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as much as 25 or 30ft deep We backed up about as much as we went forward and I waited long while the men went path-finding-nothing to collect in this awful badlands. [[vertical blue line in left margin]] It is appalling what oxcarts do to a country. The oxen have to graze and they eat all the good plants for a long distance each side of the "badlands" made by cart wheels. [[/blue line]] We got off early this morning for the first time having stayed at a very dirty hovel. I slept in car, as usual. There was a
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thunderstorm and I (and José, too) had forgotten my rubber poncho, leaving it at Sta Rita. He had had his rapadura done up in it and it was a mess of stickiness. I washed it off and showed him where I spread it on the fence right by the car, to take the last thing. It was as much my fault as his that we left it there. José brought me his sobretudo , a great circular ^[[insert]] waterproof [[/insert]] cape. He had his hammock in the house. I asked if he wouldn't need it. He said the senhora