Mt Roriama

looking up the mountain on the second day,....very daunting task ahead
see all photos »

Mt Roriama

For those who are interested.........Mt roriama is a table top mountain (Tepui) located in the grand sabana. the location of the tepui is important as it is the only one to be located in three countries; Gyuana, Brasil and venezuela. It is sedimentary rock that has resisted erosion while the land around it has been slowly eroded away over 2 billion years. I dont know why they have such shear faces, im sure Jeffery can fill me in on that one. anyway because of the high altitude and the complete isolation the plants and animals have evolved differently from anywhere else, that why it is so facinating. anywho enough with the boring stuff and on to the adventure.

day three climbing the never ending boulders. looking for the top of the cliff face
see all photos »

upon finishing our tour to angel falls we were split with a decsion to either visit roriama or Los llamos (a savanah with anacondas and jeep ride instead of walking...which appealed to toby) so we did a bit of investigating. as it turned out a trip to Roriama was on offer for the following day (pretty concidental as apparently they are hard to organise). so the next day we took an overnight bus to san Francisco. the starting point of our trip to Roriama.

all 7 of us jumped off the bus in the middle of nowhere in the complete darkness at 5am in the morning. there was one english girl. three danish, a spanard and of course us. anyway buy the time our guide (FRANK) had finished buying the last of our food supplies (becuase of politics there was no food in Cuidad Bolivar) it was 10am and were off to start the trek. or so we thought. an hours driving up to the starting point in a van with our driver drinking beer and our guide drinking rum i thought this was going to be the end of us. however we made it safely to the starting point.

oh so near to the top.....
see all photos »

the trek takes 8 hours to base camp done over two days, and then an early morning 3 hour  climb up rocks to have lunch at the top. on top its is unbeliveable its like another world with rocks and unusual canivourous plants, small frogs and huge spiders. the photos dont even describe the vast landscape up there.

Once on top this is where our Guide came in handy. "hey guys lets make this trantula angry"......a minute later after making the spider angry...."hey guys do you want to pick the trantula up"... yeah right.

made it to the top..
see all photos »

on top we visited the jacuzzi, the window, the valley of crystals (unfortunately years of tourism abuse has destroyed them), the labrynth. and on to the highest peak... toby and i tried to lead the way and got lost...anyway amazing experience totally recomend it unless you get vertigo.