O yes, I was right. It took foreeeeeeeever to get to Kaieteur Falls, the tallest single drop waterfall in the world (251 meters). Brian loves doing things the hard way so we tried to get to the falls by ourselves, without a guide …and…without a clue of what was ahead.
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“I heard from some Brits it is possible to get to the falls via Bartica”, says Brian. Famous last words. We left by minibus taxi from Georgetown to Parika in the early hours of 18 April, to just miss the ferry to Bartica. We then managed to get into a speedboat and we reached Bartica at 12h. Just to hear that it was NOT possible to get to Kaieteur Falls over the road (taxi driver: “the road is…gone”) and to find out that the rapids are too crazy to go by river. We also missed the speedboat back and were therefore forced to sit back, relax, and use some local drinks.
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Sunday 19 April. Second try to get to Kaieteur Falls. We leave at 8am to catch the minibus taxi to Mahida. This time we are prepared. We know the trip is going to be over a bad road, including long waits (for the ferry) and that we will be extremely tired once we arrive so… we treated ourselves and stayed at a hotel with TV in the room and a big swimming pool outside!
Mahida was recognised as a town only 3 years ago. Its inhabitants are young and mostly male. They come from all walks of life but all have one goal: to get rich quickly. The gold rush and wild west feeling is hanging in the air. At dawn the dusty streets change, the shops stay open but now choose to play loud music and people drink, dance and laugh the night away.
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We meet with Tony and his wife. He is a gold diver and explains the works of the business to us. He is going to Kaieteur to set up a trading store. He is flying there…
On Monday 20 April it was time to move. From town we had to hike 7 kilometer to a landing to take a boat to Amatuk village. A local named Godfrey offered to bring us to the landing for way too much money so we walked. At the landing it was queit. No-one there but three boats.
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We sat and waited. Played some dominoes, watched the parrots cross the river and ate sardines on crackers. The sound of a motorised boat a couple of hours later came out of nowhere.
A rasta man, Henry, came from Amatuk to the landing to pick up gasoline. He offered us a lift to his village and his balcony for our hammocks. We never thought we would stay here for 3 nights.
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Our next stop is supposed to be a village called Waratuk, which is inside the Kaieteur National Park. One problem: the local captain can take us there but it will cost 20.000 Guyana Dollars + petrol. NO WAY, we thought, so we had to wait for a lift. It wasn’t that bad though: Amatuk has nothing on offer (except for some cool look-outs onto the Amatuk falls) but the family we stayed at proved to be really sweet. We even had the chance to visit a gold and diamond mine in the jungle!
That mine is something else. A group of men, including two 14 year old kids, working under harsh conditions. Finding 2 ounce of gold in 4 days, no diamonds, trying to pump water and sift through mud… what a sight! I have to admit to Brian that while his way of traveling takes a bit longer we do encounter things that are real special and that no tourist would see…
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We got lucky on Thursday 23 April. A boat with three German tourists and their guide arrived with an organised overland tour in Amatuk. We got a lift to Waratuk (2 hours up the river) but spend it in the rain and…we almost hit a rock when the fuel ran out in the middle of a rapid. Brian shat his pants as he watched what was happening from the back of the boat while I was in the front of the boat oblivious to the seriousness of the situation and jokingly looking for a paddle…
Waratuk is not much more then a rangers camp, its not a village at all. Here we met ranger Martin, who would give us a lift to the foot of the mountain the next day. We slept in our hammock after being attacked by flying ants and eating very little (good old sardines and crackers again) ’cause we forgot to pack properly for the trip… Luckily there is tasteful rain water and lollypops.
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Martin first brought the Germans and their guide, then paddled back and brought us plus two Amerindian ladies who were also hitching a ride. Halfway we got our first glimpse of the falls! But unlucky for us Martin ran out of fuel just two turns before the landing at the foot of the mountain. Will we ever make it to the falls?
We had to bushwalk through the jungle and its swamps. I am still recovering from the walk plus some embarressing climb over a log…I’m not giving details, sorry.
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The hike up to Kaiteur Falls is called the ‘Oh my God trail’. We now know why. It is only up. Brian climbed the mountain carrying our 20 kilogram backpack, so he’s my hero forever. I just complained, it really was too much. We did climb it in 2 hours and 50 minutes, which apparently is a really good time. The Amerindian ladies, I learned later, walked up barefoot and did it in one hour.
Once at the top we got lost, we couldn’t find the guesthouse. Hungry, dirty, tired and lost. It took 1.5 hours to find the guesthouse and I still had not seen the falls…
O YES! Those falls are something else! Wow! The amount of water, the height, the pull, the swifts…finally after ten days we got our look at the majestic Kaieteur Falls on Saturday 25 April and finally got a good sight of the famous Cock-on-the-rock bird.
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on May 7th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
oh I had such a good laugh..the scenario is so familiar – except I would be the one trying to do things the hard way. The pics look amazing – the journey was worth it.