Once we’d reached the summit there was barely a pause for breath or photos as we made the painful 40 minute walk to the campsite. Unlike our expectations the top was far from flat, with strange shapes eroded by both wind and water forming peaks and troughs, the latter occasionally filled to become streams. The path over the soft rock was clearly marked by lines of sand worn away by years of weary hikers. Much unwanted walking and climbing later we reached the campsite, a cave system in the side of a smaller peak. This was the quietest and driest campsite, but the presence of the large rock formations disrupted our later attempts at stargazing by blocking out half of the night sky.
Tents and beds sorted we heard the porters call us for dinner. Our celebration of climbing a mountain was somewhat tempered by receiving a thin soup of pasta and onions. Assuming this was a starter I limited myself to one small bowl only to discover that that was the entire meal. Time to break out the emergency snack supplies, so one packet of Oreos later we were feeling much more alive and walked to the edge of the mountain to watch the sunset.
Finding our way back across the uneven ground was somewhat trickier in the dark and with little else to do most people turned in at 7pm.
An early start the following morning saw us split into two groups. Those who wanted to walk 9 hours to the tri-point, the meeting place of Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana, and those of us, myself included who wanted to see everything else the mountain had to offer.
Over the next nine hours we saw a number of spectacles:
The crystal valley – somewhat underwhelming after the expectations of 6ft shards of crystal raised by films like The Lost World or Journey to The Centre Of The Earth
The Rivers and Lakes
The Jacuzzis – bath shaped holes in the river bed, filled with crystals. We stopped here to wash in near freezing water and dry off in the sun.
Carnivorous Pitcher Plants – these trap insects in their wells and slowly digest them for food.
Tiny black frogs – these have evolved away from frogs and run rather than hop.
The Window – more of a ledge than a window, this spectacular spot made the whole climb worthwhile. From here it was possible to lay on the edge and look down a 2000m drop to the jungle below. Ledges on both sides of the outcrop let you feel you were hovering over the jungles of either Venezuela or Guyana, all the while providing views above the clouds of the next three tepuys.
