Arriving at RAFT

Wherever you start from, you arrive at Rio de Janeiro after an overnight flight, usually with Varig Brazilian Airlines who have always served us well. After collecting our baggage and
clearing customs, we are met and taken in a minibus northwards towards the mountains. There are two routes, one of which takes us over the great bridge across Guanabara Bay with fine views of the city, the city airport, the bays, mountains and beaches for which Rio is so famous.

At the end of the bridge is the city of Niteroi where the nursery, Floralia has one of its branches. From there is a two hour drive across a plain which 150 years ago was all forest but is now completely deforested with only the odd relict tree laden with bromeliads and orchids but with nowhere to go. We arrive at the market town of Cachoeiras de Macacu for refreshment and there start the climb up into the mountains.

The other route takes us west a little before heading north alongside the Organ Mountain Range, the hunting grounds for many orchidists including George Gardner and now, us. The climb from Cachoeiras is 1000 metres and we feel the drop in temperature as we wind around the hairpin bends. There are distant views of Rio de Janeiro to the south on a clear day. At the top, the road levels off as we drive the few miles to Muri where we leave the tarmac and join a dirt road to climb another 600 metres or so to our base.

The climb is bumpy but by the roadside we can see fuchsias growing on rocks, many begonias and terrestrial orchids like Habenaria and Stenorrhynchos decorating the roadside banks. The hillsides around are covered in mostly secondary forest but fairly mature regrowth with occasional flashes of mauve and purple which are the glorious flowers of Tibouchina shrubs. We leave the municipal dirt road and take off for the final climb on the drive to Sitio Bacchus. We pass the hairpin bend, which achieved notoriety after the Edinburgh Academy students stood there on their last night with whisky, bagpipes and sang 'Auld Lang Syne'. Since then it has been known as Scotch Comer and the local people are still puzzled as to what went on that last night.

Breasting the final hill we come through the trees to the house itself, nestling on a small knoll, surrounded by lawn and overshadowed on all sides by magnificent original forest. You have arrived and suddenly all the travelling and noise stops. A magic moment.