Água Clara (Bushcamp), Brazil

11th October – 12th October 2017

After leaving the Fazenda Aguapé Pantanal at 11.30, it took us just under two hours to get back over the very bumpy, 54 kilometre road that we drove in on. Once we got to the end of the road, we took a short drive back to the supermarket where we picked our guide up from, so that we could drop her off again. I don’t think she was a particularly helpful guide, she didn’t give us much guidance on the activities each day, I think she was mostly there to translate between us and the fazenda guides; she didn’t even say bye to us.

While we were at the stop, we went to the supermarket, because the food group that I was in, needed to shop for dinner that night and breakfast the morning after. When we went into the supermarket, William, who was the group leader, seemed to have no idea what he was doing. We were all just following him around like lost sheep, waiting for some direction. As we had already wasted a lot of time, and we didn’t have much in the trolley, me and Jessie decided to use our initiative and sort breakfast out. We were making a truck breakfast, because we knew we were leaving early, so we just wanted to buy some yogurt, juice and fruit. We sorted it all out and then went to the tills with William. I unloaded all of the things onto the desk and instead of saying thank you, he criticised what we had bought and told us that no one liked the juices we had chosen. It was pretty impressive that he could criticise when we had been given no guidance, so I just walked away.

Once everything had been paid for, we got back onto the truck and carried on driving towards the bush camp, via Campo Grande, where Sara was, so that we could pick her up. It was another super hot day, and sitting on the truck in the heat we were in, was unbearable; there was no way to not sweat and there was no way to try and keep cool. We collected Sara around 4.45 and had a toilet stop shortly after.

Back on the truck at 5.30, we had around 150km to go to get to the bush camp, so we knew we would be arriving and then cooking in the dark.

Just after 7.30, we pulling into the gas station where we would be spending the evening; there was a grassy verge next to it that we pulled onto. When we got off the truck, the cook group had to set up the kitchen and start cooking and the rest had to set up everyone’s tents. I did as I was told and helped to set up, then I stood and waited for my next order. Once dinner was ready, we sat outside and ate it and after clear up I went straight to bed as I wasn’t feeling 100%.

In the tent, it was so hot. I lay the roll mat down and put a blanket on top of that. At first I didn’t need anything on top of me but part way through the night I pulled my thin blanket over the top. It wasn’t a great night’s sleep, as we were at the service station and there were lorries and trucks and people making noises all night long.

In the morning, we had to be packed up and ready for 6.30. Even though I was already awake, my alarm went off at 5.45 and I got up and ready and packed up my tent. We did a pretty good job of packing up quickly and we were all on the truck, ready to set off for 6.30, to head 600km further into the journey to Brotas.

Sorry for the boring blog, and the fact that there are no photos to go with it but it was just a quick stopover between leave the pantanal late in the morning, and getting to Brotas for a few nights.

To travel is to live, Katie x