TODAY FILMED TRUCKS AT TERN HILL

I was preparing an article for the Polio Bulletin and thought it would be a good report for a wider perspective on our Brazil trip
Mandy is chair of The Cheshire, Wirral and North Wales Branch of the Polio Fellowship,  Dave is secretary.
We had been planning the trip to look at wild life on the Pantanal in Brazil since 2019. Back then Dave was on a trip in Ukraine and his travelling companion who had visited Brazil on an expensive wild life tour had brought details along as he thought it would be of interest. So sat in a restaurant in Kiev ( how time flies!) we had books, maps and photos which looked very enticing although there was probably little chance of using a premium wild life tour company to meet our budget.

The aspect which had struck Dave’s friend was that once you were sat in a boat much of the wildlife viewing was from your seat there without need for walking. Dave progressed our enquiries directly with the ranches who hosted wild life visits. With a critical review of how they performed we wrapped our plans around the organised trips with our amendments to suit our needs.

The Pantanal is situated in the North West of Brazil south of the Amazon near the borders with Bolivia and Paraguay. It is the world’s largest wetland area, basically flooded in our winter and dries in our summer. As the water retracts spring onwards the wildlife is on a smaller amount of land with rivers and lakes around them. The visitor will see a huge amount of wildlife which is similar to that found in the Amazon minus most of the trees thus viewing is a lot easier. The regional industry is farming mostly cattle with tourism increasing save for the dent in progress because of the Corona Pandemic which all but destroyed that revenue for two years.

Our plans were mostly completed in 2019 for 2020 and we then twice put back until we could get there without too much fuss in 2022. We had in recent years visited Madagascar and Borneo on the basis of do it now as we might not be up to it in the future. The accommodation providers also arrange all the trips out viewing, two of them invited cash on arrival, one in Euro and the other in US dollars. We kept in contact throughout the pandemic to reassure we would still be coming. The Jofre river hotel was confirmed via usual booking platforms on line. Putting in provision for car hire and flight plus sharing a family room with a close friend our small party of three would cost less than half a pre organised trip although it wouldn’t be for anyone uninitiated with making travel arrangements off the beaten track.

So with the clock wound on to July 2022 we were still alive and fit and ready for more adventures, it had already been a catch up year with a spring trip to Mexico. The one shock for the budget was that air fares had tripled – supply and demand but we didn’t want to confirm too early with all the cancellation horror stories. That aside all was well other than battling through airline policies on wheel chair users and driving on Brazil. There was no chance of Mandy being able to get a hand adapted car and our travelling companion declined to be a number two on the car hire agreement. The two airlines were Latam and Azul. Stress rose daily but cutting through all the wordy advice and forms Latam just needed an email to advise them of a wheelchair user and Azul just say roll up and we’ll sort it out. That dear readers is the bottom line after a lot of grief.

We flew from Heathrow as it was direct to Sao Paulo where onward flights to the regions are plentiful. Their airlines care and assistance were first class throughout, very kind and caring. Having mentioned Heathrow it is probably inevitable there were hiccups, the worst being the bus from the car park to the terminal. A Stirling Moss departure sent Mandy and wheelchair in one direction and other passengers and luggage into several parts of the bus. The usual small advantages of being in a wheelchair and the first through at immigration, security etc worked well. Latam food was a bit basic but tasty and they had a good range of in flight entertainment. A relaxing flight with a great crew and on arrival Mandy’s wheelchair at the aircraft door, as it was on all the flights until needless to say we got back to Heathrow. The lugguage was there ready to collect and ready for the next step.

We had to get a taxi to the local airport but there is a desk to book and pay and the vehicles are all large enough to takes wheelchairs and plenty of baggage. It was only a short hop and we were soon checked in and with time for a leisurely drink. Coffee is universal in Brazil, served expresso, tiny cups and strong, requests for a big cup and milk just gets milk. The same level of service and attentive support was experienced on the internal flight to the city of Cuiaba which is the starting point for trips to the Pantanal. It also provides a sample of the sunsets to follow.

The Brazilian government had ordered up a road to open up the area but as it floods each winter progress was minimal and soon abandoned leaving just a raised dirt track over a hundred miles long which had to transverse rivers and wet areas with more than a hundred bridges. This was decades ago and other than a few bridges being replaced with concrete structures most were still Heath Robinson wooden efforts which looked and were rickety and as it turned out lethal. We had a night near the local airport and picked our car up in the morning leaving a day to travel out along the dirt road. Generally, there are people in wheelchairs out and about in Brazil but independent travel falls with the lack of drop kerbs and haphazard building techniques.

Next getting into a boat, well lots of willing help at our first stay and at this point we must stress that all accommodation is in ranch style single storey buildings. The boats could be reached by a fairly steep set of steps which Mandy preferred but they also offered to get in the boat on the slip way and be launched. Mandy managed the steps with lots of helpers, mostly not needed but you don’t Next getting into a boat, well lots of willing help at our first stay and at this point we must stress that all accommodation is in ranch style single storey buildings. The boats could be reached by a fairly steep set of steps which Mandy preferred but they also offered to get in the boat on the slip way and be launched. Mandy managed the steps with lots of helpers, mostly not needed but you don’t like to say anything.

To drive a car in Brazil you need in addition to your local driving licence an International Driving Permit which is easily obtained for less than £6 at a UK post office. Then you are required to have a Brazilian Portuguese certified translation (issued at the British Consulate!!). I did go so far as getting the translation, certified etc, all £99 worth. Nobody asked for it but we felt better avoiding any possible trouble with traffic police (none seen).

The regional capital held few driving challenges in fact after driving round Romania a couple of months earlier it was a piece of cake. Top tips, don’t book a car through Booking.com as they use another agent then the actual car provider, lines then are very stretched and few people speak any English. This all took longer than anticipated and the pleasant small town of Pocone when finally reached seemed more than ever just a staging point where topping up with fuel and provisions for self-caterers was essential – this is where the tarmac finished. We had booked a Dacia Duster which has a reasonably high chassis and lots of luggage space, our allocated Peugeot estate didn’t.

Many traversing this highway will have a cortège of camera equipment, lenses two feet long and some with a full TV crew.  Dave uses his old Canon G16 which is none of the forgoing things. Do you need it all, I suppose if you are a casual birder and just generally interested in seeing the world about us then memories are best of all. All photos in this article are by Dave on his old Cannon. Fuel is Ethanol or Gasoline, the car took either or a mix, mostly around half UK prices – I must admit we were at first flummoxed by all this, the car instructions were 300 pages in Portuguese we just followed the crowd.
You hire a boat for a full or half day, remember we were on our own no guide or translator but you soon get a feel for the routine. We saw plenty of wildlife, the gems Jaguars and Giant River Otters , everywhere more common quirky local resident rodents.


Anywhere you stay unless self catering you will get full board, three meals a day. Dave liked the Panacotta style deserts made with condensed milk, really these was lots of it and a fair choice. We never met another Brit until location three.  Now remember the bridges, they really were rickity, narrow and falling apart. We encountered one on the first day just before Porto Jofre ( the road ends here a thousand miles of wild national park beyond). We had encountered a collapsed bridge and land slip and had to drive through the river. At the hotel they informed us that a lorry had tried to cross ( yes overweight what else)  and everything came tumbling down, the two chaps in the wagon were killed. Now for our return to our next location…. Yes there is only one road!... we had to get back round it. Now a mud bath another of the hotel trucks had got stuck in the sea of mud and a 4x4 sank trying to overtake. A JCB hauled them out, a local pick up beat us to try crossing, I stuck to his heels and we made it, just.

The next leg of our journey having survived the river of mud was a family run ranch which extended to 7000 hectares which I think translated was a lot of land. The 7.5km drive was a wildlife trek in itself and the reason why anyone with a disability is better off in their own vehicle. The tourists go on the back of a chars-a- banc style lorry open to the dust with your own car you have a hide to watch from and a retreat to rest in. The owners a man and his sister offered to move us into a fully disabled friendly room but what we had was fine and we were settled in. They had a 15foot Anaconda the previous week and a Lesser Anteater but we had a Tapir and lots of Rhea and they had invested in a huge lookout tower, no lift but I could see the photos. Lots of birds they are everywhere and Caiman that eat only fish number in the millions.


We finished up at the South Wild ranch, a thrusting American wildlife conservation trust which if often accused of habitualisation of animals, getting them used to people. In a way this is true but you get to see animals and they get protection. Cattle killed by wildlife is an accepted loss, ranchers an get compensated. One of the top treats South Wild have is the chance to see a rare Ocelot. All around though are the birds which we have hardly considered, the Toucan is just one but what a special one it is, once renowned world- wide as an advert for Guinness!

We ended up with a long list of mammals, reptiles, rodents and birds we had seen either together or individually. There were several species of monkeys, over 50 types of bats, snakes they haven’t even got names for. On the way back we stopped in Sao Paulo to catch up with Dave’s friend who he had visited fourteen years previously. Here is our dynamic duo at the cathedral in the central district, not a place to linger though after all it’s not just the Pantanal which has a wild side.

The trip home was as comfortable as could be, we slept most of the way. Set-backs, yes Heathrow, Mandy was lost for nearly an hour separated from Dave and Sue by a buggy ride. Parked up then dumped in a corner abandoned. Dave phone Mandy up and we got reunited after dire threats on publicity and remember the bus, well on return it picks up on a corner where the plate doesn’t reach and yes this time the driver was Graham Hill.