Roraima 2

5 am on Friday the 24th July. We awoke to a clear and sunny day. With bags packed and supplies on trucks we travelled the 1 1/2 hours to Paratepui, as the trucks bumped and raced along the dirt tracks we caught our first glimjpse of Roraima- the magnificent Tepui. Reaching up above the cloud only a small section of the summit was visible first thing that morning, but as the day progressed the cloud cleared and more of the mountain became visible. The huge flat topped monster towered above us and stayed there for the duration of the trek gradually becoming bigger as we progressed, only occassionally disappearing as we walked into a valley between the undulating hills of the savanna. Well trodden paths and our guides led us to our first camp site at Rio Kukenan where we crossed two rivers the Tek and Kukenan. Although the day was long the terrain was fairly easy and the group coped well, in fact we arrived at the lunch stop 40minutes AHEAD of schedule a feat never before accomplished by this group! The team all reached camp safely and although exhausted were pleased with their efforts. It was a bizarre but amazing experience bathing in the cool waters of the Rio Kukenan in the shadow of the mighty Roraima as the sun fell out of sight behind the Tepui casting shadows on the ground and enveloping the camp in darkness.

Waking up in the shadow of the the mountain we realised just how much ground we had covered the day before. The group set off at a steady pace and trekked across the slightly harder ground. The Roraima loomed ever closer and by lunch, after trekking through the endless savanna we were able to distinguish ´The Ramp´from the rest of the side of the Tepui. Pushing on after lunch saw the group make fantastic progress and a stop on top of a hill left the group in awe of the endless, barren savanna, no signs of inhabitants and the only evidence of trekkers being the narrow dusty path that snaked across the grassland. Reaching base camp the anticipation began to rise as well as apprehension...we could feel how close we were to the moutain which stood above us eerily dominating the sky line.