Our plan had been to go from Penedo, AL to Salvador, BA, but of course, in no hurry. We took the opportunity along the way to see some of the northern Bahia coast. This area is famous as the “Linea Verde” (Green Line) of forests and preserved areas, and it’s a beautiful area to travel through.
We looked for a campsite for this part of the trip, to get our first experience sleeping in the car. I won’t go into detail yet on how that worked out, we’ll follow up on that in a subsequent post. (But in short: it was better than expected!) We found a good place, “Coconut Beach”, close to Conde. We stayed three very easy, sunny days. In front of us, a deserted beach with no sign of people for miles and miles. You could swim naked and not be disturbed, although we’re not that brave yet. A clear, dark, starry sky at night, no artificial lights or nearby towns to spoil it. We could see the constellations and the Milky Way perfectly. A clear sky being so rare back in Ireland, we really appreciated it.
The campsite is right next to the beach with some high sand dunes protecting you from the wind. There’s plenty of shade and a very well equipped kitchen, it’s an easy place to spend time and relax. The owner, Domingo, was there for us if we needed anything for our stay. He’s charging R$30 / €7.50 per person, per night, so we took a bit of time to work on the blog while weren’t looking at the sunshine, or eating.
We got to know a few of the other guests at the campsite, several of them told us that Imbassaí was the place to be, if we wanted to head south. It’s only an hour away, so we went! Once there, camping was a bit more basic (no kitchen) but again, right in front of the beach, and much cheaper (R $ 18 / € 4.50 per person, per night). The town is well laid out, has surprisingly well designed bicycle paths everywhere, and a brilliant beach.
My god, the beach. A long sandy spit with a shallow lagoon inside, it has a set of miniature “rapids” where the sea enters and leaves, twice a day. 
Lie down and let the current carry you along, until you run aground along the banks. Or do some cartwheels in the shallowest part. We met a couple down there, Marcela and Rafael, doing the same thing. By coincidence, they were staying in the same campsite as us, so we approached and made friends. I can be a bit shy so it’s not my speciality – to be honest with you, in recent years I have become a bit anti-social, too lazy to make new friends and be friendly. Oops… I’m sorry but this is the truth! We all know that it’s a delight to have many new friends, but it takes work 🙂
So, having steeled myself for the difficult task of saying hello, we ended up going out for dinner in the village together, having fun, talking nonsense and drinking a few beers.
The next day, as we were all going towards Salvador, they hitched with us. Our first lift! It was a delight to have more people in the car to talk, and made our trip feel a lot shorter.
Louco Barato 🇧🇷 🇮🇪 