We drove 135 miles yesterday including 67 of dirt and we have 220 miles to go to get to the Amazon River and today’s miles are all paved so I’m glad about that.
We left the hotel in Oiapoque at 10:30 after I picked up a reluctant Rusty and poured him into the torture machine.
The first 31 miles of BR156 (Brazil Highway 156) are paved and much of it is quite smooth but when you least expect you’ll see a black spot or a smear of red mud…
…which requires fast action to avoid denting a rim, bursting a tire or wearing out some part of our suspension.
But it all ends badly because I hate driving on dirt in our heavy delivery van. “A section not paved” the sign says with awful understatement but we knew what was coming.
And as dirt roads go this maintained and had no potholes or washboard, just dust and endless rumbling as we pounded the dried mud at 15 mph for five hours.
The scenery was a mixture of endless jungle closing in on both sides:
And then when there were breaks in the jungle that had seemed endless it was replaced by ranch land much of which appeared abandoned.
You’d see signs announcing indigenous villages alongside the highway. I can’t imagine the opportunities for the kids abound.
It is some pretty amazing woodlands we got to drive through, stuff you normally see on TV. We saw one really wild luminescent lizard flashing turquoise and gray and we also saw one dead anteater apparently hit by a car. And that was that for wildlife.
There weren’t even that many birds. In fact I hardly saw any and when we stopped we didn’t hear the jungle sounds we used to in Guyana.
Pretty amazing isn’t it?
Oh and the bridges… they look like crap and the planks bang when you cross them as they aren’t nailed down properly but they are quite solid, surprisingly.
I figure if that water crossed we’ll be fine…
Some maintenance was underway when we passed:
I’m glad they rebuilt the bridges.
Someone just went by…however there was less traffic on this highway than we’ve seen on other routes. There just isn’t much trade with French Guyana despite the huge expensive bridge the two countries have built. Not much traffic crosses it, certainly not trucks.
Someone decided to build an abutment through a cutting but it’s not like they are getting serious by actually paving this road and making it all weather passable.
The above is produced by the below:
A department of transportation yard with machines to smooth the dirt but not pave it. Grr.
I can’t get my photos to reproduce the grades but just believe me when I say the hill was steep, much steeper than you see it.
The road as roller coaster.
The debate over roads and access in Amazonia is fueled by the evidence that road access leads to clear cutting the rain forest to make way for farming snd ranching which is bad for two reasons.
One reason is the jungle is a huge carbon dioxide scrubber, good for all of us. The other is that the soil loses its fertility in short order when the trees are cut and that leads to more clear cutting as farmers seek ever more productive land
My feeling is that it’s a bit rough to stymie development after you’ve opened the door. The tribes that live in this forgotten corner of Brazil live alongside the highway in a facsimile of modern life but the road vanishes into a sea of mud half the year and their access to opportunities is limited yet the road even as it is has opened the door to the outside world.
We’re just tourists, here today and gone tomorrow never to return to this miserable dirt road. They are here for the rest of their lives and I wish they had better lives.
But I don’t like seeing the forest razed. Beats me what the answer is, but I’m sure someone is making money off these exploited places.
We stopped to pick up some food at a roadside stop. 
We said good afternoon and got stares back. They were not happy to see outsiders and it felt like one of those westerns when the cowboy walks into the saloon and he is not wanted.
The food in the inevitable buffet looked good and I got rice and meat while Layne who is sick of rice got the pasta which they offer sauce free (weird!) with some really good chicken. And after Rusty got a walk and we went online on their WiFi a moment, we fled. 
The village of Carnot, a momentary connection with pavement:
Maybe these people would have been more friendly:
And then finally the pavement cane back and it was largely pothole free.
We were rolling around 55mph without the constant rumbling of the dirt road.
Over 68 miles the onboard computer said we averaged 13mph on the dirt and got 9.6 miles per gallon. Normally we get around 16mpg. I love pavement.
We refilled the tank at the gas station because I always like to park for the night with a full tank. Then we went into town to look for air conditioning for the night. A bi- lingual welcome, and even though I understand it I find French on the streets here is a weird thing.
