First person account: Couple tell of Amazon ravine ordeal

The British couple who crashed into a ravine in the Brazilian Amazon waited in the dark unaware that a rescue operation had been launched to pluck them from the depths of the rainforest.

Bruce Scott, 62, and Lesley Norris, 64, were flown to safety by a Brazilian navy helicopter last week following 18 hours stranded in a jungle after a bridge collapsed under their seven-ton Mercedes motorhome.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the couple said they had switched off their satellite phone to conserve its battery after calling a relative in the UK. Scott constructed a bivouac, using deck chairs to hold up tarpaulin sheeting, with velveteen seats and raided the Mercedes Unimog's fridge. "We drank some beers but they were warm," said Scott. "It got dark at about 6.30pm and there were lots of strange noises. I heard what sounded like a cat purring and there were lots of eyes shining in the dark."

Norris said: "We didn't sleep much, maybe two hours. The insects were like an orchestra. It was a very hot, sticky uncomfortable night with thunder and lightning and we got badly bitten." In the morning they phoned Norris's sister and were told the family had contacted the coastguard who had alerted Brazilian authorities to dispatch a helicopter.

"It was like a scene from Top Gun when the helicopter came in," said Norris. "They got out, took their helmets off and we said: 'Thank you, thank you, thank you'." The couple retrieved a laptop, Scott's most expensive camera equipment, their passports and credit cards before taking off to fly nearly 250 miles to Manaus.

Asked why they were travelling around Latin America, Norris, who worked for British Airways, said: "We have this favourite expression. If we are driving through the Argentine countryside or somewhere like that, we look around us and say to each other: 'Well, it beats shopping at Tesco doesn't it?'

"Everybody thought we were mad when we left Britain. I had retired and Bruce was perhaps finding work a bit harder to come by and we just thought: 'Well, why not? What are we going to do with the rest of our lives?'"

Recalling the plunge down a 30 feet ravine, Norris said: "I saw the wheels going over the edge and I thought: 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.' We landed inches from the water. I had a few bruises but that was it. If it had been one of the higher bridges we would be dead, from the impact or from drowning.

"The police said a few months ago three people crashed off a bridge and had no way of calling for help. It was three or four days before they were found, dead and decomposing."

The couple drove the 12 hours back to the van at the weekend and found it had been looted. Stolen items included a Bose stereo, iPod, deck chairs, a laptop, camera, iPad, money and clothing, none of which was insured. "All I have left to wear is two pairs of trousers, one with holes in, and five shirts," said Scott.

They paid a landowner 4,000 Brazilian reais (£1,408) to rescue the vehicle, and Scott is confident it will be up and running again with a few repairs. Having passed through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and now Brazil, the couple remain determined to complete a full set of Latin American countries.

"We don't want to go home," said Scott. "We plan to drive up through the Amazon, into Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana, down Brazil's east coast and into Uruguay."

As for Norris, she is already thinking further ahead: "I'd like to do the west coast of America or some of Europe."