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Hi Everyone,
Now started a period which included two of the bigger attraction of coming to Venezuela, first a visit to Angel Falls and second climbing Mount Roraima. Both trips required us to downsize our packs and carry only what we really needed.
Angel Falls is a journey which takes in a plane journey, a river trip and then a hike before reaching the destination.
We downsized to include just a change of clothing and some warmer kit for the evening. Departure was from Bolivar Airport roughly the size of Southend Airport I guess. This was an hour long flight in a single prop plane flown by a cool dude who had just got his driving licence! It was in a Cesner 6 seater and our friend LaLa, who couldn't steer a kyak was in the Co-pilots seat! What hope was there? Very little!
The flight was a good one and took in some fantastic scenery passing over, jungle, mighty rivers, open plains and mountains. The altimeter on the plane was one of those that oscillated between two hiegths, you remember like the old days when a car speedo cable was not quite right, you had to judge your speed by the centre point of the needle between the upper and lower speeds. Remember? No! Ah, well the altimeter was like that and if it read between 3300 and 3340 you were roughly at 3320. Get the idea.
Well when we landed LaLa said to me, 'did you see how far we were going up and down?' I said that I thought we were at 3320 feet, to which she replied,'no we were dropping 20-30 feet each time and you couldn't even feel it, wasn't it great?' - Oh dear, thinkls I!
We left the airstrip at the other end and hopped into a long boat with about 6 other people, this was just a tad disconcerting as we were only 50 yards from a gigantic waterfall at the time, If the engine had failed we would have been done for. I'm still here so you will guess that it didn't and we were okay. The journey took four hours and apart from one section of rapids where we had to get out and walk, it was relentless. We shot up some Grade 2 or 3 rapids and all ducked behing the person infront to try and aviod getting too wet. This was all executed with a high degree of expertise and I had to admire the way the boat was steered upstream with such accuracy.
We then landed on a small beach and walked across an open Savana to pick up the boat on the other side of an open rapid where previous accidents had proved the water to be too dangerous to negotiate with passengers aboard. Welcome the Sandflies! some people were bitten to pieces but I got off lightly. We had with us a small group of Dutch people which prioved invaluable for me later on as they gave me some advise on another part of my journey, I'll update when the time comes.
The remainder of the journey was incredible, the scenery changed and huge table top mountains surrounded and closed in on us, massive rock faces which looked every part "The Lost World" loomed over us. Cloud clung to their sides and tops and giant waterfalls fell from the top and sides randomly and frequently. The river went on and on, we ran across some canoe builders who had set up a camp by the side of the river in dense jungle and were cooking food caught from the bush. We payed them a brief visit but the area of camp was so small that only our guide got out to talk with them. We continued up stream to another shallow area where we got out and then went on foot for an hour until we climbeb to the foot of the Falls. We slipped and clambered over dense foiliage and came out at a point directly next to the base of the 1000 meter falls. The mist and spray were drenching and the noise defening. It was very impressive indeed. From there we were taken to a pool where most of us had a swim in the water which had just tumbled all that way and was swirlinjg around in a small area before it was launched down a further part of the falls to the river below. It was bracing to say the least but one of those things that simply had to be done just so that I could say, 'I did that!:'
Fortunately today was one of those days where I made one of my better decisions, I had decided not to take my camera with me. Why? Well, I thought it might get wet. And what an inspired decision it turned out to be. I also figured that I could get all the photos I wanted the next day on our return. As we started to decend to the boat, the heavens opened. I don't mean it started to rain, I mean the heavens opened, truely opened. I have never witnessed a downpour like it. The rain was so big and heavy that everything became soaked in less than a minute, it was so loud that you could not speak to the person infront of you, well you could, but you could not be heard. Everything was quickly under water. Waterproofs were porous. Berghaus! Get out here - Goretex! I dont think so!
Unfortunately several cameras bit the dust and were simply soaked, just too wet to function. We retreated slowly to the boat and were eventually transferred to a shelter for the night. This was litterally just a long covered area with numerous hammocks strung up in a row with a very long table and benches in front of these to eat from.
This time all the hammocks were so close together that if one person broke wind in the night we all started swaying - actually i made that bit up, it took two people to fart to really get the swing going!
Clothing was hung up to dry but the conditions proved to damp to have much effect and this proved impossible. The morning arrived and we simply put all our wet clothing back on. The next day was glorious and most of our kit did dry out on our way back down river.
We had a lovely day, the sun shone, we dried out,and were taken to 2 more Falls. The second of which was just brilliant. A mini Niagara at which we stripped off to swim suits or shorts and walked behind. It was just so much fun that I laughed the whole way there and out the other side and then again on the return through. It was like having thousands of buckets of water thrown at you. I couldn't help myself, it was truely just FUN. We walked the complete width and came out the other side, a distance of about 60 meters or so. The rocks were really slippery and mixed with the force of the water hitting the protruding rocks it meant you had to hang onto a rope which was strung along the length. Apparently when the water level is low the Falls are reduced to a trickle, you would not have believed that now!
It raised everyones spirits sky high, I could do that all day every day. It was nature at its absolute best, when you could tangibly feel the power of water and witness its pure energy and effect. I smile as I think of it now and I will never forget the feeling it gave me, I was truely alive, brilliant!
We returned to the boat via a different route and were mostly dry by the time we arrived and then had a short trip across another lagoon to the airstrip. The lagoon had even more great Falls, it is an amazing area with something more to see around every turn, it is incredible.
The planes were all lined up and ready for us to leave, Dion and I shared the flight back which took us up and close to the Falls I have just spoken about, if you look at the Angel Falls photos hopefully you will realise where I am talking about.
Our return to the Ranch meant that we had to turn ourselves around quite quickly. Franz and Dion had agreed to drive through the night in order to get us to Santa Elena in order that we would then have enough days left to climb Mount Roraima before leaving for Brazil. We all did what washing we could, re-packed our kit in four hours which naturally flew by. Before long we were off again. Everyone grabbed what they could to make the journey tolerable, sleeping bags, camping mats, beer! We were off and what a night it turned out to be...
To be continued......
See you soon,
Chris
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