Dinosaur Hunting

Trip Start Jun 14, 2009

Trip End Dec 24, 2009

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Flag of Venezuela Santa Elena de Uairén, Bolívar, Venezuela
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

After I filled a diaper following the Angel Falls flight, we decided to do something I´m a lot more keen of: walking, or rather ´let´s carry some heavy gear up a mountain´ trekking up to the top of Mt Roraima. Mount Roraima is the highest of a group of table-top mountains in South America, and was first described by the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596. Reports from early Victorian expeditions to the mountain inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write "The Lost World", the "Jurassic Park" movie equivalent back in the day. I´ve always wondered whether velociraptors were as cute as the plastic figurine I had as a child, and having unintentionally carbo-loaded on pasta, rice and potatoes (often together) over the past few weeks we thought we´d give it a go.

We loaded up one backpack (yes, Renee had to leave all manner of beauty products behind) - and we set off immediately following the return from Angel falls

Roraima-Tepui

. The trek was 6 days - 3 days to the top, 1 day at the top, and 2 days down. Following an overnight bus, we arrived in Santa Elena (very close to the Brazilian border) we met our guides and two porters who had to carry all manner of equipment including a portable toilet (I won´t say anything about this other than it´s mandatory to carry your waste out with you - nothing like crapping into a plastic bag to make you feel alive!). Our guide, Giddeon, was from neighbouring Guyana and, because he had lived in a village very close to the mountain, knew all manner of stories about the region.

The first two days we walked about 12 kms each day to get to camp, where we put up tents and relaxed. Despite it being the rainy season here we were blessed with good weather, and we ambled through savannah and jungle and the odd river crossing here and there. During the sometimes cold nights we discovered a new favourite "cocktail" to help internal warmth: hot milo and rum (we purchased a cheap bottle before starting and made sure we had room in the pack for it!). Along with this the food the porters cooked for us was amazing and better than we both can cook at home with use of a full kitchen! At the start of the third day we awoke early for the long climb to the top, via "La Rampa" a natural staircase-like path. It was steep and tiring, but we took our time and by 2pm, having walked through waterfalls, and at times wondered why we weren´t at a banyan tree resort somewhere in the world, reached the top 4 hours later

Roraima-Tepui

. Despite the effort, the walk was spectacular, with views of the 400 metre + cliffs that surround the top.

The top of Roraima really is another world, and it´s easy to see where Doyle got his inspiration from. The peak is a labyrinth of rock, and is considered one of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back some two billion years ago. David Attenborough did a series of "The life of Plants" up here, as a third of the species of plants on Roraima are unique to the plateau. Because the majority of the surface is rock, plants have become carnivorous due to the lack of nutrients in the soil (due to the almost constant rainfall and rock as opposed to soil environment). We also found and touched (safely, and decently) a number of endemic frogs that live on the top. Due to the lack of predators, they don´t jump (evolution hasn´t required them to), so they crawl along the rocks and pools. They are the worlds smallest frog, and as you can possible tell I´ve completely forgotten the name of them.

We stayed two nights in a cavern at the top, in tents, protected from the conditions. Thick cloud floats in and out across the rocky landscape - very easy to get lost, so we only ventured out with the guide who took us on walks on the full day we had there

Starting the walk

. This included a freezing ´jacuzzi´ we jumped into (because ´we´ll never being back here again´), and the highest point.

Day four we descended to the original base camp. Renee and her propensity for falling on flat and sturdy surfaces meant a trip here and there down the steep descent was inevitable (I decided during the first day to carry my camera on me for safety reasons). She fell a couple of times, but other than scaring the daylights out of a few crickets and frogs snoozing in nearby shrubbery none of the falls were serious thank goodness, only a couple scratches to remember the trip by.

Last night we arrived back in Santa Elena, and awoke this morning to get a glimpse of old age. Both of us are taking several minutes to climb few steps, with sore legs following the 6 days but now have a full day in Santa Elena, so can relax and take it easy. We also put in our washing - after 3 days of Angel Falls and 6 days hiking, our clothes were ripe, and practically ran themselves to the laundry.

Statistics include:

Number of days Eugene wore a t-shirt without changing: 7 days

Bottles of rum consumed: 1

Number of Renee falls: 4

Number of bags of poo filled: 5

Number of mozzie bites: 61

A great adventure!