The next part of the trip from the beautiful island of Boipeba, inland, to Lencois.
We landed in Sydney with no great expectations. We had heard Australia was a nice place, some of our friends completely fell in love with it but we didn’t think it would be for us. The main reason for our quick stop over was to see the Opera House as this was Alex’s main request for this trip. It is also the only way for us to travel from South America to Asia. But it is winter here and we knew it wouldn’t be the best time to visit the country.
But somehow we fell in love with Sydney straight away. A beautiful young, dynamic, creative city, with sun and sea. A perfect version of London! We stayed in an airbnb near Hyde Park. The area was full of funky little cafes and restaurants. We quickly discovered Buster Brown on Crown Street, where we met Dominic, a French chef that never went back home. We walked everywhere and our first stop was the Opera house. Alex was delighted as this was the one sight he had asked to see during this trip. He was however somewhat disappointed when we found out that we couldn’t get in to visit as it was closed. We walked to Darling harbour, one of Sydney popular hot spot and, on some passer-by’s recommendation, we found a great little playground with water games for the boys. We visited Sydney aquarium, which is I must say the most impressive one we’ve ever seen: the sharks tunnel is the best we have come across and there were plenty of animals to be spotted and even touched! We visited the little zoo, own by the same company but were very disappointed: beside a massive alligator, there was not much to see there. We walked to The Rocks, an old part of the town and down the commercial streets where we discovered beautiful old little galleries, amongst which the elegant and nostalgic The Strand and further on the Victoria’s Building, a beautiful building dating from the late 1800’s . In fact, everywhere in the city, we found beautiful remains of British architecture, like the Old Hopital, the Old Government House, Hyde Park barracks, ….
It was winter in Australia and the weather was not great but this didn’t stop us from walking everywhere. Armed with our umbrellas we strolled through Hyde Park, walked to the bridges. On the nice days we stopped for coffee on the steps of the Opera House and a light lunch on the parade along Darling Harbour, what a pleasant city!
We decided to extend our stay and to stay an additional three days and took the opportunity to go and visit the Blue Mountains. We rented a car and did a three hour drive west of Sydney. We visited the delightful little town of Leura and checked into the Three Sisters Motel in Kattoomba. Ranj had a flash back and recalled his trip to America as a young man. The following day was grey but we decided to go an see the Three Sisters, a three-peaks rock near the small town. The fog was so dense we could not see further than 20 meters and we decided to head on a small trek instead. We ended up walking for over three hours: we walked down a eight hundred step steep staircase leading us to the bottom of the valley from where we headed to a waterfall. At the bottom of the cliff, the Valley is a true jungle and we walked amidst the tall trees, bamboos, giant ferns and eucalyptus trees, following a little muddy path running all the way along the bottom of the valley. One part of the walk was under the suspended rock of the mountain, and we felt like proper explorers. After 5 kilometres or so we reach the busier side of the valley, the Scenic World, where a cable car and a funicular are available to go up and down and across the valley offering a beautiful of the 3 peaks.
After the beautiful little trip out of the city, we made the most of our rented car and headed to Watson Bay, the furthest bay on the Sydney Eastern side. Recommended by our friend Julie, this place is a little jewel of a hideaway: a beautiful beach, surrounded by coffee shops and seafood restaurants, with a little park and a view Point where you can see the 2 sides of the bay. We had fresh seafood at the deck of the famous Doyles restaurant, on a gorgeous hot summer day, with everyone nibbling on seafood or sipping on a cool drink whilst enjoying the park and the beach. The perfect ending for our Australian stay!
It was hard to leave Boipeba, it’s blue waters and empty beaches but we knew that Lencois would offer its fair share of wilderness and peace too.
The trip from Boipeba to Lencois was expected to be a question of jumping from 1 bus into an other. It turned out however, that the bus schedules are even more unreliable than we heard about and since we could not book any bus trip online, all we could do is ask and hope that the information given was correct. Well it only partly did…and although the first bus was on time, it was not the express bus expected and the 2h journey, took 4.5 hours; we then missed the connection and had to wait 5h in Feira de Santana for the following bus to Lencois to leave at 00.05 in the morning. All together our 350 kms trip took 18 hours! We got there in the end and I am very glad the boys are cool and big enough to handle the lack of sleep (Max enjoying the opportunity to finally stay up late and Alex gifted with the ability to fall asleep in seconds literally anywhere).
We are learning about sleeping rough and coping with it. The thoughest part is the poor choice of food on the go. We are pretty easy and are happy to eat whatever is available, but 10 days into the trip, we already bored of fried doughy food and manioc sandwiches and feel very frustrated to see amazing mangoes, papayas, pineapples and guava simply turned into juices with plenty of added sugar with no actual pieces of fruits anywhere to be found! So we reached our pousada in Lencois at 5am to find that we were expected to have the 2nd child sleep in the same bed as his parents! Alex is not a big big but still! Despite the town’s cockerels already crowing away and desperate to get a bit more sleep before the town woke up, we put up with the inconvenience and put the kids to sleep in the same single bed for a few hours.
When we woke up at 9am, beautiful Lencois was already buzzing. Only a small town of 7 thousands, Lencois is rich in history and culture: part of the Chapada Diamanta, it was once a prosperous and fashionable town, wealthy from its coffee plantations and diamond mines. French fashion stores opened here once and as the coffee plantations were slowly abandoned and mining dried up until it was totally forbidden in 1995, so did the economy of the little town. The region is very green and wild, with amazing deep red soil. Once a very deep ocean, it’s rocky soil is carved by the water and offers a vast number of waterfalls, caves and canyons. Chapada Diamanta is the size of Switzerland and it would take many months to be explored fully. Today, Lencois thrives on tourism based around expeditions and trekking. Although very touristy, it has a very warm artistic and hippy feel. And we felt immediately at home. It’s cobbled little streets all lead onto a piazza with the Mercado Artsanal and the main church. The houses are small and brightly coloured. Most have no windows with just tall doors that open fully. Music is always playing and locals sit on their doorsteps watching the world go by, whilst cradling the new born.
We were in Lencois to watch Brazil v Germany. The entire day was put on hold for the match, all the shops, excursions, where to close at 1pm for the 5pm match. At 5 the entire town Center woke up, a massive screen popped up in the market and the bars set a TV screening the street. The excitement quickly made room to an eery silence with the odd scream for hope from a Brazilian or a tourist desperate to raise the moral. The dramatical fall of Brazil really hurt the nation that night and the pain could be felt for days to follow. Some youngsters however did not let themselves go and pulled out the drums to perform what Brazil’s is best at, amazing beats and catchy rythms. A lot of locals went home early that night, but many enjoyed the heart warming beats and stayed on to enjoy a happy night out with beer and caipirinha!
Whilst in Lencois, we took a day trip to the amazing caves, waterfalls, rivers and canyons to the north of the town. We walked in a 800m cave with 20m high ceilings, 9m tall stalagmites that grow at the pace of 1cm per 33 years; snorkelled in another, in such clear waters you feel as if you were suspended in mid air, surrounded by millions if little fish suckling on your skin. We walked up a 90m climb to reach the top of rocky mountain which edges at the top were carved by the sea millions of years ago; we trekked through the jungle full of trees with medicinal virtues and spider holes with amazingly manufactured front doors. The following day we walked 2h to a massive waterfall of black, tannin and iron full water. We all found it spooky at first but the fun soon took over.
Lencois was truly beautiful. July is winter here and although we had rain everyday, the days always brightened up and the temperature, still around 28c, was perfect for trekking. Well worth the stop!
En Francais!
Lencois:
Nous etions tristes de quitter Boipeba, sa nature sauvage, ses eaux turquoises et sa serenite.
Nous avions prevu de faire le trajet entre Boipeba et Lencois en bus et avions ete prevenus que les horaires des bus etaient generalement peu fiables. Nous nous ne pouvions donc mieux faire que de se renseigner en personne a la station. Chose faite. Le bus etait a l’heure ce jour mais au Iieu d’être ‘express’ celui ci s’arreta dans toutes les petites Villes et au lieu de durer 2h le trajet dura 4.5h. Nous avons ainsi manqué notre correspondance et avons du attendre 5h pour le prochain bus partant de Feira de Santana a 00.05. Je confirme, ne compter pas trop sur les horaires des bus! Heureusement les enfants sont grands maintenant et Max etait ravi d’avoir l’occasion de veiller tandis qu’Alex a l’abilite de s’endormir en l’espace de quelques secondes peu importe ou il se trouve.
Nous apprenons donc a vivre en nomades! Dormant dans les avions, les bus et vivant dans les quelques vetements empaquetes. Ce qui a ete assez frustrant au Bresil jusqu’a present, c’est le fait de ne pas trouvé d’alimention saine”sur la route”. Les Bresiliens raffolent de plats frits et farineux et leurs magnifiques fruits sont vite tournes en jus auquels est rajoute une enorme quantite de sucre. Il est bien difficile de trouve un fruit entier a croquer!
Ainsi nous sommes arrives a notre ‘pousada’ (petit hotel avec petit dejeuner seulement- equivalent du bed and breakfast) a 5h du matin et vite nous recouvrons que notre chambre n’a que 2 lits et que le plus jeune des enfants est sense dormir avec papa et maman! Alex n’est pas bien gros mais quand meme! A defaut de creer une scene a 5h du matin et desesperes de pouvoir profiter de quelques heures de sommeil de plus – les coqs chantent deja- nous empilons max et Alex dans le meme lit et nous effondrons tous rapidement.
Nous nous reveillons a 9h et déjà Lencois est en pleine activite.
Cette petite ville de 7 mille habitants est riche en histoire et culture. Elle fait partie de la region de la ‘Chapada Diamanta’. Elle fut un jour une ville riche et a la mode, grace a l’exploitation des plantations de cafe et des mines de diamants de la region. Alors que les plantations de cafe furent relocalisees et les mines doucement assechees, l’economie de la ville en fit de meme.
La region est tres verte et sauvage avec une terre rouge fonce. Les marques d’erosion dans les rochers creent un paysage tres sacade semblable a des canyons et la presence d’enormes cavites, grottes et cascades nous rappele que cette region, grande comme la Suisse, fut un jour un ocean tres profond.
Aujourdhui, Lencois s’epanouie grace au tourisme pour les randonnees et explorations dans la region. Bien que tres touristique, la petite ville est tres accueillante, artistique et hippie et nous nous y sentons bien tout de suite. Les maisons petites et etroites sont toutes de couleurs vives. La plus part n’ont pas de fenetres mais une grande porte d’entree longue et etroite a deux battants.
Les petites rues sont pavees et menent toutes au ‘mercado artesanal’ ou a l’eglise. Partout on entend de la musique et les habitants sont assis sur leur palier, bercant dans leurs bras le dernier ne.
Nous etions a Lencois pour suivre le match Bresil – Alemagne. Des 13h, les magasins fermerent leur porte, tout en ville s’arreta pour le match. A 5h la ville se reveilla, un grand ecran fut installe dans le hall du marche, les bars et restaurants sortirent les televiseurs dans la rue, les barbecues portables apparurent. Tres vite cependant, les cris de joie et d’excitement laisserent place a un silence pesant et de temps a autre un Bresilien frustre ou un touriste souhaitant passer une bonne soirée, poussa un cri d’espoir pour remoter le morale des troupes. Un groupe de jeunes decides de ne pas se laisser demoraliser, sortis tambours de toutes tailles et firent ce que le Bresil fait de mieux: creerent des rythmes chaleureux. Beaucoup rentrerent chez eux tot ce soir la, Bresil lourdement ecrase sous le poids de la defaite. Mais d’autres profiterent de la musique et de la caipirinha pour finir la journee en beaute!
A Lencois, nous avons visite des caves d’eau translucide qui innondees par la lumiere du soleil, creer des ‘trous bleus’ (poco azul); nous avons nage dans des caves d’eau si claire que nous nous sentions comme suspendus dans les airs tandis que des milliers de petits poissons sucaient notre peau. Nous nous sommes baignes dans des cascades et rivieres d’eau noire, pleine de tannin et fer grace a la vegetation locale; nous avons grimpes 90m de rochers sculptes par l’eau il y a des millions d’annees de cela et avons admire les canyons; nous nous sommes promenes dans de chemins encevelis dans la vegetation, decouvert des varietes de plantes medicinales et admire les magnifiques petites ‘portes d’entree’ des trous d’araignees. Nous avons visites des grottes de 800m de long et 20 m de plafond avec des stalagmites de 9m grandissants a la vitesse d’un centimetre par 33 ans…
Lencois etait vraiment magnifique. Bien que ce soit l’hiver ici et qu’il ai plu casiment tous les jours, nous avons profite des temperatures moderees (toujours autour de 28 degres) pour les ballades et randonnees. Une alte tres recommendee!
A little tour around the World 