Day 542 13th january 2018
55 miles (Una to between Belmonte and Mogiquicaba ) Average speed 10.5 mph Top speed 36 mph
A fantastic day with an Everglades boat ride as the highlight, well worth 40 reais.
I got up at 7 with the landlady knocking to tell me brekkie was ready again. I had a good brekkie of more melon and coffee with ham and cheese rolls. I left at 9 and took on the first of many climbs. It was very hot and hard work. I stopped in a village for a coco verde. The lady in the roadside stall was very friendly and I had a joke with two young boys there and the coco verde was deliciously refreshing.
I raced to Canavieiras to listen to the Orient game but the restaurant I had a litre of coke in had no WiFi, so I looked for the boat and was told that it would cost 40 raeis for me and the bike and the boat left at 3. Another guy wanted 60. So I went back into town in search of food but couldn’t find any WiFi. I had a self service lunch which they weighed on the scales and cost 21 raeis. It was much needed. Back at the boat I boarded with two guys selling handmade souvenirs and they helped me lift the bike into the tiny boat.
It was an incredible journey which took an hour as we went through Everglades and some very narrow stretches. The captain certainly knew his way around as we went at speed and he steered us expertly.
Sometimes it felt like we were in an FIA race through the narrow rivers as he overtook some of the other boats. The scenery was amazing and the bird life too.
I was almost surprised not to see any alligators. As we arrived At Belmonte I searched for a campsite shown on the map, but it was a water park and the guy didn’t seem too keen on letting me stay there so I looked for a pousada in town. In the end I decided to carry on and camp wild by a beach. The road out of Belmonte was not good but I managed to avoid the worst of the potholes. Then there were fences all the way along the route so nowhere to camp. The pathways marked on the map turned out to be driveways to peoples houses. After about 11 miles I found a track which led to a beach.
There was a house a bit further along but too far away for them to see me. I had tomato and tinned crab with pizza flavoured biscuits for dinner washed down with a beer after a dip in the sea and settled in for the night. It was very windy and the palm trees made a lot of noise but I managed to get some sleep.
Wild camp on beach under a noisy palm tree.