Driving in Southern Brazil
Well we have made it to Sao Leopoldo and back in one piece, with only a couple of life and death experiences! Having driven more than 700 miles over the past few days, I now feel qualified to write about the roads and the driving in Southern Brazil.

First, I can't imagine why I thought the BR101 would be like the M1 or the M6. Nothing more unlike a motorway could you imagine! There was one short stretch of freeway just before reaching Porto Alegre that was like a motorway, but that was all.

The rest of the 700 miles was just like I remembered - seriously scary and dangerous!

The reason for this is mainly the condition of the road, which is full of potholes and mostly single lane traffic. This doesn't stop everyone driving furiously fast and overtaking the endless lorries whenever remotely possible, usually when it is not safe to do so. We avoided travelling at night, but it must be a horrendous drive in the dark.

Having said this, there was evidence over the whole 700 mile trip of attempts to improve the quality of the journey by building extra lanes and we could see that eventually it will be much easier to drive to Porto Alegre.

We also drove 50 kilometres over a rough earth track - as we decided to explore the mountainous interior region on our return journey. Not having a car that was equipped for this type of journey (ideally you would have some sort of jeep, or at least a high vehicle), this driving required a lot of concentration to avoid scraping the underside of the car. However, it was a lot less stressful than driving on the BR 101.

I can now see why so many people fly or take the bus. However, the scenery was spectacular and the journey was well worth it!