1 May: Short hop up the coast to Praia de Ribanceira and Camp Padang. Quick afternoon surf even though the surf was quite big. Seems to be very much a surfing village.
3 May: Thankfully the campsite had an indoor lounge area, as it has rained heavily the last few days.
4 May: Longish day of travelling and admin as we moved up to Florianapolis area. First up was laundry at a Laundromat attached to a fuel station, then shopping and trying to find something for a stye on Stuarts eye and finally a couple of stops to find a campsite. Definitely will be a one night only stop as the campsite is a marsh thanks to all the rain.
6 May: Yesterday found a much nicer campsite near top end of island and have had a few chilled days, entertained each evening by a group of girls that come to play “beach tennis” at the campsite.
7 May: Another long, frustrating day trying to find a campsite but at least the scenery has been spectacular. Ended up in an expensive RV parking lot feeling like animals in a Zoo due to boardwalk directly in front of us.
8 May: a nice easy day, only about 20km north of Porta Belo (we can see last nights spot across the bay) to a very peaceful campsite. There is a nice seafood restaurant next door and we had hoped to do lunch but they are way expensive so toasted sandwich’s followed by white wine on the beach while we soak up some rays.
9 May: Chilled day, not too much sun so not really a beach day but got admin done like: filling water tank, haircut for Stuart and some engine bay inspection time for Mr Jones.
10 May: Scary moments in Ipapepa (a relatively busy town) when a motorbike cuts in front then stops suddenly for a traffic light, all while Stuart is checking the GPS for exactly were next turn is. How we didn’t ride over him we will ever know!! Wake-up call to the risks of travelling independently like we do.
11 May: A fantastic day, campsite is in reality just a parking area but has a very attentive caretaker who is forever on google translate asking about Africa and it’s animals. When it got a bit too much, we walked around the headland to a beach with some surf and Stuart had one of his best sessions ever.
13 May: A long ferry wait today, as we missed the 10:00 sailing, partly because Stuart thought there was a ferry in Sao Francisco Sul central (apple maps showed so) and then cause we got stuck in traffic leaving town. If it hadn’t been for the traffic we may have just made it. Of course only found out about the 2 hour sailing schedule on arrival at the boarding point, so spent the time reading and catching up on blog posts.
14 May: Another stunning ferry crossing, while chatting with the car parked next to us on the ferry we learnt that they are descendants of Polish immigrants. Turns out this area was heavily populated by poles and Ukraine’s in the early 1900’s.. Today we entered our 3rd Brazilian state: Parana
15 May: An awesome day of very scenic driving as we drove over the ancient “Estrada da Graciosa” pass and then cruised on the Br116 towards Sao Paolo. While it is a very busy dual carriage way, it is also very scenic as it winds it’s way through the rain forests and down off the high plateau. At one point we were both like “if it’s this dense here imagine what the Amazon must be like?” And then Tania got technical and added “never mind the Amazon being a carbon sink, the whole of Brazil must be one” 😂
17 May: Long day as we missioned around Santos in the hope of extending visa – pity we were too early to do this. Multiple stops as we had to find a shop to print the online forms we had completed, then a Bank to pay invoice generated from the online forms, then an Airforce base (with great interactions) due to misinformation, then on to a ferry to Santos, then find parking in downtown and finally walk to Policia Federal office and figure out the system, then back to campsite. Exhausted.
18 May: Should have been a stunning drive today as road was spectacular, just to tired to enjoy it. We need some proper down time! Spent an hour sitting outside a possible garden camp spot hoping someone would appear, even went inside the gate to look in house before leaving and camping in public park at Sao Sebastiao
19 May: Sense of humour lost this morning, the one linear actuator which we rely on so heavily for opening and closing the roof (and was bloody expensive) stopped working in the up position so couldn’t even close the roof and we are camped in a public park and its raining! Other than that caught a very rough ferry crossing to IIlabela island (after been told by ferry supervisor to hide our gas bottle inside otherwise we would have to catch a special dangerous goods scheduled ferry..). And then paid for our most expensive camping yet in South America and spent the rest of the day inside MR J as it’s miserable outside (cold, windy and raining).
20 May: A chilled day and the sun come out a bit. Was able to strip and dry out the linear actuator and get it working again. Big relief. Sundowners on the beach below. A much better day than the last few.
22 May: After a few chilled days and downtime at Pedro do Sino, we moved into town for the carnival. Camped in a camping and parking ground that is only 500m from the carnival parade area so perfectly located. The carnival was small but so awesome, thoroughly enjoyed our evening watching the parade and people in general. The perfect end to our first month in Brazil.
25 May: A chilled day as we drove only 30km north towards Ubatuba and found a nice little campsite with direct access to the beach and there are waves! We are needing some downtime so plan to stay for a few days, just hope there are no barrochudas around.
29 May: It’s been 5 days of much needed downtime, the waves have been good and not too many biters around plus we have met some (as always) super friendly Brazilian campers and just enjoyed the weekend vibe of a very down to earth spot on the coast.
30 May: Longish day of shopping and laundry in Ubatuba before moving up the coast a little to Praia Itamambuca. A very cool little surfing village, but waves are big!!