I'm back!!!!


Hi

Well, I have arrived home and am now considering a reality check but before I do that I thought a final update was in order

The last couple of weeks of my journey have been really great and a brilliant way to end an already awesome trip.

From Manaus (you will recall that was where my last email was from) we bussed it out of Brazil and into Venezuela arriving at Santa Elena after a 15 hour journey in what could be called a fridge or a freezer even. This bus had the air conditioning that brass monkeys avoid and we froze our nuts off despite the outside temperature being in the high 30s

Santa Elena was the starting point for our Mount Roraima trek and after having a pre-departure meeting, picking up our tents and getting ourselves organised we left the following morning to the kick off point, a small village called Paray Tepui where we had luunch before starting of on our adventure.

Generally, the trekking to our first camp was not too bad but the first hour was murder given that; it was really hilly, we were carrying all our equipment (except food and cooking equipment), hadn`t done any major exercise since Torres del Paine some two months ago, the afternoon sun was high in the sky and the temperature was in the 30s!! (NB for those of you who have forgotten Torres del Paine is in Patagonia)

After collapsing on the first day the second day´s trek was a little easier but we had to negotiate a couple of rivers and around 10 to 12 valleys before arriving at base camp. During the first two day´s trekking we covered around 20km with stunning views of Mt Roraima and Koukinan, the adjacent (good word!) tepui.

From base camp the trek to the top of Roraima follows a route called ´the ramp´ the trekking is pretty hard but the views over the Grand Sabana are fantatstic. The ramp starts off with a steep walk into the wall of Mt Roraima which rises around 500m from the ramp. Once at the wall we followed a continuously rising path (there were some downs but generally its up!) where after negotiating a boulder field I arrived at the the top completely knackered after about 6 hours of uphill walking!

We camped in some caves (known as hotels) which are protected from wind and rain by amazing rock overhangs. Following lunch on the day of our ascent (sounds good that!) and all the following day we did a some exploring of the top around where we were camping. Its hard to describe what the top is like except to say that its awesome (there`s that word again!). Mt Roraima has a unique ecosystem which means that some of the plants and other wildlife are only found here. We saw some small black protoplasmic looking things which our guide told us was the unique Roraima frog (not very impressed!) and the footprints of a rare mammal (can't remember its name). There were about 16 species of carnivorous plants which ate everything except mosquitos and biting flys!!!!

Also, the weather systems all come down into Venezuela either over the top of Roraima or through the gap between Roraima and Koukinan, this means that the weather is never really stable. We were quite lucky in that during our stay it only rained on top for arounnd 30 minutes also every night we saw electrical storms some of which were superb (would have used awesome but getting bored with that) it was like having fireworks every night.

After spending a day and a half at the top we were forced to face the ramp yet again and start amaking our way back to the village. We left the top of Roraima early in the morning arriving back at base camp for luunch from there we trekked back to our first night´s camp (knackered again!!).

The last day or our Roraima trek started early to try and avoid the heat of the day (this didn`t work!) we arrived back at Paray Tepui at lunch time where we were greeted with cold beers!!! We didn´t have any real disasters but I should mention (before someone else does) that I did end up up to my waist in a bog hole when I lost my balance trying to cross it on a bridge made out of two badly positioned branches (I say they were twigs!!!).

We met up with the rest of the group in Santa Elena and made our way (slowly - stopping to look at waterfalls and the scenery) to Cuidad Bolivar for the Angel Falls trek.

We flew out of Cuidad Bolivar on small 7 seater Cessnas to Canaima where we picked up a canoe which took us to an island in Lago (that's lake in spanish) Canaima (funny that!) where we spent our first night. The next day we once again took to our canoes and spent around 4 hours going up river until we reached the starting point for the short trek to Angel Falls. On the one hand we were lucky as Angel Falls did look like a water fall (sometimes there isn't enough water and apparently it looks like someones pissing over the edge - would have liked to see that!) and we could get up to the view point and have a dip in the lake at the bottom of the falls. On the other hand when its the wet season the falls are ??? (what's another bloody word for awesome!!) but you can't get as close to them as we did. We stayed at a lodge (well something like that) on the banks of the river where you could see the falls and get some great views walking through the forest a short way.

The next day we returned to Canaima where we caught our flight back to Cuidad bolivar for the start of the end. The idea was for a leisurely drive to Caracas well, that was the idea. In actual fact we ended up by crashing the truck and getting it well and truely stuck. There were no real injuries just some bruising but everyone had to be bussed to Caripe. I stayed with Nick and helped him get the truck to Caripe the next day as Nico was tasked with sorting everyone out and trying to find a tow truck. Anyway, that's another story.

Once the truck was got operational I arrived in Caripe and visited the caves near the town where they have birds called Guacharo which live in the caves and only come out at night. They use echo location (sonar to the ignorant) to find their way around. Needless to say as the cave is dark and they only come out at night its pretty difficult to get a good look at them. Our final couple of days were on the beach in a small place called Sanata Fe where we chilled (and skinny dipped after getting bladdered) before coming home.

Anyway, I suppose by the time everyone has read this I´ll be home and will be starting the boring process of telling you all about the trip in person. Never mind, for those that don´t want to hear about this just keep out of my way for a year or so and I´ll probably have forgotton I never told you all about it.

So, until we meet in blighty. take care and have a merry Xmas and happy new year.

Thinking of you always (NOT!)
Matt back home in the UK (bummer !!!)
Telephone: now turned on