2017-11-22 Day 202 Wed

Drove rest of way out of the Pantanal road. Saw a toucan close up. Not sure how he can fly with the size of his beak!  (beak can be up to 50% of body surface area)

Couldn't find any free wi-fi and the tourist center was closed so drove out of town towards Cuiaba. A good road with little traffic. Hid from the sun under a mango tree while john cooked lunch. It has become hot and humid. Really grateful for the fan. A much needed accessory.                                                                                                       

The plan had been to go into town and by some parts that we need but as we neared it and the sun was getting lower in the sky we decided to skirt town. (doesn’t actual take much to change our minds, regarding a town visit). As we got to the first roundabout we were met with a stream of trucks and for the next hour on the ring road we were hemmed in by trucks, not just on the road but in service stations and in truck parks. We were unaware that there could be so many trucks in the one place at the one time. We may have big double “B’s” and road trains in Australia, but here they have semi’s by the thousands.  One of the interesting items we have noticed with these trucks is they can "lift" some of their wheels off the road when empty. This may save on tyre wear and/or make their wheel base shorter. This photos shows two lots of wheel configuration.



It was getting dark and we were still following trucks.... Finally found a white loop road on the map so turned off on that. It was a fairly well used dirt road but the loop part did not turn out, just an overgrown track. We found a little flat spot beside a farmers gate and near a little stream. As I was directing john into the spot, thousands of flying bugs came to the head lights and my torch light. I had bugs up my dress and down my dress and crawling everywhere!! Was good to climb inside. A few vehicles and bikes passed in the night.