Day 4

Got up early, and went for a bathe in the river. The puri puri were swarming, but when you were in the river it was not bad. The water was cold, but not awful. The trick was to get the baby oil on as quick as possible after getting out of the river, and also drying off at the same time. The sun seemed like it was going to be out, so we could wash some of our clothes as well, and expect them to dry hanging from our packs. The porters came with our food, we ate porridge for breakfast, and headed off.

First we crossed the Rio Tek, which is what we bathed in. Not difficult, as it was not too deep and didn't have a strong current. But 1/2 hour later, we reached the Rio Kukanen, which was thigh deep with a strong current. Evidently, depending on the rains, it is sometimes not crossable. I didn't have much confidence when Carlos, who crossed this river in the dark last night, immediately fell and lost one of our bags downriver. Fernando was able to retrieve it. Brian immediately tipped over as well, losing his water bottle forever. Essentially, Carlos and Fernando had to help us to cross, as we had no balance with the packs on our back, and no desire to get them soaking wet. It was definitely fun trying to cross, but we couldn't do it on our own.

Now, steady uphill, through a different landscape. Sort of like a desert. Sun was beating down again, and again I was struggling and falling behind. We could see a rainbow in front of Kukanen and Roraima ahead, as there were small pockets of rain everywhere. You could literally be in full sunshine, take two steps backwards, and be in rain. We took a break, got water from a river oasis, and had lunch. 2 more hours to go until we reached camp 2. My strategy was to walk 10 minutes, rest 1 minute, and go like that. It ended up more like walk 7 minutes, rest 2 minutes, but slowly we made it. I did not expect this to be so difficult. But the whole time the mountain gets slightly closer, and in the back of your mind you know you're going to get there. The vegetation started to get more lush. We got to a clearing, saw some other tents, and realized we were at "base" camp. The next day would be straight up the wall of Roraima, but we still had no idea how, or where the path was. All we knew was that iw as 3300 feet up.

There were probably around 20 people in the camp, most headed down. There was a river about 5 minutes up in the middle of a small rainforest oasis. The water was as cold as water can get I think, but Brian still dunked himself, which I dared him to do. I could not bring myself to doing the same. We hung out there for a while, cleaned some clothes, and got drinking wate. There were no bugs either. We had mainly sunshine, intermixed with 5 minute downfalls of rain. Lots of rainbows. There was a great sunset over the flatlands, and then complete darkness, save for the thousands of fireflies that flew around. Brian called it spooky, and I would agree. There was a sheer wall in front of us rising into the clouds, lightning in the distance, and fireflies everywhere. Very hard to describe. After exchanging stories with the guide, we headed to sleep around 7:30. Did about 14 km today.

Day 5

Today we were going up. Still no idea how, but we were doing it, evidently in about 4 hours. The morning was very clear, which is rare, and we could see the moon setting behind Kukanen. It was also nice to know that we would be heading up in dry weather. The beginning was sharply uphill through lush vegetation, and interesting flowers and cactus. It was nice in cool because of the shade, but you often needed both hands to help you up in places. Although it was steeper than before, you had to go at it much slower, which made it not nearly as tiring as the previous days. Because of all the vegetation, we could not really see how or where we were going in relation to the mountain. Although we were on the edge of the mountain, we couldn't tell, until we got about half way and saw where we were. We proceeded to climb past waterfalls, and more lush vegetation, until we got to the steepest part, which was the final ascent. It was mainly loose gravel and big boulders straight up, but with plenty of place to put your feet and hands. By no means was it dangerous or true rock climbing, but you had to use your hands a lot and be creative to make your way up. You definitely had to pay attention. It took one hour to finish this section, and then we were at the top.

We had no idea what to expect at the top, as this climb is not very publicized, and we had seen no pictures. We knew it was a table top mountain, and that the top was flat and expansive. What we saw was like another planet. Maybe its what the moon looks like. Brownish black rock everwhere, in all sorts of shapes and sizes, forming small pools of water which fed into each other creating small streams. Small desert like vegetation under the rocks. And you could see this for seemingly miles. There was not another soul up there either. Complete and utter isolation. We were 9,000 feet up, and about 5,000 feet above from where we started. Sort of felt like we didn't belong there.

After resting, we walked 20 minutes through this weird world to our camp, which was perfectly situated under a huge overhang. Its supposed to rain up here all the time, but today it was perfectly clear. There were a few of these camp sites on top, and they were called "hotels". The area around our campsite was similar to what I had described, with lots of small pools and streams in which to bathe, wash clothes, or get drinking water, and lots of rocks to just lie out on and read or sleep. This would be our camp for 3 nights.

We were essentially done for the day. After eating lunch, we took huge naps, had dinner, watched the sunset, and then looked at the pitch black sky and stars. Its colder up here, eventually too cold to stay out any longer, and we headed to our tents for the night.

Day 6

Today we would explore the top of Roraima. We walked around all day, seeing amazing things the whole time. When you first see it your are amazed, but have no idea all the details of things that exist up there. The landscape is actually very varied, with vegetation free areas, small forests, lakes, waterfalls, gorges, and all sorts of other things up there. We saw many different plants, many of them that are only found on Roraima. We saw two types of insect eating plants. We saw plants that grew out of rocks. We ate a cactus leaf that tasted like radishes.

All the rock formations have been created by 300 million years of erosion. This has created many different types of rock formations, many of which are named after the shape they took on. We saw pinnochio, a tiger wearing a backpack, a hand giving us the finger, a monkey eating ice cream and many others. We saw rocks that balanced impossibly on other rocks, and stonehenge like formations.

We came upon an area called crystal valley, with thousands of quartz crystals on the ground, with water running over them. Even these crystals took on interesting shapes. I swear that in this picture it has two eyes a nose and a mouth.

After crystal valley, we came to Triple Point, which is where the borders of three countries meet, Brazil, Venezuela, and British Guyana. Roraima actually sits in all three countries, and by walking in a circle around this point, you were in three different countries, without having to show your passport. Further away was Lago Azul, a lake in a large crater 30 feet down. It was filled by a small stream barely 2 inches wide. If you wanted, you could climb down and take a swim in 40 degree water. I decided to try the climb, and quickly regretted it. Whereas Carlos and Fernando had no problems, I was scared for my life. There was one point where you had to just hang on to the rock, and your feet were dangling. I don't like these types of points. I got a lot of help from Fernando and Carlos to get me down. I saw the caves underneath the crater, but then we had to go up the same way we came down. This was no easier or less scary, and again I needed lots of help to get me back. Brian, smartly, did not attempt the maneuver.

Fernando decided to come off the path at this point, as the day was clear and he had never before seen the views in this area on a clear day. We eventually came to a sheer cliff, from where we could see other portions of Roraima as well as the Brazillian Amazon rainforest. The view might have been the best I have ever seen, and could not be captured in pictures. To the right, a gorge. To the left, the cliffs of Roraima, very similar to the Cliffs of Insanity in "The Princess Bride". And all around and in front, rainforest with other table mountains in the distance. This was the first I have ever really felt vertigo, and I needed to take a few steps back from the edge, and sit down. One gust of wind, and it would have been over.

We walked back next to a large gorge, and then had a determined 2 hour walk back to camp, during which no words were spoken. We had walked for 8 hours today, and though it wasn't climbing, and we didn't have packs, it was not easy either. We were both sunburnt, Brian more so. We washed up, ate dinner, and then another night of clear sky and stars. Bed at 8:00.

Days 7 - 13

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