La Tranpantaneira
C'est une piste incroyable qui part de Poconé jusqu'à Porto Jofre, en s'enfonçant sur 150 km dans la grande zone marécageuse du fabuleux parc naturel du Pantanal.
Le long de cette piste qui franchit plus de 143 petits ponts de bois, les fazendas accueillent les voyageurs et leur font découvrir, à pied, à cheval ou en bateau, la faune et la flore de ce véritable sanctuaire écologique.
Nous l'empruntons en sens inverse et passons la première journée 100 ponts dont 3 très abimés.
Jean Pierre part en éclaireur et guide le pauvre Christophe sur ces planches de bois où de nombreux clous apparaissent. Sur un des ponts il remet en place des planches pour permettre au camping-car de passer !!!
C'est une piste, donc très poussiéreuse ... A l'étape du jour, nous mettons 4 h pour nettoyer le camping-car de fond en comble .... Une épaisse couche de sable remplie l'habitacle jusqu'à l'intérieur des placards et des soutes.
Le soir nous profitons de la fraicheur et du vol des aras bleu
Nous repartons le lendemain pour parcourir 43 km sur une piste en ripio ... Encore une horreur, le camping-car souffre beaucoup et se rempli encore une fois de sable !!!
Notre vitesse de croisière est en moyenne de 20 km/h et le trajet nous paraît interminable. Nous sommes entourés par plusieurs centaines de caïmans ....
Arrivés à Cuiaba, nous nous rendons chez un garage spécialisé en électricité pour réparer les feux de positions à l'arrière.
Puis nous faisons le plein de victuailles avant de rejoindre le camping
Porto Jofre
Yesterday we were not sure to have a boat for our trip, but finally Victoria found us guide that we have to share with a couple of Dutch/ Colombian.
See you at 7 am. We leave for a 10 hours of excursion on a small motorboat, far in the Cerrado (Brazilian savannah)
It is an immersion in an untouched nature, in the various rios around. Here is the «house of the jaguar», but also that of the richest fauna of the planet with its 670 species of birds (macaws, parrots, toucans, kingfishers), these 240 fish (including the piranha), 130 species of mammals and reptiles (deer, anteaters, capybaras, tapirs, caimans, anacondas).
We are in the dry season which allows us to observe hundreds of caimans, just a few meters from the boat.
We attend all day a parade of birds, such concentration is unique in the world.
But the goal is to hunt down the jaguar. At the end of the morning we see one from afar sinking into the swamps. After lunch we always hope ... Then finally the stuffed animal appears at the water’s edge ... The holy grail ... It is huge and only one and a half years old. His gaze hypnotizes us ... We are under his spell.
We return to the campsite with our head full of image.... Good night!!
Porto Jofre
After a rather short night, we reach a camping hotel located 500 m. Comments on our favorite site are very mixed ... There are pros and cons.
Indeed, the toilets and bathrooms are disgusting ... Fortunately for us the camper is well equipped ... And clean!!
We settle near the rio and prepare the days to come, organize a boat trip and meals because there are no shops nearby and we have finished our stocks on the boat.
Less known than the Amazon, the vast swamps around Porto Jofre are better suited for wildlife viewing.
They are home to the highest concentration of animals in the New World, most of which are easily identifiable in these large spaces. The Pantanal region, sparsely populated and without a city, covers more than half the area of France.
The distances are so great and land transport so rare that travel is by small plane and motorboat.
The only road going deep into the Pantanal is the Transpantaneira.
An unusual cruise
The day before our departure, Valérie the Ovaldo’s wife takes us to discover our boat. Surprise-Surprise ... It’s a barge pushed by a boat. There is no cabin, everyone sleeps in hammocks. It is equipped with a kitchen and two toilets/showers. We will sleep in our camper.
D-Day our appointment is set for 12:00 at the port. An hour after Valérie takes us to a vacant lot where a makeshift landing stage is set up.
Our boat arrives and docks. Immediately the crew installs beams as ramps.
They are very high, so they adjust with other small beams. We are not reassured!!!
The climb is in reverse and we need two tries to get on board ... Poor motorhome, so many adventures for him and emotions for us.
We’re going back to the port to see a variety of goods being shipped that companies are delivering as time goes on. Then comes the turn of the passengers loaded like mules, they are about twenty.
Finally leaving at 7:30 in the middle of the night.
The first day takes place at a gentle pace: we go up the Paraguay river admiring a multitude of different birds.
Our meals are included and consist of a plate of rice and red beans accompanied by a small piece of beef or fish!!! no dessert ... Fortunately we had provisions before leaving.
At about 1900, the vessel slowed down and landed on the bank ... Engine failure. It is necessary to wait the next morning for the team to leave in cannot with motor to join a farm with wifi and ask for help.
The spare part arrives from Corumba, then the repair is done in 2 hours ... And here we go again at 4 pm.
We sail two days, always accompanied by colonies of birds and caimans. The days pass quickly.
Our arrival is scheduled at 9 pm in the middle of the night!!!
Another surprise awaits us: the landing is done on a steep and sandy bank!! We do not understand, Ovaldo had told us that boarding and disembarking would be on a right dock
It is in these moments that the language barrier is most felt. We try to explain to them that it is impossible for our camper to disembark here. But there is no other place.
The crew installs the beams - ramps: Christophe becomes white and Jean Pierre is not optimistic
What had to happen happened ... The descent goes more or less well, but the climb on the sandy bank becomes a calvary ... The motorhome gets bogged down several times ... Armed with our clearance plates and shovels we try to clear our fellow driver ... without success!!
To spice up the situation, we stopped on a nest of ants ... We are covered with these little bugs!!!
We insist that the captain ask for help, but he doesn’t know anyone. It’s after 11 pm. Finally, after a few phone calls, he goes to get help ... It’s a pick-up that comes to our rescue
In two minutes we are out ... End of the episode at 11:50!!
It is night, we are exhausted and we decide to sleep there.
Border crossing / Corumba
We stopped the day before 100 km from the border to be there in the early morning.
We are not alone. As usual, access to the border is narrow and invaded by a column of trucks ... Impossible to park ... And congestion as a bonus!!
Getting out of Bolivia is difficult, especially for the vehicle ... Finding a place near customs ... Inspection of the vehicle (only the license plate!!!) ... Return to the counter ... !!! An administration to the Bolivian ... Duration 1 h 30
However, entering Brazil is a real pleasure, 30 minutes.
At the entrance, a charming police officer welcomes us in English, explains the different steps and guides us at each step. The same applies to visas where a pleasant employee informs us in English that we can claim only 90 days of visa despite our request for a 180-day visa. For the camper, the latter being registered in France, it is considered as a neighbour of Brazil which shares a border with Guyana. Therefore no document is necessary to enter Brazil.
Here we are in Brazil looking for a spot for two nights. We are landing in a camping hotel quite far from the center but it is the closest.
To reach the road "Transpantaneira" two solutions: take the road and do 1 300 km where well take a ferry from Corumba to Porto Jofre.
We chose the ferry that goes up the Rio Paraguay and the Rio Sao Laurenço through the Pantanal and we reserved our place for 21 July via Ovaldo.
The departure is scheduled in two days: time to make some provisions, to withdraw money, to buy a Sim card and to deposit the linen in a laundromat ... all this far from the campsite and in a city where uber does not really work and taxis are unreachable ... a real happiness.
The weather is beautiful: blue sky, full sun and 28°.... little shadow on the picture mosquitoes invade us from 5 pm to 9 pm ..
ROAD BOOK 161
MAVROS ODYSSEE
