The cute town of Lencóis Bahia (foto: )
27th September Lençóis Linhares 780 km
In the morning, I took a stroll round the cute town of Lençóis. I must bring Margi here, its lovely. Francinei came to refuel the plane. To my surprise, he said, Ive already refuelled this plane for you once before. Impossible, I told him, Ive never been here before. He explained that he had only recently arrived in Lençóis, but before lived in Goiânia, where he had refueled the Ximango three months ago, as I was starting the circumnavigation!
I took off under blue skies and off I went, getting close to home by the minute. Just south of Vitória da Conquista, I came across the worst case of slash and burn clearing that I had seen in all my travels around the world and in Brazil. This saddened me greatly. An enormous cloud of smoke billowed above the dry, denuded land. What made more angry was to see that the fires were set on purpose, within demarcated squares, where the slashed forest was alight. Apart from the tragic destruction of the forest, I cannot understand why they would burn tons of wood for no reason.
After a winter of endless sunny days in Rio de Janeiro, a cold front had decided to try to upset my arrival. I wanted to reach Vila Velha (Espírito Santo state) but way before Vitória, dark clouds closed off my path. I decided to land in Linhares. The runway is some way from town and there is nothing near by. I was very surprised when, before I even had time to put the chocks on the wheels, a TV crew showed up. How come, if no-one, not even me, knew I was going to land there? They told me someone had spotted the plane on final approach over the city and called the TV station!
Este texto foi escrito por: Margi Moss
Last modified: outubro 2, 2001
