There and back again…

I woke with the theme to the “Great Escape” going through my head. This was it! D-Day!

The day did not start well. After breakfast a group of us set of to get the tractor and pick up the timber we had got from the woods the previous day. The owners of the posada then said that we could not use this timber as it belonged to the adjacent ranch. This was really annoying to say the least. We had spent a great deal of time the previous day sourcing this timber and it was great for what we needed.

The owners of the posada then said that there were timber piles we could us from their land. I set of with some of the guides with the tractor to find the timbers. The first few planks where pretty big and would be great for runners which the truck wheels would be in contact with. The guides also said that there would be another huge runner on the other side of the river. One of them went back to bring a boat so we could cross the river and look at the timber. The plank in question was actually part of a jetty that had fallen into disrepair and literally into the water. It took two of us to drag this plank from the water and then four of us to get it onto the boat and back across the river. With the four runners we needed to source some spreaders. These came from various wood piles around the woods at the back of the posada. We had to be really careful about handling wood from these wood piles and we found several large spiders and even a snake that had made its home in one of the wood piles.

With the trailer full of timber we made our way over to where the truck had driven. The route that Kent and Dion had defined went alongside one the track that followed the powerlines. This route provided the shortest distance across the quagmire. Luckily after a few days of hot weather the mud had dried out. It may have been possible to attempt to cross without the raft in place but if a wheel had sunk into the mud their would be no going back. There was two groups; a cutting group that had beaten a path for the truck through the undergrowth and a bridge group. The cutting group had already laid some brush across the path and on top of this we laid the spreaders and then the runners. I was the leader of the bridge group and directed where we would place spreaders and runners. I was really nervous as everything was placed on instinct without any calculations. Eventually Dion and I were happy that everything was as good as it would get.

Dion backed up the truck and slowly approached the raft. As the back wheel hit one of the runners it broke but the truck had passed this point and slowly continued. Dion then revved the truck and built speed to get over the last part of the ramp and onto freedom. I was so relieved we had made it through the first obstacle. Simpson Engineering: we do National Stadiums and bridges in the Pantanal!

The bridge team disassembled the raft back onto the tractor and we made our way to the next obstacle. Originally when Kent had planned the road he had to plan a cross country route as the roads had not dried out properly. However one of the guides had said that the road was passable now. In fact Dion was pretty much able to get the truck to the road. There was just a small section where we had to build up the ground into a ramp and fill in some of the ruts. This didn’t take long and then Dion reversed the truck over the ramp and onto the road. This was it. We were home free. Everyone was so happy and the escape from the Pantanal was almost complete.

Donna and Dion took the truck onto the road and Dion set about making the truck road worthy; pumping up the tires, changing the diff lock and various other tasks. The rest of us went back to the posada. We dropped of the timber at a wood pile behind the stables and then set about packing up the camp. We even had a bit of time for a quick dip in the pool. We then loaded the tractor with all the camping gear and bags. With the bags stored we all jumped onto the vehicle used for jeep safaris. The irony is that had the weather been fine we would have done a jeep tour on the first night. Now we only managed this on the very last day. Not that it was much of a jeep tour we pretty much headed straight out along the road and met up with the truck close to the main road. After packing all the boxes and tents we hit the road again back to Pocane. To say that everyone was in high spirits was an understatement.

We stopped briefly in Pocane. After time in the Pantanal several of us were broke so we headed to the only ATM in town to try and get money out. The bank did not take international cards and the ATM next door refused my card. It had been blocked again by the bank. Not happy that this is happening too often. The others had a similar problem. So Mirrka, Maartje, Jepser, Sarah, Charlotte wandered round town first to the post office which again didn’t have any international ATM. Finally we went back to the bank and Jesper and Mirrka persuaded the bank to give us money on the cards but without going through the ATM. No one else had any ID and in a way it was good because it took about half an hour. In the end we had ten minutes to get into the centre and grab a bite to eat and get back to the truck. We were all pretty hungry and grumpy but in the end it worked out OK. I borrowed some cash from Kent until I could get to an ATM.

In order to catch up with our schedule we opted to eat at road side diners for the next two days rather than buy and cook food. We were on the road again and heading to Brazilia. There is not really a lot to say about the rest of this journey. We stopped for dinner at a non-descript service station and ate at the buffet. Some of the group ate at a different restaurant within the same compound.

Back on the road quickly after dinner we carried on the drive with the idea of trying to get as far as possible before stopping to pitch tents. To pass the time Webster, Charlotte, Maartje and I played a drinking game with dice called “3 man”.

It was really simple game. When you rolled a double six you could make up a new rule. Someone, I think Webster, made the rule than when you rolled a double you had to sing a song that everyone could join in with. Of course one of the problems with drinking games is that you need to go to the toilet a lot. Perhaps not the best move on a truck that was only due to stop for pee-stops every two hours. We eventually made camp which was an abandoned service station.

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