Six Days in Machete Heaven

[pict]

This past week Giuliano Toniolo and I took off for six days in the Mata Atlantica. Mata Atlantica is the east coast rainforest of Brazil. The area we were in was about an hour south of where we live in Belo Horizonte.

Giuliano is starting up his own survival school here in Central Brazil and it was great to get out to the bush with someone who not only has the passion to chop where few will go but also contribute a solid base of experience to the adventure. This guy rides for the brand.

I have to say we got our butts kicked on this trip. The Mata Atlantica is a very beautiful, but inhospitable place, the kind of terrain that most people only ever view from a prepared trail near the hotel. We were scouting out a possible location for future survival training both for ourselves and for the groups we take to the bush. I doubt we will get back to this place with a group because it was just too brutal to take people who are untrained. If you push into this terrain it pushes back hard.

The place was basically a very isolated ridge surrounded on three sides by very deep ravines which practically guarantee there is nobody there. Just getting in and out was an ordeal and the mountain itself is covered by very thick bush.

I really do feel privileged to be able to do a trip like this for the cost of two hours’ drive time and a week’s rations of Ramen noodles and instant oatmeal. This was a challenging trip for us both. We shot ALOT of video on the trip. I have it edited into 12 videos that I’ll be putting up on my channel in the coming weeks. The videos are a mix of tutorial info and the chronology of the trip.

I have the first video up now; it’s an introduction to the area and the video series. This was the kind of trip in which you strap on the machete in the morning and peel your fingers off it at night. It was six days of chopping, hot days, chilly nights, ants, mosquitoes, sweat bees, blazing sun, and rain.

YouTube - Machete Heaven Intro

I hope you guys enjoy these videos as much as we did shooting them. Some of the time we were too involved with the business of getting through to shoot video. Did I mention we got our butts kicked?

Mac

 

[Toucan Oasis]

Mac. The east coast there is a whole lot different than the east here, an hour from me.
What were the temperatures, day and night, mas o menos ?
Is that plant native or introduced >
Nasty stuff !

 

[Carolina River Rat]

Good vid Pict. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[pict]

Days in the high 80's mid 90's, nights in the low 60's. This is rainy season but we only got one full night of full bore serious rain. Lots of temporary showers day and night, we got lucky. Recently it has been raining non-stop and we expected it to be that way.

The giant fern in that shot is native, they are actually very common near water courses.

Mac

 

[Rupestris]

Cool video. Thanks for posting it. I'll be watching for the rest of them.

Is that a stacked leather handle on Guiliano's belt knife?

 

[dawsonbob]

Great stuff, Mac. The only thing I have to say is that, when it comes to machete chopping all day, better you than me (been there, done that, hated it with a passion). That was in a different jungle, but swinging a machete all day is the same no matter where you do it.

 

[Joezilla]

I couldn't imagine using anything over 18" in thick stuff like that. In thick bamboo, I get hung up with 22 unless I'm doing a major clearing operation.

 

[JNieporte]

Thanks for the photos and video. Good stuff.

 

[mneedham]

Mac,

Looking forward to these videos, great stuff.

 

[sicily02]

Pict. Great info. and pics. What is the pack you are carrying?
and what contents did you bring?

Bryan

 

[ratamahatta]

great job, can't wait to see more pics!!!!

 

[coaldigger]

Thanks for sharing the trip 'Ol Bud :thumbup: What type of foot wear did you guys use in that type of enviroment (wet) ?

 

[pict]

I couldn't imagine using anything over 18" in thick stuff like that. In thick bamboo, I get hung up with 22 unless I'm doing a major clearing operation.

In an area like this your machete is in and out of the sheath all day and has to stay with you on your body. The Taquara is like living in a bucket of straws. If it's green it cuts easily and when it's dead it shatters, but what it lacks in strength it makes up for in volume. If you try to just shove it out of the way it separates into thin strips like Rattan that will stop you dead in your tracks.

There were times I wanted a longer machete, like on the first day dealing with head high tangles of grass.

Coaldigger,

I normally wear jungle boots but mine are currently tied up in customs in the port of Rio De Janeiro because they came down in the boat. I was using low top hikers, not ideal but I got away with it.

Bryan,

I carried a Medium ALICE without the frame. I still have to wash everything so I'll make a list of the contents and post it at some point this week.

Mac

 

[pict]

The second video is up...

The Hack In

This one covers the chop job we had to get into our campsite on Monday. Extend what you see here for several hours and you get an idea.

Mac

 

[Fiddleback]

Mac,

the video's are fantastic. Can you talk about pests, insects, snakes, spiders, etc? I don't see you slapping your neck all the time, which I expected.

Also, what animals are there to hunt if it had been necessary, and what did you do for water?

 

[tonym]

I always look forward to your posts Mac!

Excellent vids, I can't say I am jealous of that chop in, but I wouldn't mind being the guy behind you walking through your hard work..

 

[Shoki]

Great videos!
Is that a Real Deal Brazil tarp hat? If so, how do you like it?

 

[pict]

Mac,

the video's are fantastic. Can you talk about pests, insects, snakes, spiders, etc? I don't see you slapping your neck all the time, which I expected.

Also, what animals are there to hunt if it had been necessary, and what did you do for water?

It is true that the things that attack most often could fit in a thimble. I see more venomous snakes in Pennsylvania than I do here. We do have some really dangerous spiders, though we didn’t run into any this time. The mosquitoes were not bad, they seem to have a regular feeding time between 6 and 7:30 AM and PM when they get really bad. They do respond to DEET. I used Sawyer Maxi DEET and we both went through several ounces of the stuff. As long as you keep covered up and DEETed up at those times you will be OK. If you keep your jacket on over a tucked in T-shirt they don’t seem to be able to get through it. Sleeves buttoned down and ankle ties tied shut keeps them out pretty good. I've been through worse mosquitoes in PA to tell the truth.

It did get bad at times.

The ants are another story entirely. There are more ants of more types than anywhere I have ever been. They range in size from minuscule to gargantuan and arrive in large numbers. Leaf cutters will suddenly take a detour into camp. I got attacked twice, bitten multiple times. Giuliano's camp got seriously invaded several times. At one point he pulled about a cup of large black ants (he had squashed them) out of his pack and it had been stored off the ground. His hammock also got invaded the first night.

I’m just estimating but that tree is about 4 inches in diameter and that strap about 1.5 inches in width. I don’t know the species but they demand respect.

Animals to hunt, armadillos, possum, lots of birds, monkeys, fish in the streams. All but the fish are highly illegal to kill.

We had planned to fill up with water at the creek in the valley and then collect rain water (filter and treat) from our shelters at night on the mountain. A decent rainfall will give you gallons off a 3x4 meter tarp. No spoilers but we had to adjust plans and water was part of that.

Mac

 

[Brad "the butcher"]

very cool Pict, are those izula ants on the packstrap?

 

[pict]

YouTube - Chopping It Up

Day two (Tuesday) video is up. This day started out as a continuation of Plan "A" which had been to camp on top of the mountain and explore down the ridge.

We broke camp and packed everything for the move to the top. A few hundred meters into the ordeal we quickly determined we couldn't do it with packs on. We switched to hacking forward and then moving the packs up the newly cut trail.

This decision gave way to leaving the packs behind and cutting to the top to make sure it was worth moving the packs up there. We were running out of time and running through the water very quickly. Our only water source was down below our first nights camp. That meant that we would have to chop to the top, move the packs to the top, chop out a camp and set up, then make the trip down yet again to get water.

By the time we got back down to our packs we realized we didn't have enough daylight left to get it all done without walking our trail in the dark. It was a hard day. Anyone who wants to say we wimped out can chop a few km and tell me afterwards. We made the right choice, pushing beyond it would have been unsafe.

Our objective for the week in terms of scouting was to explore the top of the ridge and see if we could locate a trail up there we had spotted in the satellite photos. The only info we had to go on was a short section of trail that crossed an area of sparse tree cover about 3 km down the ridge from where we arrived on the top. We were just guessing that the trail would extend the length of the ridge and come down where we planned to go up, it was the only place it could go given conditions. As long as we got that job done it didn't matter to us how it got done.

Sometimes plan "B" is the best option.

Mac