18/11/2011 - Roraima Day 2 – The ascent

After a hearty breakfast of more cachapas and a quick chat with Chavez we quickly covered the remaining distance to the base camp of Roraima. The seemingly sheer cliff-face of the tepui made me question exactly how we were going to scale this thing, but from the base camp we saw a thin slither of forest progressing at a slant along the wall in front of us and the guides confirmed that our path to the top was somewhere within that jungle. Without further ado, and with our guides beckoning us to go ahead if we wished (“there's only one path – you can't miss it”) we embarked on the 3 hour hike to the top. It quickly became apparent that the rest of my group weren't quite as fit as first appeared so pretty soon I was out in front on my own, pretending that I was the first person exploring this well trodden trail.

Somewhat knackered, we completed the ascent and were greeted by the homogeneously rocky landscape of Roraima's top. The contrast with the scenery of the Grand Sabana below couldn't be any starker and I can see why people compare it to stepping onto “another world”. The top of Roraima is covered in cloud a lot of the time which means visibility fluctuates quite a bit, and upon our arrival the cloud cover meant distant rock formations faded into the mist giving the place a spooky air. My description won't really do it any justice so hopefully the photos (when I get them) will. During our walk across the top to one of the nearby “hotels” (an area under an overhanging rock formation where tents could be pitched out of the rain) a helicopter flew overhead and landed somewhere in the distance to drop off a group of lazy tourists.

Although it had been a relatively short day, I felt we'd earned our dinner. However at this point, whether to eat a large amount or not became a bit of a dilemma. Excrement is not allowed to be left on the top of Roraima and so the guides have a special tube full of chemicals in which they keep our business and which they carry back down to base camp. However, there was only one tube for our group and since me, Vova and Omar (one of the guides) would be going our own way tomorrow, we would have to carry any future conversations with Chavez ourselves – not an appealing proposition. With that in mind I asked for seconds anyway.