Pantanal - Brazil

"Would you like to get your feet wet?" asked Chico. It was dawn over the Brazilian Pantanal and he was piloting our hot air balloon so that the basket in which we stood skimmed the trees and I could lean out and scoop up handfuls of leaves. He lowered us gently towards the lake which was black with caimans, a sort of junior crocodile.

Chico and I jumped up to sit on the sides of the basket as it hit the water. The caiman scurried grumpily out of our way. Water began to pour gently through the wicker of the basket, as the early rays of the sun glinted across the lake.

I felt wonderfully far from home and from my comfort zone. I had travelled 6,500 miles to find the hyacinth macaw, the largest member of the parrot family. Pairs of them had flown past our balloon, shrieking noisy conversation at each other. This magnificent bird, intensely blue with one yellow stripe and an orange eye, is endangered. I had come to make a television film advertising the creature's plight and seeking funds for the project dedicated to its survival.

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