Roraima (30/Aug-7/Sep/06)

Belem, Brazil

Santa Elena de Uairem is a small border town. It is on the major cocaine route from Colombia to Europe (probably Galicia in Spain) via Brazil. So we were happy to find ourselves (and everybody else on the bus) emptying the entire contents of our bags in front of military police three times during the night. So much for our beauty sleep. So we got to Santa Elena in a bit of a daze, and attempted to sort out a tour of the Gran Sabana (which we had just driven through, at night) to see the tepuis (table-top mountains) and waterfalls and local wonderfulness. We had initially decided to skip a trek to the top of the tallest tepui, Roraima, on the grounds that it was the rainy season.

We spent the next day driving up to a few out-of-the way waterfalls, saw a giant anteater (from about a mile away) and had a few nice dips. This all wetted our appetite for more, so the day after we found ourselves joining the only group that was setting out that day to Roraima.

Roraima is a tepui, a table-top mountain - flat at the top, and with huge cliffs all around. The top, being separated from down below for millions of years, is full of endemic (ie "found only here") species of plants and animals. Roraima itself served as inspiration for Sir Arthur Connan Doyle's The Lost World.

2 easy days' trek takes you to the base. On the third day we climbed up a path that winds up the cliff and reached the top. It is an amazing sight, a bit like El Torcal in Antequera, Spain (description not much use if you've never been there) but much bigger, much weirder, and with all the endemic species. To me it also felt a bit like Venus, though I must admit I've never been there. We spent the rest of the day setting up camp in one of the "hotels" (caves) and then went to the "jacuzzi", some rock pools of freezing cold water, and the "window", a lookout point where you can see down below the neighbouring tepui. A bit cloudy so we decided to try and return another day.

The next day we went off to the triple point, where the borders of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet. Sadly there was nobody there to stamp our passports. On the way back it started to rain heavily so we went back to the "hotel" without stopping by the window. But the next morning, before we went down, we did pass by it for a last series of photos. Then it really started raining, so we got soaked. We couldn't get back to the first campsite because the river was uncrossable (we met some Venezuelan's who had actually been swept away during the crossing, and were full of cuts and bruises), so we pitched tent on the other side.

On the sixth day we ambled back to the starting point, had a slap up lunch and a few beers, and drove back to Santa Elena via the Jaspe waterfall, which is set in some beautiful red rock. The next day we said goodbye to Venezuela and took the taxi to the border, and from there (after not being asked for out yellow fever vaccination, or even our passports) to Manaus via Boa Vista.