Before our brief visit to the Lost World comes to an end and the long slog back to civilization begins, Christi and I make an early morning visit to a few of the more interesting formations on the summit of Roraima, including the colored Jacuzzi pools (the pigment is derived from decaying plants) and the Car for great views of the escarpment. At least the views are great until cloud, mist, and eventually rain billow across this unique, pristine landscape, creating a potentially deadly whiteout. Fortunately guide extraordinaire, Ricardo, gets us all safely back to our hotel, where the porters continue to do an amazing job providing us with tasty, filling meals under the most challenging of circumstances.
A subplot to our own adventures on the Roraima escarpment is a stranded Canadian woman, aged 66, who took 12+ hours to do the final ascent but has no hope of making it back down again. She is waiting to be rescued by helicopter from Santa Elena and for the last few days has had no shelter (not even a tent) and food only courtesy of our expedition. The helicopter finally shows up this morning and whisks her away to civilization. Her 30-minute ride costs US$1500.
With that excitement over (together with an earlier coati sighting) we leave the ancient escarpment of Roraima and slowly, very deliberately, and safely return to base camp (4 hours) in time for a late lunch. Aside from the odd sprinkle the weather is kind. Meet several groups rushing to spend Christmas on the summit of Roraima – good luck to them. Later, we retrace our 10-km trek back to Tek River. There are no swollen watercourses to negotiate this time, thank goodness, merely stepping-stones across the placid Kukenan River. Both Christi and I are relieved to have the most arduous part of the journey behind us now.
Our reward for (almost) surviving yet another crazy adventure is a bath in the bracing (i.e. freezing) and refreshing waters of Rio Tek. It does feel good to be clean, even though we have no clean clothes to change into. One other point I’d like to add is that Christi and I are the fittest and healthiest we have ever been – and we’ve lost weight. Traveling is such a healthy pastime!
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart, a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching ride.
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