Serra da Canastra National Park

Canastra protects the plateau where the Sao Francisco rises - the spring is marked and reachable on a short walk, and the river that starts here crosses the dry interior for nearly three thousand kilometres before reaching the Atlantic. A few kilometres downstream the same water goes over Casca d'Anta, a fall of about a hundred and eighty-six metres that can be seen from above at the top of the escarpment or approached from the base by the lower road. The plateau is cerrado grassland and holds maned wolf, giant anteater and the Brazilian merganser, a duck so rare that Canastra is one of very few places it survives. Outside the boundary, the same highlands produce Canastra cheese, a raw-milk cheese with protected status and a long-running argument with food regulators behind it.

What you actually see

• The source of the Sao Francisco - the marked spring at the head of the river.
• Casca d'Anta - a 186-metre fall seen from the rim or from the base.
• Cerrado grassland fauna - maned wolf, giant anteater and the rare Brazilian merganser.
• Canastra cheese country - the raw-milk cheese farms around the plateau.

When to go

April to September, the dry season. Three days.

Honest expectations

The upper and lower parts of the park have separate entrances a long drive apart, and people regularly arrive at the wrong one. Internal roads are dirt and rough. The fall runs thin late in the dry season. Wildlife is present but sightings need patience and early starts.

Nearby

Sao Roque de Minas is the upper base; Vargem Bonita serves the lower fall.