This is a new kind of adventure for me. I’ll be travelling with Madventure, a UK based company that has overland trucks all over the world.

Rio De Janiero

My trip started with 3 nights in Rio de Janiero, right in the middle of Carnaval. Given I don’t like crowds, parties or festivals much, this was not my idea of a good time but it’s timely for meeting the truck.

Carnaval is actually a lot of fun. There are over 300 “blocos” going on at any given time over the week previous to and post official Carnaval. The costumes, music and atmosphere are amazing. I didn’t go to the Sambadrome but later regretted it as I heard it’s an amazing experience. So….do it!

I did manage to get to Sugar Loaf mountain and see Christ the Redeemer. He’s pretty impressive! The history is interesting too.

The problem with Carnaval is the random street closings. I tried booking an uber in advance but still managed to have 4 cancel before it finally failed. UGH!! Normally I would have just walked as the meeting point was just over a mile away. BUT it’s stinking hot and I’ve got a BIG bag this time since I had to bring a tent ….etc. I managed to run down the street and find a taxi and was only 10 minutes late. I wasn’t the only one with an issue so it wasn’t horrible but I HATE being late.

Teresopolis

Truck fully loaded, the group of 23 headed north. As we climbed it started to POUR rain. Oh boy. It IS the rainy season.
Thankfully by the time we reached town it had stopped so the walk to the hotel Santiago was dry.

Oragaos National Park

Thursday, Feb 19th 2026

Most of us hired Ubers to take us to Oragaos National park. There we chose a hike and were on the trails before 9 am, hoping to beat the rain. 4 of us ended up doing the Mozart 360 trail that was mostly uphill and a real workout out. 14 ish km we found ourselves back at the visitors centre where we watched the video and learned more about the history of the park. Luckily we encountered no rain!

Day 3

After loading up the truck we headed north. I sat in the back today and got a VERY bumpy ride. We ended up stopping earlier than intended as an accident stopped traffic in both directions.

The Sanctuary de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos is a church complex built in the 18th century. It has small buildings with wood life sized carvings depicting the last days of Jesus.
It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1985

Ouro Preto

After spending some time there we carried on to Ouro Preto, famous for its UNESCO heritage old town and gold mines.

Day 4

Ouro Preto. Some visited one of the gold mines but 4 of us spent the day wandering the Unesco heritage old town and some of its churches. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Chafarez, visited a famous chocolate shop and had gelato. Lovely day!! The city is VERY hilly and the steep cobblestone streets make walking a good work out.

Pedro Azul

Day 5

An early start today. We were on the road by 7:10 am. The drive was mostly East to Ecopark Pedro Azul and the scenery spectacular. The mountains are lined with coffee plantations or just jungle.
At one point we were pulled over by the police. No idea why but it was uneventful till we pulled over a few minutes later. A fuel injector was misbehaving. Martin managed to fix that when something else broke and then he couldn’t get the cab to come back down It took a team effort, including some nice local men, to close it and we were off again. We managed to get to a grocery store and had a picnic lunch while we waited, saving time on an extra stop.
Entering Pedro Azul in the dark was a treat. Narrow windy roads made it a challenge for Martin.

Putting up a new tent in the dark was interesting. Thankfully the rain held off and it was just drizzling. Roseanna and Martin outdid themselves with a fantastic dinner. I don’t normally like to eat at 10 pm but turned out I was really hungry!

Day 6

It poured in the night and my tent stayed dry. Yay! I awoke to the sound of very noisy birds. See them in the picture below in front of the tents.

It was nice to have a leisurely start. Martin and Roseanna made an amazing breakfast including shatshuka. Yum! I spent the rest of the day wandering the beautiful area and relaxing.

Late afternoon we joined our host for a hike to a view point. Via Google Translate he shared info about pedra azul and the area. The giant palm tree is actually a telecommunications tower in disguise!

Day 7. Tuesday February 24

Our cook team did an amazing fajita dinner last night and delicious breakfast this morning. I won’t be losing any weight!

Another early start and long drive day. Today’s breakdown had the wheels locked into 6 wheel drive. Martin tried many things but eventually ended up taking off a giant pipe thing. Apparently it’s a drive shaft. Fun stuff

So we reached the camp in the dark. Luckily I could upgrade. I shared a cabin with 2 other ladies. For 100 R$ ($28 CAD) for the 3 of us it’s worth it! Others benefitted by pitching tents on the porches of those who upgraded so most could pack up a reasonably dry tent.

Itaunas and Caravelas

WEEK 2
Day 8.

Today was a free day in the beach town of Itaunas. Some did a boat tour in the mangroves and all reported a great time, even Hugo who was stung by something and needed to go to the hospital for a shot.
I wandered off by myself to investigate the dunes and the beach. I was the only one there! It was a delight to walk and dig my toes in the sand. Eventually some of the others appeared which was wonderful as I really wanted to swim but doing so alone is NOT recommended. Some of us had a great time jumping and ducking the waves, once I got over the fear of being swept out to sea.

Back at the camp some cleaned out the fridge and we ate all the leftovers. No wasting food with this group!

We packed up again and headed for Caravelas. No breakdowns!! Yay!

Our hostel host recommended a place to eat and even escorted us. He even helped hand out menus. There was a table with 3 young ladies near us. At one point he said “She needs to talk to you (in Portuguese as he has no English). Genesis stood and explained her work at the visitors centre and invited us to come the next day. So nice!

Thursday February 26
Day 9

The boat trip we’d hoped to take didn’t happen due to the weather. Our amazing hostel host at the Pousada de Beco offered to drive us to the visitors centre. Some of us opted to walk. It was just 3 km and flat.

Genesis, a volunteer, spent a couple of hours educating us on the National park, the mangroves, the Indigenous in the area and hump back whale behaviour. They even have a VR movie which was interesting. She walked us to an area where they treat carcasses of creatures found in the area. There were vultures everywhere! They were working on a dolphin so the vultures were busy. Apparently they feed them when they don’t have a carcass. They want the birds to stick around as they’re amazing at cleaning flesh off the bones.

We walked back and saw much wildlife along the way. On the letters in the round about that spell Caravelas were two little burrowing owls. They didn’t mind us getting close enough for pictures.

We got back just in time to miss the big thunderstorm that flooded the streets.

An hour or so later I went for a walk about the historic centre and the waterfront. Thankfully my sandals are fine in the water.

I joined Johanne, Betty and John for dinner in a small cafe. They were incredibly helpful though again not much English was spoken. We’re learning to use Google Translate a lot. Sometimes we just eat what we’re given.

Friday. Day 10

Another early start and long drive day. Around noon we stopped at a national park for a hike led by the area indigenous. I was hesitant as it was 32° and very humid. Just tying my boots made me sweat! After paying 40R$ each we headed out. By about 500 metres of straight uphill I was thoroughly soaked and getting dizzy so I turned around. At the bottom I wandered and found other trails that would have been more pleasant. Not everything is about a view. I would have liked to wander the jungle. I did get to see a lizard and a troop of monkeys the hikers missed. Several who did the hike said the view was nice but 95% of it was very steep and brutal. Not my idea of fun.

Porto Seguro

Back on the road we stopped to shop for dinner and arrived, as usual, in the dark. Hotel Mundai was well lit. Some upgraded. I set my tent up under the solar panels, hoping for protection. It helped.

Saturday day 11

A free day. I shared an uber with 3 others and we wandered Porto Seguro. It’s the first town settled by the Portuguese in the 1500s. It’s quiet in the morning but starts to wake up later. There are vending machines for beer. Weird.

We stopped at a bar where I had my first caipirinha. I asked for no sugar. Yum!

Pascaline, Josephine and I walked the 5km back on the beach. Of course it rained. Since I was soaked anyway I jumped in the pool. Refreshing! I was joined by a few others and we enjoyed caipirinhas in the pool. Vacation time!

Sunday, March 1. Day 12

I was up shortly after 5. It had rained all night so again I packed a soaking wet tent. Cook team prepared French toast. Nice! We were on the road by 7

Glitch #1 found grocery stores closed on Sunday.

Glitch #2 A fuel injector snapped again. Martin had that fixed in no time.

Glitch #3 was a road closed to big trucks due to bridge repair. The alternate route was a dirt road. Slowly driving along till we got stopped behind a bunch of trucks. Accident ahead. So again we sat and waited. That cleared we drove a bit till we got stuck behind trucks unable to make the slimy mud hill

Another blockage had Martin trying a logging road. When that abruptly ended he turned around. Thankfully NOT getting stuck in the mud!

A couple more blockages and at one point a bunch of truckers were cheering as we passed them all. I have no idea what was going on and what they were waiting for. Apparently it was too slippery for them?

We were WAY behind schedule so our intrepid leaders found us a churriscaria rather than shop for groceries. Churriscarias are like truck stops. It’s a buffet where you load up your plate with food and pay by weight.

It only took 2 stops to find a guesthouse able to accommodate 25 people so we didn’t have keep going to the campground. Our ETA would have been around midnight so this was MUCH appreciated! When overlanding one must be flexible.

Day 13

Itacare

We arrived in Itacare by noon. Of course it was raining so setting up the tents was fun. Camping Rai Luc is in a beautiful spot with well kept grounds. Getting to the bathroom was the only issue. The path got really slippery in the rain. The area the truck parked in was a muddy mess. Since that’s where we ate meals I just wore sandals and gave up on clean feet.

After enjoying a fish lunch at a restaurant on the beach, some of us wandered off to find a hike we’d heard about. Prainha beach is elusive. We never did find it but we did find a couple of waterfalls and beautiful cliff view of the ocean. Joanne had an umbrella. Anne and Jean had raincoats. I opted to just get wet. Very wet

Tuesday, March 3-7 Day 14-18

Packing up a tent in the rain is getting old. We packed our soggy tents and I had a bag full of soggy clothes as well. That’s the disadvantage to not wearing a rain coat.

On the way to Salvador, we stopped for lunch. Since the sun came out and there was a piece of lawn, some of us got our tents out, kind of put them up and let them dry while we ate. It worked! For the most part they were all dry. I’m sure the locals thought we were crazy.

After just missing the 3pm, we took the 4 pm ferry to Salvador. Accommodation in the city was the Hostel Galería. It’s not the best but the location is amazing. We were greeted with free caiprianhas and Paulo gave us lots of info on the area.

I washed my soggy clothes in a bucket and hung them out to dry. Fun.

Thus begins a fantastic trip. More on Salvador and the continuing voyage in the next post.