10.09.2013,
Day 935,
103 793 km since the beginning of the journey
Day's journey 100 km, 48 bridges.
Morning at the gate of the tower of Embratel. It is 7 o'clock and in the shade the temperature is perfectly bearable, not a single cloud in the sky.
The area around the tower is inhabited, there is a dwelling house on the other side of the road and there is even a school.
This small house is the schoolhouse.
From the house on the other side of the road we can have water in the morning so that all the containers would be filled, and the journey can continue. There is no sense to make a timetable, in reality we can drive during the day probably the distance between three posts. That would be - 100 kilometes in 9 hours.
Anyway, not more than 20 km per hour can not driven, if you do not want your head to contact the ceiling all the time. And in the meantime, of course, there come - the bridge-control-stops, bridges-photographing-stops, meal breaks, and so on.
The majority of roadside land in Brazil has been taken into use (the cow eats grass, etc.), but by the side of this road the nature is wilder there.
Meanwhile, there are parts where next to the old road a new one has appeared and this new one is now less bumpy.
There's been quite a lot of mud during the rain.
And then there are the places where the road dike has begun to fall in.
Again, asphalt, for a time. Just for so long that you put in the third gear and the then fourth one, and then you must start to brake right away, because the land in front is like on the Moon.
The roadside - Let's just say that there is less debris, but you will notice tin cans all the time. Or plastic bottles.
One of the remnants of a bridge.
Mud, bridge, mud, dry road, asphalt, dirt, potholes, drier path, and so on, by tens and tens of kilometers.
Next Embratel tower. Here there has been once a gas station and illuminated advertising, the frame of which is still in its place.
The gas station itself. The grass is at least one meter high.
Further on a former restaurant-bar-whatever eatery. A shelter to keep you dry during heavy rain.
Next, the sky turns cloudier. And the road gets wider and muddier. For a change.
And then again a few kilometers of drier road.
The last farm before the four hundred kilometers of almost uninhabited part of the road.
And then it starts to rain again. For some time. And the road gets more slippery.
There are kilometer-posts by the road. I will record the coordinates of Embratel towers in my GPS, and then it is good to see the number of the kilometers we have covered by the end of the day, and interesting to predict when the next tower will be visible from afar.
I guess someone has been engaged in voodoo.
Amazonian mud specificity - two to three centimeters thick layer of dirt will remain stuck to the footwear and for cleaning a larger knife is most suitable.
The rainforest next to the road comes closer and closer and closer.
In the evening by five o'clock we reach the sixth tower, and, as the sun will be setting soon we do not move on, the next tower is at least 30 km away and can be reached only in the dark. The gate of the tower here is also locked and the place in front of the gate seems to be in every way suitable to spend the night.
Everything is ok for the first few hours, and then suddenly the ants wake up and start with their everyday routine, and our cars, and dining table and chairs are just disturbing them. As the wiser ones usually will give in – we drive away from in front of the gate and park the cars on the roadside, after having checked the ground. The location is better, so let's say that, as there is the rainy season here and less rainy period, so there are areas here full of ants, and less - ant-populated areas.
Car tires are teated with Off and other chemicals in the hope that the ants can not tolerate chemical smells. The rest of the night is ant-free. Any other creatures are also not seen in the dark.
The journey of the second day.
Continued :
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