Somewhere after leaving the ferry and while riding the 24 kilometres in the darkness and drizzling rain I silently crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere. I found the Hotel Mais in Macapa which had 24 hour reception, and parking, but not a night manager who had any idea of how to do an early check in. I hadn’t booked because I wasn’t sure when we would arrive and then when we did arrive, the online booking site does not let you book or check in early. We had several conversations with the translator app and I eventually got a room for $52AUD a night which was the price on the app. I also had to pay an extra $20 for early check in and parking? Parking is included anyway? And I was supposed to have a room with a city view. This was my city view. While it did have a badly weathered trompe l’oeil, if I looked left through the bars on the window I could just glimpse a bit of the street. And I did have my own bathroom. I ended up staying an extra night but asked to be moved to a room with a nicer view. They obliged.

Breakfast was pretty good at this hotel and so after I stuffed myself, I had a nice hot shower and then had a nice sleep on a flat bed instead of a curved hammock. My bike rested comfortably and dry, in a locked garage across the street.

After my nap I went for a long walk down to the water (Amazon) and discovered an old fort. Well, I didn’t actually discover it. There are over half a million locals who would know it’s there. And it’s been there for 250 years. It was closed and the surrounding areas were home to a few odd people. The sort you wouldn’t want to meet at night. Alone. There was a nice walkway along the river and lots of people out walking, riding or jogging. The Amazon River is very wide here.

I returned to the hotel and had another sleep after my long walk. It was then time to eat but that turned out trickier than I had hoped. I was a bit early for Brazilians and also a Monday which didn’t help. I eventually found this popular couple making and selling some sort of deep fried goodness with meat. Fresh, so it must be healthy, and straight out of the hot oil, so it stayed warm for my walk back to the hotel where I dined in, with my yummy meal and a beer.

The second night I walked a couple of kilometres to a flash fish restaurant on the shores of the Amazon and had a lovely fish dinner. It was huge and poorly photographed but was delicious and had nice veggies. It was enough food for two people. At nearly $40AUD for dinner and a beer, it was a big night out for me. I compensated by dining in with the fresh hot empanada things for dinner the following night. I was also eating well at the hotel breakfast with lots of fruit and fresh juices. I was a bit short on veggies, but I am in Brazil! Also a pic of an unusual pothole and a usual car stereo system that I passed on the way.

The town of Macapa straddles the equator and it was about 5kms to get there so I rode the bike. It’s actually quite weird, but fun, to ride an unloaded bike and without all the safety gear. I feel naughty. Also riding up onto the footpath and parking in front of the sign and the park with all the oversized animals.

The equator part was totally empty except for a guy lurking around the steps. I think he was talking to a girl under the steps, but I couldn’t see her? Maybe this place gets busy some other time of year or on full moons or in the summer solstice? Who knows? But it was pretty dead while I was there.

It rained a lot in Macapa and I was ready to leave. The next leg was nearly 600kms and took me to the most northerly coastal/river town in Brazil, Oiapoque. Sorry spellcheck. That is the correct spelling. This road was mostly reasonable bitumen with lots of tree plantations but had that bloody 110kms of unpaved/roadworks stuff happening in the middle. I really don’t need that sort of stuff on a long day. And it was raining. On and off all day. I left around 7:00am and made good time for the first 350kms until I got near the crappy bit. It was bucketing down so I stopped at a little roadside restaurant hut thing and had a reasonable feed. I didn’t want to slip off the road in the mud somewhere and lay there for days feeling hungry until someone found me.

The road wasn’t too bad, and had lots of timber bridges which was cool. Lots of potholes and only a few slippery, muddy sections which I was surprised about considering all the rain. Just when I was feeling confident. But not cocky, I was put back in my place.

I approached yet another bridge, but it had kinked boards on the first bit with wheel width gaps and a few holes. I was doing about 20kph and made a slight change of direction to avoid a gap, but the board was super slimy and my front wheel just gave way and slid into a gap and dumped me on the bridge. I was pinned under the bike by my right leg, and it was facing backwards. Probably being pinned saved me from getting dumped over the edge of the bridge into the river. I was able to spin my body around to face the same direction as my leg and just lied there for a minute. It gave me a fright, but I felt okay and nothing seemed damaged. The bike had shut itself off.

As luck would have it there was a bridge building crew next to my bridge, building a replacement bridge. They were using a chainsaw and had no idea that I had fallen. After a couple of minutes, the chainsaw stopped, and I yelled out to them, and they rushed over and lifted the bike off me and walked it and me across the bridge. They started the bike and checked over it for me, but it was all fine. I thanked them and they went back to their bridge building. If they weren’t there I would have only had to wait about 15 minutes until a car came along and either rescued me or ran me over in the rain. I crossed all the remaining bridges very carefully.

I arrived in the town of Oiapoque at dusk and it was still raining. I filled up with fuel first and tried to find a hotel on my phone but everything was so wet and the phone screen wasn’t working. Across the road was a hotel, but it was full and had no parking anyway, but they suggested another one a few blocks away. Thankfully it had a room and a carpark for the bike and it was cheaper. The Tropical Hotel ($52AUD). I was soaked. I hung everything up to drip dry in the bathroom. It was so damp and humid that I knew it had no chance of drying. My Mosko Moto luggage system is doing its job though and so all my gear was dry, and I was able to put on some dry clothes to go and find some food, once there was a pause in the rain.

I had a nice plate of charcoal chicken skewers with rice and salad at a nearby street stall. And followed it up with an ice cream.

Next morning I had the included hotel breakfast which was okay and then put back on all my wet clothes for my border crossing about 10 minutes away. I had left the cover off the bike overnight in the hope it would wash all the mud off. It didn’t work. They let me put the bike in front of the hotel door under cover so I could load it up. My room stunk when I went back and checked I had nothing left in it. Sorry cleaners.

Today was my big day. I was going to cross into French Guiana. This is where they always ask you for your yellow fever vaccination certificate. I now had one, but it was Brazilian and on my phone. Not the standard yellow card most other countries have. Fingers crossed. After leaving the hotel I rode back down the street to the river to see if I could see the bridge I needed to cross, as the night before I couldn’t see it in the rain. And there it was. I took a couple of pics and then off I went to cross it. I was sort of hoping they would feel sorry for me being a drowned rat in the rain and make my crossing easy.

Getting out of Brazil was super easy and quick. I continued on and was the only person on the bridge so I stopped and got off the bike and took a couple of pics. I was in No Mans Land and there was no man there. Or woman. Or other persons. I rode off the bridge and was a bit excited to think that I was about to enter a new country until I saw a sign and realised that I wouldn’t be.