If I can do this.. the climb to Roraima
Trip Start
May 20, 2010
1
35
Trip End
Dec 20, 2010
Santa Elena de Uairen, Guayana Highlands, Venezuela
Sunday, October 24, 2010
I slept wrapped up in my sleeping bag, til was shook awake by an army guy with a machine gun and told to get off the bus, I looked around, everyone else was already off it. Thats ok so..
Off expecting the usual passport check, but nope, this was a full on, "open up allof your bags and have them rooted through" type morning stop.. thank god i hasd just gotten all my laundry done in Ciudad Bolivar! The yellow bus ahead of us was also being searched, and just as it was coming up to my bags turn to be violated, the yellow bus lñeft.. A woman started screaming abuse at the army guys, it was her bus, and her son was on board, the bus didnt notice the army guys waving it down and just kept going.. ONe very angry woman lead to all of us having to quickly load up onto our bus, and chase down the yellow one so we could reunite the woman and her kid..
After this I was pretty awake, and watched the yellowish grassland for the hour til I reached Santa Elena. At the station I saw two people with rucksacks and decided to chat to them, Irene from Venezuala and her spanish boyfriend Serfgio,. They were here for Roraima too,and were going with Mystic Tours, deadly. people!
I grabbed a taxi with them into town and straight to Mystic, Roberto the fat german in charge said yes there was place for the tour tomorrow and i could go with them,. Now all i needed was money.
Cghecked into posada Michelle next door and hopped into a taxi with Serghio and Irene for the brazilian border.. Getting money out in ven is a rip off. you get under 6vsfs for a euro and can only take out 300 at a time, and get charged for the transfer.. Officially 11euro0 6vsf, 1 USdollar= 4.6vsf and 1real= 2.39vsf. on black market, very open and well known black market here in Elena! one real is worth 4vsf, one dollar 7 and one euro 8.5vsf..
got to brazil and the bank machines were down! god dam it, wandered a whole and bought some cheap biscuits for the trek,, then back into Ven. Roberto agreed to let me pay for the trip afterwards, once I left something woth him as security.. grand so! spent the day shopping for the trip, and changed the 100euro I had with me for the last five months! on the black market in broad daylight for 850vsf. Paid roberto 500 of the 2000 I owed him and then just relaxed a bit.
At half six we had a meeting for the trip, what to expect, what to bring ect. It was going well0 lots of pictures of the plants and rocklmformations and animals to be seen, Gor given our sleeping mats and bags and told about the walking we would do on each of the six days.. Then he went and lost all his credibility by showing us a map of the world declaring roraima as the centre of all UFO activity, and worse, a picture of the leader of the good aliens that are commonly seen on Roraima.. this guy really really really believes in this crap! i have to bury my head to stop from snorting, others also shifting uncomfortably in their seats..Dutch guy asks where the photo came from- the alien looks like a clean shaven Jesus... yikes
Anyway we all escape without calling Roberto a twat, and head of to pack our bags.. Then myself and Irene and Sergio and 20 year old birder Martin from Sweden head for a pizza and a chat.. Its good pizza and its good chat, but at nine its time to head for bed.. First bed for three nights for me, and last one for another five at least!
We set off at ten the next morning, ten of us tourists, a guide and three porters, that carry food and tents and cook and the lark. My bag weighed about eleven kilos. with maty and bag and carrots and biscuits making up most of the weight. MArtins weighed about 40, he was bringing his own food and tent and supplies, so only had to pay 1000, julian and elodie the french couple the same..
if i had my own stuff i would def consider it... but i don{t so stuck with full expensiveness..
My first ever proper trek started with a 95minute drive towards an imposing looking table mountian, unpacked and excited, in the tiny village in the middle of the Gran Sabana, we had lunch.. why not like.. after our sandwiches (i gave the cheese of my ham and cheese to Irene and Christina (braziliana)) and bad dilute orange stuff we were finally ready.. said goodbye to buildings and toilets and headed off..
The walk was four hours to base camp 1, and was over little rolling hills, and small streams (threw bags over to the boys first then awkwardly jumped over by us girls.. least i didnt fall in..), and slippery log bridges (again did not fall)and through ferns (free of ticks). Eyes open for snakes, but only saw a few lizards. WE all tired quickly, and Roraima did not seem to be getting any closer! The trail was at times sandy and soft, other times rough rocks and stones, sometimes wet and marshy, and sometimes just parched black or red mud. It was alwyas beautiful and peaceful and very very clean.
We stopped on one hilltop, about three hours intot he walk, to admire the view, Roraima towered ahead of us, looming stright balck and pink cliffs, waterfalls cascading from the top into the forest below. Sister table mountain Kukenan beside her, also imposing, also beautiful, and also shrouded by cloud.. Then as I peeled carrot number one (to lighten the load rather than from hunger) the clouds cleared and a rainbow appeared.. it was incredible, under the height of the mountain and dazzling in its brightness. and so much fopr saving batteries, this was worth a photo! Twenty minutes of walking later we reached the camp.
Set up the tents as the sun was going down, found the grove of trees that was to serve as the bathroom and the river as a shower, and relaxed.. There were three other groups there, 14 english in a huge loud group, 6 more english in their sixties in a slightly quieter group and a few spaniards, they were all on their way home, day five and heading back for civilisation... They wished us luck and dryness and leg muscles... hum... warning!!
Spainard Luis (38) was to be my tent mate, or Roraima boyfriend as he became known, cause the other three girls on the trek were part of couples, leaving me the only soltera for the week. He was great, a perfect gentlemen and best of all he didnt snore.. so I slept pretty well, despite the bad sleeping mat and loud shite-chatting of the big english group.
Day 2;
Breakfast of awful eggs and fried pastry at 6am.. beautiful dawn light showing us the pink face of Roraima. at half six we were off. First thing to do was cross rio tek, it was only knee height, but pretty powerful.. Roberto the porter took my bag across, then came back to take my hand as i Barefootedly slipped over the rocks, but i got their safe and rebooted and set off over the hills with Reimer (dutch 25) and Cristina (brazil 23)as company. we got to the second and bigger and deeper and faster river Kukenan, and decided to again await roberto and the other guides to cross it.. This one needed socks for grip, and the lads struggled to bring their packs across.,. Roberto helped us all, even the other porters, hes brilliant, and everyones favourite smiling guide.
once crossed it was time to wash, take every chance you get to wash cause we all stink, and its only day 2.
the very fat and loud guide Jose jumped into the water shouting "lets go lets go, wash yourselves" loudly at us all, in his little greenish brown yfronts, jumping over the rocks while waving a stick and splashing us all.. nutcase. But we complied, and the water was refreshing.. half an hour later we all set off in our wet socks for the rest of the trek. Lunch of more ham sandwiches followed by some pineapple, at an old military base, which was just a group of trees beside a river.
Its very hard today, its constant uphill the whole four hours, constant pull on the same muscles.. If the sun hadnt decided to hide itself behind the nice refreshing rainclouds I would not have made it as quickly as I did. In fact i would prob still be at the three hour point baking in the sun.. but it rained, and that energised me, and I made base camp before one o clock. We were all surprised to finish walking so early. Why ot continue today and make camp somewhere further on?
answer= from here on in is forest and steepness and absolutley nowhere to camp.. so its here or on top.. Top was towering 2000metres over us, with a trail that disappeared up into a long strip of forest. we stopped asking questions and set up the tents. Julian and Luis were good boyfriends and macheted a load of grass to put under our tents as a bit of padding and insulation! Elodie and I watched proudly and took photos.. Themn we all went to the river to wash, this water was bloody freezing and mosquito ridden, but the "serves for absolutely everything" venezulan blue soap washed our bodies and hair and clothes and cups and things and left us all and our things nice and clean.. im bringing a bar of this stuff home with me!!
We had dinner at five, its easier to cook and wash the things up before it gets dark, then had some very welcome and very delicious hot chocolate as we sat around on big cold hard rocks and chatted.. Most of them opted for bed, a few of us stayed up with the camp watchman Harrison, and played cards.. veneualas version of rummy and the clasic "asshole" til the extremely late hour of seven.. The cockroaches running aroud and under and above and on us eventually drove us to the shelter of our tents.. Luis´s efforts with the machete paid off.. the ground wasn´t so hard, and I slept well on the grass softened ground!
Day 3 dawne scary and bright, Roraima literally pink and black and towering down on us. Gulp! Breakfst of hot pancakes and a fried egg, def better than the previous days.. at half six we were ready to go, but between waiting for MR. Bean to be ready and the guides to get the tents dry and packed up, it was nearly half seven when we set off.. It looked way wore thn it actually was.. first bit was a very steep climb, with hands and feet, up a rock and clay old waterfall path.. it was pretty tough with the rucksacks pulling us back, but we did it.. By the end of that climb we were into the forest. It was beautiful cloud forest, reminded me of equador but with some different species. The wetness of the clouds around us was refreshing,though we had no iew to encourage us to go further up and up.. cloud was thick around us. The lack of burning sun made the hike easier.. we went up and up and up, and reached the start of the "ramp" the very steep way up to the top. We stopped for very stale sandwiches and then started the domineering looking climb.. It wasn´t actually too bad, the rocks were big and wet, and at times my les just weren´t long anough, so A hand up from one of the guys was sometimes required.. Soon we were all too spread out for that thugh, so i resrted to using my knees and hands as extra feet.. We got to the waterfall.. This waterfall " Lagrimas del sol" or "tears of the sun" can been seen cascading don to side of roraima from miles and miles away, we had been watching it for two days, now we were in and under it, and it was very wide and very wet.. The rocks were steep and slippery and I got absolutely soaked.. I had no poncho, ll my stuff was safely wrpped in plastic bas, so stayed dry, but me and my clothes and my boots (especially my poor boots) were drownded.. I put that n in on purpose!
The path went on and on, and then we had to go down and down, that was the most soul destrying part, down after all the energy used to gt up... then more up, then another series of downs, til the guides assured us we were just one ten-minute stretch from the top.. we had bursts of energy then, the lads especially just started powering pn, we were finally free to go our own speed as the guide moved out of the ay and let us off. Now all the rocks we climbe were bigger than us, huge and black, worn pink from many many passing hands and scrambling feet.. I got to the top about fifth, and yelling from pure adrenaline... Jut to have the guide give out to me, and say that if I screamed it would rain.. I laughed at him, then a weird part of my brain started wondering if since we were inside a cloud, and if i dded more energy to thta cloud, would it cause it to start dropping moisture... Obviously thats nuts but i was tired!!
we sat, and stared throuhg the fog at the strange world around us. Big black rocks, weirdly shaped, some curving and somehow soft looking, tortoise shapes and strange mounds, deep cracks and falls with little streams and ponds running everywhere.. It kind of reminded me of the burren, cept the rock were black, and the plants in the cracks were bromeliads and orchids instead of the types we have at home.. No one else had seen the burren, they were all talking about lunar landscapes and the stunning weirdness of it all... we just sat for half an hour, then it was time to set of across the rocks, you can not walk, you have to jump from one to the next, the pink paths were the only non lichened non-slippery parts. we followed one of these to find our way to a huge towering mound of rocks, this was "hotel sucre" and our home for the next two days....
