Local knowledge key on road less travelled

Surviving planes, trains and stampedes armed only with a pen and stick of roll-on deodorant

The kindness of strangers has been a recurring and heart-warming theme of this gringo’s World Cup 2014.

A prime example: on Thursday morning I flew into Sao Paulo from Rio to cover that afternoon’s Uruguay-England game. The world’s third-largest city, Sao Paulo is simply jaw-droppingly, mind-bogglingly vast, so the thought of arriving in cold with just a couple of hours to spare before kick-off in which to try to negotiate the 25km from Congolhas Airport to the Sao Paulo Arena, was enough to keep me up the previous night poring over maps on the laptop.