We arrived at Campo Grande (pronounced Cmpo Grannjggge in Porked english). The Hostel was right next to the bus station. Not bad all in as we were given some good advice on trips into the Pantanal. It even had a pool! We met an english chap called Andy who is a good laugh and we ended up and an eat as much as you can buffet where they bring you meat out on skewers every two minutes till you say stop. At 13 R$ (About 4UKP) it was brilliant and I ate for SA and England!
We opted for a tour to a Ranch/lodge that was 5 hours drive from CG leaving the next day and the trip out to the ranch had some great and varied scenery from reminding us of Harrismith in SA to the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
The lodge was nice and had much more than we had anticipated, with two pools, games rooms, hammoks, volleyball and badmenting courts and a football field. The area is very vaired with rivers and fields and teaming with so many birds. Huge quantities and kinds of parrots, Maccaws, Hawks etc....
People head to the Pantanal to see wildlife and we were not dissappointed! 4 days and 3 nights including river trips, Pirhana fishing, horse riding, forrest and savanna trekking.
Although we had hoped to see animals like Jaguar, Anacondas, and giant anteaters we saw plenty of Hyacinth Maccaws which were once near extinction, Armadillos, Capibarras, Deer, birds in their thousands, loads of black big Caymans, massive iguanas, Howler monkeys plenty and also little raccoon type things (South american coati).
All in all it was a great 4 days.... we had one incident which is worth mentioning hence the title of the blog.
It should be said that the Pantanal is hot and we had great weather.. on the second day we were told to take rain coats although there was no clouds in sight as they had been advised that the weather was changing. We enjoyed the 3 hour trek through the forrests and the night drive without incident. A good meal and we hit club duvet early around 9.
At midnight I woke up and noticed that the wind was howling outside. I woke Ems and we looked out the window to see the tree nearby was bent right over in the wind, there was plenty of lightening and thunder stanrting to brew. We nomally love this sort of weather so we stayed up and watched and listening as the impending storm approached... The wind got stronger and more threatening lightening and thunder...
Someone from the main lodge got up and ran across between the buildings and cut the power.... then pitch black... we waited as the wind got stronger...
The rain started and the wind continued to get stronger, we could hear the roof starting to rattle and the mood changed from enjoyment to a twinge of fear. The noise got much louder and I could hear debris flying and scraping over the roof. Ems started singing "Ooh a storm is threatening".....I grabbed her and told her to get under the bed! It was a comedy of errors with me shoving Ems, Ems telling me to get under the bunk as there was no room due to our rucksacks being beneath the bed, and her trying to shove our packs out of the way. We got under just in time... the roof had started to come off and debris was starting to fall into the room. Ems was convinced it was either the end of us or that they would have to dig us out of the rubble the next morning. Amusing now but terrfiying at the time.
More debris fell and water was streaming in through multiple points in the ceiling... After a couple of minutes the wind subsided and we moved out and took shelter on the two bunkbeds next to the double bed. rain continued to flood in and wet a lotof the room but we managed to move all our stuff into a cupboard and slept in the lower single bunk.
Next Day at first light the place was a mess! The roof next to our room had completely come off and we had been lucky in that only part of the area directly above us had come off. Trees had been blown over and many roof tiles were off. The pool was full of branches and sand and chairs, umbrellas and plastic tables had been blown to the edge of the property...
The staff and family were all up at dawn and within 6 hours had completely cleared and repaired everything which was an amazing feat to watch. Despite our offers to help and skip our morning activity, the tour and experience of the Pantanal went on as though nothing had happened. I spoke with the family and they have never seen a storm like that before...
It did not detract from our trip but it sure mixed things up and bit and we both slept like bricks on the bus to Bonito.....
We highly recommend the Pantanal to all our bush-loving kindred spirits!
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