Kaieteur Falls Trek

December 15 2006
Day 385

Kaiteur Trek Day 8

A boat left early this morning for Pamela. We walked halfway back to Madia before a truck came and took us the rest of the way. We picked up the rest of our gear from the hotel and waited with Sally for a truck. It was only about an hour before an empty Bedford on its way to Georgetown passed us. Sally only stayed with us for a short time before getting off on a side road to try to hitchhike to his house in the middle of nowhere. We said goodbye and continued to Georgetown. It was great having a local with us for the trek to teach us about the porkknocking culture.

The road to Georgetown was horribly bumpy, and it was difficult to keep my sanity. I’d stand most of the time until my arms tired from being jiggled around too much, then I’d sit down for awhile until I got sufficiently bruised from being thrown around the bed. At one point, I got the bright idea of slinging my hammock across the bed of the truck, but I got violently swung to and fro, and fell out of the hammock a few times, so I eventually gave up and went back to standing. The good things about riding in the Bedfords vs the minibuses are that they are higher so you can see more scenery, there is plenty of space because you’re in the bed with only a few other people, and of course it’s free, whereas the minibuses are quite expensive by South American standards.

After a few hours, we passed Madia one more time and were once again back on the main road. There were three people in the front of the truck, but I didn’t take much notice until we stopped on a side road to pick up another hitchhiker. The driver got out with a roll of toilet paper and ran into the bush. His buddy also got out and stood behind the truck to stretch out. The hitchhiker got in the back with us. Suddenly, the third guy who had been in front the entire time moved over to the driver’s seat, started the truck, and took off! Craig, the other hitchhiker, and I had no idea what was going on. The driver’s buddy stared at the truck in disbelief as we drove away. I didn’t realize it at the time but we were being hijacked, or at least the guy was trying to steal the truck.

After about a minute, we hit a big bump and the truck came out of gear. The thief must not have known how to drive very well because he couldn’t seem to get the truck back in gear. We coasted to a stop, and the thief got out and ran around the corner. Suddenly, driver and his friend came running toward the truck. They asked what happened, and we told them that the other guy ran off. Finally, it clicked in my head that he had stolen the truck. A fuel truck for the same company was a few minutes behind us, so I don’t know how the thief thought he could get away with the truck, but he still gave it a shot. He hid in the thick jungle, so there was no way we’d find him, but the driver was angrily swearing and yelling about what he’d do to the guy if he ever caught him. It was a really bizarre sequence of events.

We finally reached Georgetown after seven solid hours in the Bedford. It was strange being on a paved road and seeing a city again after being away for so long. At first, the city didn’t appear as dangerous as everyone said. It’s supposed to be one of the most dangerous cities in all of South America, and judging from the constant reports of murders and robberies in the local newspaper, I’m going to be extremely cautious here. In fact, my only reason for staying at all in Georgetown is to get a visa to enter Suriname.

December 13, 2006
Day 383

Kaiteur Trek Day 6

Craig had been talking up the idea of building a raft for awhile, so I figured what the heck, I’ll give it a shot. Our first task was to find wood. A few large logs were scattered here and there, and we got some more wood by disassembling part of the abandoned mining camp.

Next, we threw each of the logs into the water to test their buoyancy. The first three sank into the abyss of the river. The fourth one finally somewhat floated. We continued testing wood, but most of it sank. Still, maybe we’d have enough floaters to make it work.

We tied a bunch of the logs together, threw some planks we found on top for seats, and gave it a test run without our backpacks. When we sat on the raft, it slowly submerged into the water, then reached an equilibrium about a foot down. “Looks good, let’s go,” Craig said. I seriously began to question his sanity. Heading down the river on a raft would be cool, but not with water up to my chest and a backpack to worry about.

I went back to the campsite and started preparing my backpack. I inflated my mattress as much as possible inside my backpack, put whatever I could into plastic bags, and threw in a couple of plastic bottles I found scattered around to help the backpack float. I was seriously considering biting the bullet and flying out, even though it would mean an additional 8-hour bus ride back to Madia to pick up the gear I left behind. Suddenly, a motorboat came up the river and docked next to our raft! We hadn’t seen anyone on the river for days, yet here was this nice, big aluminum boat, ready to head back down. The driver and his friend claimed that they were there to transport a ranger and his family back down the river, but they needed to go up to the top to buy fuel. We agreed to a price, gave them our money, and they took off.

We figured they’d take about four hours to return with the fuel, but as the day droned on, it became more and more likely that they weren’t coming back down. Finally near sunset we set up camp and began cooking dinner. The boat was sitting in the water next to my tent, so there didn’t seem to be any way possible for the driver to take off with our money. Maybe the raft still would have been the better option. At least we’d be partway down the river by now.

December 11, 2006
Day 381

Kaiteur Trek Day 4

Craig and I got up early, ate a big breakfast, and walked to the top of the falls. For the first time, the path was actually in good condition and was easy to follow. It was foggy and raining heavily all morning, but we still managed to get to the top rather quickly. We walked around trying to find a sign of civilization, but the place looked deserted. We saw a sign for “Boy Scouts View,” and walked to it. There was a loud roar that we figured had to be Kaiteur Falls, but we still couldn’t see anything because it was so foggy. We kept walking and found an airstrip. A few minutes later we were at the guesthouse.

The owner of the guesthouse told us the direction to walk to get to the main view of the falls. When we got there, the view was overwhelming. At 741 feet, Kaiteur is boasted as the largest single-drop waterfall in the world, although it’s clearly just a marketing term. Angel Falls is over three times as high, yet it has a small drop at the top, so it’s not considered a “single-drop” waterfall. Still, finally getting to the falls after such a difficult trek was a really great feeling. Realizing that there weren’t any other tourists there other than Cuckoo, a Brit who had flown in, made the experience even more unique. Unfortunately, the rain and fog forced us to retreat to the guesthouse after less than an hour of viewing the falls.

When the rain picked up again, we were invited inside for coffee and biscuits. The owner, who is also the park ranger, couldn’t believe that we’d walked all the way from Amatok in the rainy season. He kept stressing that we should have paid for our park entrance in Georgetown, but he couldn’t comprehend that we hadn’t been there yet either. Still, he was quite hospitable to us after we promised to pay the park entrance fee tomorrow.

Craig and I walked back to the bottom early in the afternoon, but I vowed to return tomorrow if the weather was better. When we got back to base camp, I was relieved to see that Sally had finally made it. He promised that Diego wasn’t too far behind, and a few minutes later, he stumbled in. We all cooked up a big lunch, and Diego laid down, unable to do much else. We all put our heads together and eventually figured out how to take apart the plunger on my stove. I dug out the o-ring that had fallen off and put it back in place. The stove was fixed, so we didn’t have to cook on campfires anymore.

Diego was delighted to hear that not only was there a guesthouse on top of the falls, but there was also a landing strip so he could fly out. A few hours before dark, Sally convinced Diego to start walking to the top. I let them know that I’d meet them in the morning. Craig and I discussed how cool it would be to build a raft to go down the river so we wouldn’t have to walk it again.

December 9, 2006
Day 379

Kaiteur Trek Day 2

This morning we waited until about 9:30 before one of the miners could paddle us in his canoe to the other side of the river where Craig, Diego, Sally, and I started walking again. It was even more of a full-on jungle adventure than yesterday because the side streams that flowed into the main river were plentiful, and there was virtually no path to follow. At least thirty times, we had to walk across a slippery tree that was suspended at least six feet above the stream to get across. We also had to wade a lot because there were no trees, and a couple times, we even had to swim. I wasn’t so lucky to get a canoe to take me along today.

Around midday, I had to walk away from the main river to cross a side stream. Nobody else was in my view because the jungle was so thick, so I tried to take a diagonal back to the main river. I walked over a couple large hills, but I never hit the main river. I shouted out and thought I heard someone near a waterfall, so I headed toward the voice. I shouted some more but got no response. Suddenly, I realized that I was lost in the middle of the jungle.

The canopy was too thick even to see where the sun was, much less any meaningful landmarks, so I continued walking, hoping I’d stumble into something by chance. I came to a small stream, but the water was flowing backwards! That is, the water was flowing away from where I had perceived the main river to be. I followed the water downstream and hit a bigger side stream, this time flowing in a different direction. I sat down, collected my thoughts, and I realized that the hills I had crossed must have affected the watershed and thrown off my sense of direction. I thought back to when I was fishing yesterday and remembered seeing the sun setting upstream from me, which meant that the river flowed from west to east. Therefore, I would have to head south to join the main river again. I got out my compass and sure enough, the larger stream was flowing south. I followed it until it ran into the main river, but I must have gone way out of my way because it took over an hour to get there. When I got near the main river, I finally got a response to my shouts. The others were out looking for me. It was a scary moment for me that I hope I won’t repeat. We’d lost a few hours, but it could’ve been much worse.

We thought we’d get all the way to the bottom of Kaiteur Falls today, but we didn’t even get close. The trail was much worse than expected, the rivers were high and therefore difficult to cross, I got lost for two hours, and it was raining all day. As it was getting dark, it became apparent that we wouldn’t even make it to Wartok, and we’d have to camp somewhere in the bush. We spotted a small beach and headed for it. The jungle near the beach was almost too thick to penetrate, but somehow we got there. I set up my tent in the rain and jumped inside. Sally somehow managed to get a fire going in the rain and proved that he was a real bushman, but I wasn’t interested in supper. My arms were cut up from the vegetation, my shins were bruised from falling on logs, my pants were completely shredded, and everything was soaking wet. Yet for some reason, this was a really fun day for me.

December 7, 2006
Day 377

I spent most of the day today washing my clothes and showering. I think the fuel smell is finally off of me, more or less. Craig ran into a local man named Sally who has been porkknocking in the area for many years. The route to Kaiteur is on the way to his home of Karisparrow, so he offered to walk with us. We agreed because having a local with you usually makes the experience better, but it might be a problem because he doesn’t appear to have any money. Still, he said that he’d take his own food, so maybe it will work out. Diego never showed up, so I guess just the three of us will go on the trek.