From Diary 2, the
adventure continues here. 15. It has been raining during the night, and it is not over, it seems. I get a mug of tea to go, and head off towards Georgetown. I stop every interesting place, but the rain and the fact I stopped here yesterday as well make it a bit uninteresting. Then, the last half is in constant rain, until I reach
Georgetown. Here, the roads are dry, but to judge from the sky; not for
long. I find my usual hotel, drop the bag and head down town while it is
dry. I get a veggie-burger and stock one for later at the vegetarian
restaurant. I try to find some streets I haven't seen, but fails.
It start to drizzle, and I get to the market and its huge roof. I get to see it real thoroughly before the rain stop. Back at the hotel, it pick-up again, and I start working. It have not been an interesting day, and tomorrow might be the same kind of rain. It is the dry season, and it ought to be dry, but Guyana is experiencing an El-Nino year, like so many other places. I spend the evening feeding the mosquitoes, finding
good photos and programming the GPS for the next adventure. 16. Despite is is a grey day, filled with showers, I head west. A bit south of Georgetown, a 1500 meter floating bridge leads to the western Guyana. Here are not many roads, as the rivers are the main transport lines. The houses are dense along the roads most of the way, and quite more modern, than I had expected. Well, at least in the town of Vreed en Hoop. I follow the northern coast, along the lowe dike. When
I find a road, leading inland, it is Where the bigger canals or rivers crosses the big
road, boats are unloading crops and especially fruits to waiting trucks.
Loads of bananas and melons along with so many different other crops.
I passes Dr. No Fuel Station, but after 200
kilometres, the car still think it is full. I pass through Parika for now,
eager to explore the jungle further in. Unfortunately, the area is fully farmed
till way after the road turn into a deeply I return to
Parika, and ditch the car. It is not a large town, but it have a few banks
and quite some shops. I see the farmers stalls and even find tea and a
cheese sandwich. I head
Finally,
we move a bit. Four to five lines beside each other - then it cut down to
one over 50 metres. The speed is less than walking, and it take almost a
hour to cross the 1500 meter bridge.
Back in G'town, I drive straight to my car-pusher. Kennet
is out, and the poor girls at Wilderness Travel Agency are apparently not
use to receiving cars. Well, I get rite of it, and walk back to the hotel
through the
After
a while, it stops, and I head out to find a barber and eventually some
supper. I am running a bit low on cash, but on the other hand; I don't need
much more. Considering the fees their bank and my steels, I try to make it
last.
17. It is another drizzling day, and I have not anything
to do, except work, until eleven. I get a taxi to drive me to Ogle Airport,
and board on a flight to the huge Kaieteur National Park and the Kaieteur
Fall. It is the world's largest single drop waterfall by the volume of water
flowing over it.
The park was founded by the British in 1929, covering 116,6 square kilometres. Then in 1973, Guyana government reduced it to 19,4, to give room for mining! It have later been expanded to 626,8 square kilometres.
An
old and small plane with a female pilot spend a hour, flying over mainly
rainforest. But; along the bigger rivers, scars from human
The
ground is a strange mix of what appears to be quarts and asphalt. However,
it is a two billon year old rock, formed on the button of the sea. Here, it
form a great track, although flooded in many places. Here are teaming with animals, despite the light drizzle and lack of sun. Strange snout-beetles, frogs looking like toads, giant cockroaches, finger sized flies, leafcutter ants, and a lot of birds. The most glorious must be the Cock of the Rock; Rupicola rupicola, which is only found here.
We reach a viewing point for the Kaieteur Fall, but clouds are more or less hiding it. The thunder is fare from as severe as I had imagined, but then again; it is more than a quarter of a kilometre away, down in the canyon. And it must be more a heavy rain, when it finally get down there. One of Thomas few facts is; it will take me seven seconds to reach the button, should I fall. He is kind of quiet after I corrected his first three plant names. I was just trying to be helpful, not arrogant. There is no reason for him to give out false facts, I thought. Here are Golden Rocket Frogs; Anomaloglossus beebei, which is only found here. Unfortunately, I fail to find any, but I do find some other frogs in the giant bromeliads. Besides from the giant bromeliads, here are at least seven other species, mainly on the trees.
Another
viewing platform (formed by nature as the first), give a great view over not
only the fall, but also the magnificent valley. Here are small clouds in
several layers, and big ones drifting bye. The vegetation look so different
in the button Somehow, it feel like
we just left the pilot, but it is time to go back, If it wasn't for the
hundreds of photos, I would not have thought we been here that long. The pilot
(whom I later learn actually owe the entire company) had promised me a loop
around the fall, but both when we arrived and left, it was hidden in the
clouds. Well, I grateful enough as I did get to see it, and
it
almost keep dry while I walked around in the area. It started to rain 100
metres before we reached the plane. This day's diary ought to be way longer,
but the amount of photos I have to sort, tag and proceed along with an early
morning flight ,make is short. Day 11: Kaieteur
National Park and Fall
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