The view from the top of the path
The last of three posts about climbing Mount Roraima: Hike up Roraima, Top of Roraima, Hike down Roraima
The way down Roraima is exactly the same way you get up, except instead of climbing up 6ft high rocks you have to slide down them and hope there’s something solid to land on. Also you have to do the last two days of the ascent in one day.
We set off at 6am and made our way to the top of the precipice, down past the waterfalls, up and down some of the hills we’d forgotten about and then down the exceptionally steep climb to the final camp. We stopped here about 11am for an early lunch then did the long walk to the second camp. This is mostly downhill, but the weather had been more overcast on the way up and the beating midday sun and complete lack of shade and fresh water took its toll quite badly. By the time we reached the final river crossing at about 2pm we collapsed in a heap in a small patch of shade and had to recompose ourselves to regain our balance. A seemingly never-ending series of false summits on a steep hill later and we could see the camp-site.
We arrived well before dark and happily ate a decent dinner. The guide even produced a bottle of wine that he’d carried all the way up the mountain and back, whilst he explained that this was his 104th trip up the mountain. After he gave us our ‘I did it!’ T-shirts we all agreed this was our 1st and last trip up the mountain.
A good night’s sleep later and we were up at 7am for the final 6hr hike back to the jeeps. Strangely this was the hardest and easiest day. We were exhausted but the ground was generally flat, with only the last downhill section proving painful. We got a bit lost on a ‘short-cut’ and ended up in the welcome shade of a wooden area that led down to a stream.
We arrived back at the car park and had to wait two hours for the Jeeps to arrive, although all was forgiven when they brought lunch and a cool box full of cold beer and coke. The ride back to Santa Ana was very quiet with people nodding off despite the uncomfortable seats and rushing air from all the open windows. Arrival at the lodge was a bit of an anticlimax, without the expected ticker-tape parade for the conquering heroes. Eventually the rest of the group arrived and told us tales of their difficult two-hour hike.
The hostel was without running water so I gathered up the Roraima crew and arranged with the owner to move us to his alternative hotel, which turned out to be absolutely lovely. Here we got a well deserved hot shower, huge ceiling fans and a very large comfy bed. Just outside the hotel was an unauthentic but delicious pizza restaurant blasting out cover versions of eighties songs. After polishing off a family sized pizza each the shop owner next door brought out chocolate brownies and a cup of tea – far more useful than any ticker-tape parade.
