Day 5 - Sunday

Set off stupidly early (515am) to get inside the hides and ready for dawn - unfortunately though, the storm had collapsed two and destroyed the third. So we went back to the field of termite mounds to look for Anteater again... this time it was David who spotted her - and lord only knows how - 800m out, underneath a tree on the horizon - the chase began again - the grass plain had fewer tussocks than the previous stalk and made for much nicer shots too - and this time of course, my focussing was a little more accurate after fine adjustments made in camera. Still not perfect, but as David says, I will need to "tweak" somehow. She also didn't move quite so fast or so often so we got to observe a bit more behaviour, although she was much more skittish than the last one. I now need to work on my positioning and speed when we stop walking and get down ready to shoot, because on a number of occasions I found my view blocked by the others and as a result I have a number of images of the backs of their heads! - quite frustrating. Still... third time lucky and all that.
After breakfast we packed up our rooms and set off for our transfer to Paso da Ema - the remotest stop on our tour.  Not a long transfer, 20kms or so, (depending on what you see on the way), I guess it took us about an hour or more, so lunch was pretty much waiting when we got there. It's exactly how I remember it, with the jetty into the water, the basic rooms (no air con!!!!) and a lot of fairly habituated birds flitting about. 230pm set off for the parent lodge, Araras, 6kms back to the Transpantaneira where tea and cake was waiting for us under a mango tree which happened to have a Great Horned Owl in it that half the guests didn't know was there until David and Ricardo pointed it out to them! Then we walked the boardwalk up to the monkey tower - which unfortunately had no monkey's on it (or even close to it), just a shed load of mosquitoes - Kim suffers worse than me if that's possible and was done up like an arctic climber on the way back with hood up and gloves on etc. poor thing, but I do know how she feels.
Back to shower and change... back to Araras for dinner....back to Paso Da Ema for beers on the jetty.... non-stop, no time to blog, no time to review images and no time for siesta, so with a planned 430am start tomorrow (to get in the hides again) staying on the jetty til almost 1am was a really bright idea Joanne... well done - right good giggle though - nice to have a group that know how to have a laugh :-)

Giant Anteater just before dawn!

Wow - dream come true this morning and well worth the 430am start!!!! we stalked this Giant Anteater for almost an hour just before dawn today - incredible, all the time on the move trying to keep downwind of him at the same time as battling against low light levels, tussocks of grass in the way and barbed-wire fences, which of course he made light work of, but was much harder for us and our cameras. Got, soaked, muddy, bitten and sweaty... but loved absolutely every second of it. Bring on the armadillos! (Ps: you can't really tell from the photo, but this guy is a whopping 8ft long!!)

Day 4 - Piuval

4:30am start in search of a Giant Anteater which has been sighted recently - Ricardo spotted it from about 500 yards out in near darkness - David then checked the wind direction and explained the route we needed to take on foot to get into position - it was a wide arc, across open tussocky grassland, but few fences and few ditches, so we set off - travelling light (camera and beanbag only) and within a few minutes were within shooting range. Soggy bum, sodden trousers and a lot of sweat made me a perfect mosquito target, but nothing could have dampened my spirits stalking that gentle giant (although David tells us they can be quite vicious too if provoked) - it was magical. We got very close, for a very long time, lots of moving and I really need to reduce the time it takes me to get from stalking to crouched and shooting as it was a constant battle to stay downwind - I really didn't realise they move so much or so quickly! Awesome creature.
The stalk ended after an hour when the group found ourselves separated by a wire fencing, three on one side and 3 on the other - we think the "Ant bear" heard the fence twanging and trotted off into the undergrowth. Totally amazing experience.

sunset on a Samsung S4!

We returned for some breakfast and dry clothes and then ventured out again to some water pools with a wooden bridge where we found a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (or was it a "Little Owl"?) which just wouldn't play ball and a very pretty woodpecker. Then back to the lodge for a lesson in auto-focusing - even more confused!!! and very frustrated as every single one of my little owls is slightly soft - Grrrrrrrr.
Lunch gave me some time to calm down and practise around the lodge on the fence posts whilst David and Ricardo returned to the pools to set up/build bird hides for us all to spend tomorrow morning in. When they returned, we took a frustrating drive down the Transpantaneira to the gate where all bird life seemed to be on the left hand side of the van - when I was sat on the right - Black collared hawks, Rufescent Tiger Heron, Kingfishers etc.

floating water hyacinth

We pulled up at another bridge over water pools and spent the dusk hour shooting water hyacinths in bloom
and playing abouth with auto HDR function in my K-5, that was until a massive storm arrived - impressive fork lightning and a mass of dark clouds rolled in towards us - then came the wind... with surprising speed too... it took David's camera and tripod down with such force it broke the lens away from the body - and then whipped up enough road dust to fill the void ten times over. The camera was wounded, possibly fatally. Not a good situation to be in - needless to say the drive back was a little tense. We were worried too about the hides and whether or not they would still be there in the morning. Rain lashed the windscreen as we drove back in silence, no-one really knowing what to say.
When we arrived back at the lodge, thankfully the staff were waiting to dash out from reception with umbrellas to get us and our gear back into the dry.
Dinner was a similar affair to last night except now we had something to celebrate... David had managed to repair his camera - all was working again. Phew. This led to a number of beers, and then a few more. Time to get to know the group a bit better and have a good laugh along the way.

Day 3 - and we're off!

Wow what a first day - so many things I had forgotten about this place, and am so so pleased I decided to return. We set off after breakfast in search of an electrical store as most peoples power adapters did not work (Brazil have recently changed all of theirs to standardise on a new recessed kind which makes life a lot harder for everyone). Found some and moved on to a dead-rat-infested supermarket for supplies (gin, wine and corn to fill beanbags) - we were all done by 8am and set off on the Transpantaneira heading south into the wetlands. The temperature very quickly reached sweaty heights and water was coming out of us quicker than we could replenish it, but we saw plenty of birds and the landscape fell away as we left the high pantanal and dropped into the lowlands. We had reached our first lodge, Pousada Piuval, by half eleven in time for a quick unpack before lunch. Rice, beans and Paco fish with salad - gorgeous - the food is even better than I remember - if that's possible.

The view from the "classroom" at Pousada Piuval

David gave our first theory lesson (2 hours) during which I managed to get completely confused about auto-focusing, but thankfully my "standard" settings are the ones I should be sticking with anyway, so no need to panic just yet - it may become an issue when tracking birds flying overhead, but until then all will stay as is. Some free time afforded me a quick swim in the pool before meeting up for a local vehicle safari at 330pm. This turned into our first real attempt at shooting from beanbags on the trip and also a major feast for the mozzies. I racked up 17 bites in an hour, with DEET on and one of them was even through my trousers! (although I was on my stomach crawling through the dirt, near water, stalking a gorgeous Bittern at the time).  Got some good shots I think, not only of the Bittern, but a pair of very rare hyacinth macaws at their nest, a perched Savannah hawk, a Cocoi Heron and even a half decent redbrock deer. Saw my first Coati and had a thoroughly enjoyable, but quite painful, afternoon, my right arm is already starting to swell up quite badly. 430am start tomorrow so need to clean down cards and charge everything ready for hunting a giant anteater which has been seen not far from here with a baby on board... fingers crossed! 

Day 2 - Cuiaba

Woke at 4am when some new arrivals decided it considerate to drag their suitcases along a dimpled marble corridor outside everyone's rooms...Grrrrr. Woke again at 6am as the sun did and decided it wasn't worth trying to sleep anymore - way too excited. The hotel is massive, clean and very friendly indeed - breakfast also wasn't bad, basic, but not bad at all - plenty of fruit and cakes etc, and I forgot how breads were always sweet and never savoury here - which was a shock when I loaded a roll up with cheese and ham! the day was pretty leisurely actually - met the group, all seem my kind of people and we get along ok. Everyone has been on at least one of David's tours before, so we all have a fair idea of what to expect. Leanne myself and David nipped out for beers whilst the others settled in and got cleaned up from their journey. Ricardo turned up just before dinner having literally driven out of the Pantanal from another tour with a hideous group apparently - but so nice to see him again. Dinner was an outside affair which was lovely - still 25 degrees at night and the mossies were bearable all evening. Bed by 10pm ready for breakfast at 630am! The tour starts tomorrow.