Leaving on the 22nd, the journey to Foz do Iguaçu along Br-277 is long, 650km long, which is the
furthest I have ever covered in a day.
Seeing as I average no more than 80km/h without factoring in rests it
was always going to be a long day. To
add to this there are over 7 toll stops along the way, which is
ridiculous. All these delays are nothing
compared to the accident that closed the road.
There were tailbacks several kms, but being on the bike I could cut
through all the stationary traffic and get to the front. The only other person I saw doing this was a
French guy travelling on a pushbike, crazy bastard! The accident was bad, the worst I have ever seen
and involved a cement lorry, another lorry carrying a shipping container and a
coach. The cement truck had completely disintegrated
as though it had exploded and there was cement covering the verge, trees,
everything really. I was going to take
pictures, but it didn’t feel right so I slowly rode past holding my breath as
there was a lot of cement dust in the air.
I later googled the accident and found out 3 people died so am glad I
didn’t take pictures. I’ve posted some
from the news agencies below, if only to show how horrific it was.
In total it
took me 10hrs to get to Foz, its some distance for the bike – to get a picture its the same distance
as London to Edinburgh. I stayed at Iguassu Motorcycle Hostel,
a new hostel for motorbike travellers run by Adriano and Rodolfo. It’s a small relaxed place and as the two guys
running it have other jobs, they just leave you the keys to the house and let
you get on with it. The only other
guests staying there were Tom and Rachel from England. They had arrived from Paraguay in a Combi
van, which they had bought there. Was
nice to hear a real English accent for once, all good until I realised how
messed up mine is now. Since January
2008 I have only been in England 2 years and that was while I managed the
hostel in Oxford, where I hardly met English people. Tom and Rachel were a great couple to be
around, and had some stories of their own to tell of their trips. They also run a charity in Malawi called Building Malawi http://www.buildingmalawi.com and are always interested to hear from anyone who might want to help them.
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| Hitting 10,000km en-route |
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| One of the many Tolls, a ridiculous 7 in total |
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| Strange Parana Pine Trees |
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| Adriano, Rodolfo, Rachel and Tom |
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| Toucan eats my boots. A sentence I never thought I would ever say |
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| The final Acai dish of Brasil, best one of my time there |
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