A pair of British grey nomads have had an amazing escape after their motorhome collapsed a remote bridge deep in the Amazon rainforest.
Bruce Scott, 62, and Lesley Norris, 64, called family back in the UK on a satellite phone after their vehicle plunged 30ft down a ravine.
After taking down their GPS co-ordinates, UK coastguards sent calls to colleagues in Brazil and a helicopter was sent to track down the stranded pair. The couple got some tarpaulin from their vehicle and waited in the humid rainforest for 17 hours before being airlifted to the city of Manaus. They are now recovering from their ordeal and suffered no major injuries.
“The weight of the vehicle was excessive and the bridge couldn’t handle it … it was a bridge too far,” said Bruce. “Luckily we were able to leap out before it fell.”
Lesley added: “I thought it was all over when the bridge started to collapse. It’s amazing we escaped unharmed.”
The pair have been travelling in Central and South America for five and a half years in their Mercedes Unimog – an off-road adventure vehicle adapted to include a double bed and porcelain flushing toilet.
They started their adventures in January 2006 from the Mexican port of Altamira, accompanied by two other couples from the Silk Route Motor Caravan Club, which specialises in extreme expeditions. Later they continued on their own and drove through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia before reaching Brazil.
The pair are now focused on salvaging their motorhome, which still contains all their belongings.
“The truck is 30ft down the ravine on its side,” Lesley told a British newspaper. “If we can get it up again and on the road we will continue at some stage because we enjoy what we are doing.”
