At Passeo do Lontra, we stopped to get a few extra litres of fuel, the sun was beginning to redden, so tempting as it was to keep riding, we decided to stop at the campsite there. Trikes and choppers, street bikes, dirt bikes, self-made bikes, madmax bikes, mopeds and even the odd sidecar combi. Thousands of bikes of every imaginable sort were lined up along the beachfront at Cabo Frio, for the annual Bikefest, including ours of course! With our sets of spare tyres perched on top of all the luggage, we sort of stood out a little, and once people spotted the funny looking number plate, they just had to ask!

The tyres were centre of attention

By Sunday, our throats were sore with answering all the questions, but we had had a wonderful weekend, met lots of other riders and been invited to another dozen meetings. We also met another traveller, Antonis from Cyprus, he had plans to go up to the Amazon, but maybe our paths will cross again later in the year.
Paulo and Josane from Campos, invited us to ride back with them and spend the night at their place. We took our time and spent the afternoon riding along the coast, stopping at some of the beaches and small towns. It was dark by the time we got onto the main highway and it was a scary 90 minute ride to the outskirts of the city. After 2 months here in Brazil, I am still surprised how friendly and welcoming the people are to Viajeros, when was the last time a perfect stranger invited you to stay in their home? A rare occurrence in Europe for sure. Riding a motorcycle makes a big difference though, it opens many doors that would otherwise stay closed.

A few days later we were at the beach again. After the busy Bikefest weekend, it was time to relax, we ended up in the small seaside town of Conceicão de Barra just north of Vitória. It was a quiet little place, perfect to unwind for a day or two, the highlight of the day; watching the sun set over the fishing boats in little harbour.

We did manage to tear ourselves away long enough to visit the huge sand dunes at Itaúnas, a dirt ride away. You’re not allowed to ride on them, much to Arno's disappointment, but spectacular nonetheless.

Riding inland once again, we took the smallest roads, many of them dirt, taking us through small villages and the mountain roads. There were many mines and quarries to be seen in this area, and we met many trucks taking huge chunks of stone to factories further afield.

The trucks had to use these bridges too!

The colonial mining towns of Ouro Preto, Tiradentes and São João del Rei kept us busy for a few days, on our way towards Bolivia and in Campo Grande, we did some maintenance on the bikes and put on the new tyres.
West of Campo Grande is the area known as the Pantanal, a huge wetland that is full of wildlife. A dirt road branches off into the Pantanal from the main road to Corumbá and we decided to use this and do some of our own exploration instead of taking a tour.

The paved road from Campo Grande to Corumbá skirts the lower part of the wetland and, after passing through the town of Miranda, the wildlife began to appear. Jacarés (a medium sized crocodile) were basking in the sun on the edges of waterholes and the amount of bird life increased dramatically. We got to the turn off to Passeo do Lontra at the same time as one of the tours, they had spent 3 days in the Pantanal. We chatted to the guides and asked about the roads and the ferry across the Rio Negro. We had been told various tales, but they said that the ferry was running, despite the higher than normal water levels and that the road was a little muddy after the recent rains.

The road was indeed pretty dry and it was fun, riding around the mud holes, glimpsing various wildlife. At Passeo do Lontra, we stopped to get a few extra litres of fuel, the sun was beginning to redden, so tempting as it was to keep riding, we decided to stop at the campsite there. A good decision, we later found. The campsite was part of a hotel complex, all suspended on wooden walkways above the swampy ground, even the camping area was a wooden platform. As we carried our stuff across the bridge – no bikes allowed! – the wildlife was also preparing for the night, not exactly peacefully either.
Capybaras were snuffling in the swamp, birds were twittering in the eaves, monkeys were chattering in the trees above our tent and of course the mossies were making their presence felt.

The next morning we were up early, along with all the other local inhabitants. The birds came for their morning feed and the monkeys, still above our tent completed their morning grooming and crapping rituals. Lesson learned; never camp under a troop of monkeys!!

We made an early start, hoping to be at Porto Manga and the ferry by late morning, the road however had other ideas. It lay much lower than before and so was wetter and muddier, in most places there was a dryish track to ride on but at times water covered the road and there were a few long stretches of mud to negotiate.

This isn’t going to go any longer is it?

Now mud and my bike don’t get along that well and I am the one that ends up on the floor, only twice today though, it could have been a lot more!!

A little frustrated?

The compensation however, was the wildlife, hundreds of Jacarés, a couple of deer, lots of capybaras (a strange dog sized aquatic guinea pig), thousands of birds and my favourite, the giant anteater, who was strolling along the side of the road.

Capybaras look on as Arno slithers through

We reaches Porto Manga around lunch time to find the ferry waiting to leave, what good timing! Just had to manoeuvre the bikes up a temporary gravel ramp and we were across the swollen Rio Negro in no time. The road didn’t get any better and we slithered our way through the mud for the rest of the afternoon until the road took us back to tarmac just before Corumbá our last stop in Brazil.