MOORLANDS, ‘OS GERAIS’da CHAPADA DIAMANTINA
Sometimes and in a few diminishing areas being protected as natural habitats, heaths are also more widely known as moors. This may be partly because heaths are so small and valued so little by so few. Perhaps, heather, the plants, not your neighbour, are also undervalued! Furthermore, worth noting are the diversity of ecosystems that can be categorised as moorland. Moorlands, in general, have thin, arenitic soils that can sustain an enormous variety of grasses and flowering plants.
The local climate, latitude and altitude, in addition to inconsistent precipitation or prolonged dessication are the primary natural factors which effect soil formation and the width of range of vegetation. Trees may grow and occassionally in proliferation and with sufficient rainfall or near watercourses; fonts, sources, springs, burns, streams, rivers, lochans, lochs, lakes, ponds and reservoirs. In Brazil’s devoted ‘A Chapada Diamantina’ national park there is an array of wildlife on the higher plains. This area’s geology has been well accounted for because of its crystalline qualities while little consideration has been given to the mineral wealth taken from the rock platforms by the plants and trees that flourish in these immense landscapes. Often, rivercut valleys offer and provide idyllic harbours of tranquility where the greatest assortment of mammalia may be observed.
In many of these forested territories, near highland rivercourses, there may be wild cats, feline carnivores, and this article focusses on an area renowned for the possibility of such encounters. However, the infamous ‘onça pintada’ is no real threat to most humans and is an evermore rarely sighted cat species. Like the recognisable ‘pumas’,’jaguars’ and ‘black panthers’ or ‘çuçuaranas’, onças are by and large coy, shy and timorous in the presence of people and the moment they sense the presence of anyone, they usually flee for cover, so sightings are extraordinarily rare. If there are no herbivores there is little chance of finding carnivores because there is no natural food chain. When I last visited the uplands of Chapada Diamantina, the closest evidence of a food chain oriented towards mammals, asides a few apparently abandoned equine mortals, was a single raptor, soaring serenely above the craggy peaked forested areas and many small rodents, chinchilla-like specias, which are far bigger than hamsters. Those majestic birds may even accompany you along the trails but there is seldom reason to be wary as they are far more likely to snack on reptiles, snakes and rodents when they’re hungry!
These protected geographical zones of moorlands are within the ‘Parque Nacional Chapada Diamantina’. Often, but not necessarily, moorlands in Brazil are simply called ‘Gerais’, upland areas, that have been cleared of forest or that may never have been forested, where the sun can be rather intense and where there are risks of burnings or ‘forest fires’on the brittle, dry grasslands in spring. As with most Brazilian national parks, it is essential to be accompanied by local guides with awareness of the specific ecosystems. These guys may be your ‘guide and inspiration’, or even ‘guiding lights in a world of darkness’, but what you can expect are beards, dreads, ragged clothing, any assortment of gadgets&tools, impersonal silences or excessive, sometimes inaccurate communications, but under any circumstances, these are the people you should trust most in wildlands; your guides. You employ them to show you the best of your holiday and they work for you to give you an insight to delightful natural habitats. They usually know what they are paid for and like many of us, it is their knowledge that gives their work so much value, but you should ask as many questions as possible to stretch their capabilities more completely. You may be lucky enough to find bilingual or even multilingual guides, so if you’d like to appreciate the best of Brazil, it is best to learn Portuguese, or less ideally being reliant upon an interpreter. Incidentally, sometimes, these guys, amongst multilinguists, call themselves, ‘tour guides’, normally when they accompany international tourists who don’t speak the local language in any location. Communications are always fascinating and you’ll get more from everything by reading up before making the best of treading in any wildlands.
For the moorlands, you’ll be best equipped with a water bottle, light walking boots, long, light trousers, swimwear underneath, sunglasses, a hat and suncream, if it’s necessary. Binoculars and a zoom lensed camera may also be utilized and pale, naturally coloured clothes are most suitable, especially in browns, greens and dark yellows. Take your time when you’re there and you can even begin to see things differently, there on the ‘gerais’. Try focussing on the miniscule, appreciating the aromas, the plant species, the sandy soils, where you and your guides may find evidence of animals through their spore, the array of stones, rocks and the sensations that are all around you. These rare uplands are almost another world of wonderment. If you are animal spotting it is best to trek in silence as the truly wild mammals are so easily spooked. From a discreet spotting point and with a certain stealth, using high powered lenses you may film or simply appreciate furry creatures at distance.
During my most recent visit to ‘The Diamond Highlands’, I made a 70km trek amongst the domineering mountainscape escarpments from Capão, which is accessible by a regular minibus service from Palmeiras, in direction towards Andaraí. This route has many variabilities and regular guides will choose which best suits his or her tourists. It requires at least a nocturnal stopover and most decide to stay with Jaílton and his family near the confluence of Calisto and Piabas rivers at the foot of Castelão, an enormous pillar of wild, dark, vegetated rock. There are many of these towering, impenetrable mountains within and near this national park. However, ‘Castelo’ is penetrable, as there are caving routes within its astounding geological formation. Incidentally, there are many caverns and pot-holing day trips are readily available in and around the park.
A couple of hours or more from Capão is the highest point within the park, in the ‘Serra da Esbarracado’ but most just walk below it slightly to the east. It stands above the communities of Guiné which are just to the west, shaded by the mountains every morning. Munro bagging is not usually part of Brazilian mountaineering culture. Although ‘Lapinha’ or ‘Prefeitura’, where Já and his blooming family are growing up in a secluded paradise, is just a few hours walk from the neighbouring villages you can imagine being in the heart of a South American civilisation. In many ways that is exactly what his small farmstead is! He provides ideal camping space, log burning cooking facilities, running water and bunkbed accommodation at very low rates. If you ever have difficulties getting a fire started, as was my case, his sons may even start the stove with their cunning abilities. As with anywhere, keep any fire under control, carry any litter you make and leave it as you find it. When I arrived there, his mother-in-law hardly even looked at me and it is said she speaks only indigenous languages and clear, simple Brazilian Portuguese is also useful there.
Despite the area’s wildness, it is a real wilderness within scientific geographical definitions, there’s an uncanny calmness amongst most walkers and the residents have a charm beyond what the adjective charming normally conveys. Deep in ‘Vale do Paty’, and it can be described as a verdent canyon, the paths are well-trodden and it is best to stick to the trails that meander alongside the river Cachoeirão or Rio Paty. If the skies darken, it may be a blessing in disguise but be careful of flash flooding and avoid high ground during lightning storms, which like the south and southeast of Brazil are more likely between December and March, in the summer months when there is also most crowding. You can spend hours on barmy afternoons lolloping on freshwater beaches or rocky ledges surrounded by natural river pools, where you may spot fish and many more smaller amphibian species. Swimming and bathing is regular but you are advised not to use suncream or insect repellent before swimming.
Many natural species are uncategorised and you might like to ask more of the scientific communities. Photographic skills are also in short supply with communal spiders, grasshoppers and ants integrated with communal plant growth. In theory, this grouping strengthens their defensive systems while contrastingly creating a natural competition within each group. Survival of the fittest and fastest, especially if you see a hummingbird entangled in a massive spiderweb, being shared by its hungry spiders. They are best filmed from a disance as with ants! You may recieve several names for the same species on any given day and you may be tempted to coin a latin name, like ‘arachni comunale’. There is also a fair bit of multiple placenaming. There are also few books published for the Chapada Diamnatina national park and a resulting orally oriented knowledge that is passed through the generations and centuries. This is essentially a prioritised reason to employ a knowledgeable guide and then supply him or her with your photos of the diverse species. He may then compile scientific books of the plant or insect species, etc. According to local knowledge, there are chances of spotting several antelope species and a handful of cat species.
On my last rapid expedition to the area I had decided to spend a night deep down in Paty before then discovering ‘A Rampa’ or ‘escadaria’, an astounding feat of traditional engineering, which connects the town of Andaraí to the wilder parts. After traversing the river by bridge you should clamber up from Paty with water and plenty of energy along the incredible paved path or ‘staircase’, which rises from the valley floor up some 400 vertical metres to the Serra Roncador, where I camped back up above the canyon on the east central side amongst some scrubby sparsely distributed thorny bushes and trees, not far from the paved route back down to the east. I was awoken in the wee hours by a scratching sound unnervingly near to my head. The animal was outside the tent and repeatedly scraping its claws on the hard reddish brown ground less than a metre from my left ear. I thought for a while, knew where my penknife was and just continued listening calmly. I don’t know if it was a wolf, a feline or a stray undomesticated dog. It may have been an anteater, which can weigh in the vacinity of a couple of hundred kilos, or merely a badger or an armadillo, usually called a ‘tatu’. I didn’t test my luck, as black panthers are known to grow larger than leopards! When I awoke long after sunrise, because it was a misty morning, there was only a small area of spore exactly where I heard the beast. It appeared to have sharp pointed claws! Best not to panic under any circumstances.
Spring, summer and autumnal flowering spectacles are common, particularly on sunny days soon after heavy rains when everything appears to have been reborn in a lush display of spiralling vegatation. These moorlands continuously cycle through periods of dryness and wetness. A few ecologists argue in favour of periodic ‘burnings’ as a form of land management practise in order to goad greater generation, so-called ‘rebirthings’. What is sure to provide good debate and discussion, is the very issue of creating a delicate balance between diverse ecosystems within different national parks. Like most botanists, ecologists will generally argue against using fire as a tool for moorlands management. Many see fire as a sign of mismanagement and there are a select group of ill eqipped and under funded ‘brigadistas’, who will risk life and limb so as to protect this delicate area of incredible natural beauty from and against wildfires. These guys are local heros and some turn their hands to the more commercially oriented guiding fraternities, which may continually astound you with respected and yet refutable points of reference while talking over the details of natural life near and in the vacinity of ‘os gerais’.
