1 August: Sadly, not nearly as good a day as yesterday. The wind was up, we got drenched by a quick downpour in the morning while trying to make flapjacks and the surf was blown out. Back to being grumpy.
2 August: The wind was up again this morning so a quick decision to bounce was made, after 3 and a bit months on the coast it is time to head inland and see a different side of Brazil. bit sad to leave the coast and more sad cause much of it didn’t live up to expectation but excited to be going somewhere different. Spent a very good night in a truck stop. Crazy to think that after 14 weeks and 6000+ kilometres in Brazil we drove Mr Jones for the first time in a Southerly direction.
3 August: Into the Chapada Diamantina area of mountains we went today, reminds us a great deal of the Cederberg mountains just greener.
5 August: Long day of very hot travelling. We were tempted to stop at a supposedly nice wild campsite on a river but reached that at 1:30 and felt it was just too early to stop and sit around in the heat all afternoon so carried on. Then around 4pm passed a niceish looking truck stop but iOverlanderr review was “so-so” so carried on to another 30min further which had better reviews – was a very bad mistake! On arrival we didn’t like the vibe and it was very dirty but we were too tired to turn back, then as it got dark the prostitutes arrived and at 1am we got woken by them talking loudly right next to Mr J which they proceeded to do for the next few hours.
6 August: Clocked quite some distance again today which was surprising considering last night’s lack of sleep and arrived at a stunning location in the Jalapao region called Lagoa de Serra – a stunning crystal-clear lake surrounded by white sand and mountains
7 August: A lovely chilled day, either lazing in the hammocks or in the lake.
8 August: A long ass day into the Parque Jalapoa area and not sure it was worth it, the drive was super-hot thanks to the fine talcum powder sand Mr J is absolutely filthy INSIDE, as are we.
9 August: Only 3 hours in the car today, roads very sandy and GPS led us astray to wrong side of a river which meant a 30km and 1 hour backtrack but campsite is in stunning location with loverly clear river and a fervodoura (natural spring where your feet sink into the sand). On the negative side it is stinking hot and there are little flying miggies and flies which bite the hell out of you, hard to appreciate the beauty in these circumstances.
11 August: Had hoped to do a short hop part of the way out of Jalapao area and thus split the long, hot dusty journey into two but the camping area we had in mind was closed/abandoned so pushed on and eventually pulled into a truck stop at 4:30 in the afternoon. To add to our misery, Mr J has developed the intermittent fuel starvation issue we had a little over a year ago. The truck stop had a good vibe though and we sat down for a couple of beers with the truckers.
12 August: Slept really well last night with no disturbances until earlier hours when some trucks started up, even managed to drain, remove and clean out fuel sedimenter which suspect was the cause of the cut-out issues yesterday before setting off. The fuel station owner/ manager come over to check we were all good and have a chat, once again such a pity we can’t chat properly but he did give us a recommendation for an attraction (Rio Azuis) about 2 hours away to break our journey to Brasilia.
13 August: A stunning but long day. A local motorbike traveller at the river took us to a little-known cave which was so awesome filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Then we followed it up with a long drive through to the Chapada dos Veadeiros area, once again very hot but stunning vistas.
14 August: A little shattered today from the last few long days of travel and then a very late night with some fellow Brazilian campers but happy to be in a place with grass and lovely ablutions. Time to take some downtime and clean the dust out of Mr J over the next few days.
18 August: What a great week it has been so far. The town of Alto Paraiso de Goias has been really good for us from good times with fellow campers, too building a water tank for MR J bumper, to having a chance to spring clean and to finally having downtime it has all been good. On top of that the campsite owner took us today to get our booster vaccine jabs!
19 August: Feeling a bit frustrated, in SA we are used to many natural attractions being free or having a nominal charge to visit (even National Parks are affordable through the wild card system) but here everything requires a ZAR60 – 100 per person entry. Today we had thought to visit the “lunar valley”, then a waterfall and then have sundowners at a farm restuarant but each aforementioned attraction had an entry fee so if we had done that we would have been ZAR 600 down before even drinking or eating anything. Needless to say, we skipped it – waterfalls we have seen, bourkes luck potholes we have seen and many free spectacular sunsets we have seen!!
20 August: Lazy Saturday afternoons, hammock is out and slack line slung between two trees for some chill and fun time. A great end to a brilliant week in Alto Paraiso de Goias.
21 August: Quite a pleasant drive into Brasilia, reminding us so much of the drive into Joburg from either Harties or the Waterberg, the similarities are uncanny from the color of the grass or sand down to the type of trees. Spent the afternoon basking in the sun next to the lake chilling with all the locals and then setup MR J on a grassy section away from the other RV’s so we could have some quite pee space.
22 August: Bit shattered this morning as some locals stayed and partied all night! Drove through to the mechanic and left MR J in his hands, reminds us a lot of our Hermanus maintenance experience so feeling very happy. His one customer even drove us the 30 minutes back to our AirBnB. Been getting updates and pics via WhatsApp all day. In the meantime, we spent the afternoon in a self-service laundromat taking care of the last 30 days washing.
23 August: Had a fantastic dinner a Jamie Oliver Kitchen last night, which seems a bit odd to do in Brazil, but we have so been missing some international flavours and the pricing was very reasonable compared to many Brazilian restaurants. Spent the day exploring a little of central Brasilia and not sure quite what to make of it – has many very modern buildings, big spacious parks (in reality oversized and without character), huge multi- lane roads and then “stuck in time” cultural buildings which have not aged well from a 1960’s modernistic architectural ointment of view. It is certainly a very spacious city which gives it a good feel but definitely not pedestrian friendly and perhaps therefore a little cold.
24 August: We have Mr J back and it was a good mechanic/service experience (quality work and very reasonably priced). Spent the next few hours shopping for groceries, meat and a few new camping items before deciding to not head too far out of town as we still had all our laundry and etc to unpack and redistribute in Mr J
25 August: Relatively easy cruise out to the historic city of Pirenopolis. Mr J seems to be running very nicely and definitely cooler. City is nice but very touristy and so must still decide if we stay another day or not. Sadly when we checked coolant level this evening, it has dropped. After tightening a few hose clamps and consulting mechanic we are going to continue the journey tomorrow with the idea that if it was only the hose clamps we will have made progress in right direction and if not, it is not that far to go back to Brasilia and the mechanic. Also going to swop the expansion tank cap as that could be an issue if faulty.
26 August: Feeling really good this evening after a long drive, when Stuart checked the coolant level a couple of hours after stopping it hadn’t dropped.
27 August: Frustration this morning. – the coolant level dropped quite a bit overnight.
28 August: Easy enough drive back to Brasilia with slightly less coolant leakage. Spent the afternoon chilling next to the lake. Surprisingly neither of us is too stressed with regards what may be wrong with Mr Jones as we would just like to get to the bottom of the issue and know this is as good a place as any to do exactly that.
29 August: When we arrived at the mechanic this morning he immediately put the coolant pressure tester on and for 2 hours nothing happened – no leaks and no drop of pressure. Eventually some leaks started to appear at bottom of radiator. We have both been suspecting the radiator as the leaks started not long after we had it flushed and cleaned in South Africa. So hopefully this will be the end of Mr J coolant addiction.
30 August: A day of doing very little as we chill in an AirBnB while waiting for the radiator to be repaired on Mr J. On the positive side, really looking forward to another tasty meal at Jamie Olivers Kitchen tonight.
31 August: We have Mr J back and he is looking good, but decided to not try head out of Brasilia today and rather spend one more night down by the lake before we get the trip back on.