for us and we partook in our first caiparinha (cachassa, sugar and lime!)...which I loved...extremely sweet but yummy! And our first night in the Pantanal was spent sleeping in hammocks and surprisingly it was REALLY cold...I woke up with feet like ice blocks! Another surprise!!
