Mount Roraima: The Lost World

By Roger Alexander

This is the ultimate holiday destination. From the moment you set eyes on the towering sandstone cliffs rising steeply from of the rolling pampas of Venezuela’s Gran Sabana, it is impossible to banish thoughts of imaginary Jurassic inhabitants.

Arthur Conan Doyle populated Mount Roraima in Venezuela with dinosaurs, strange vegetation and animals in his book, The Lost World, based on the accounts of British explorers Everard Im Thum and Harry Perkins who were the first Europeans to ascend Mount Roraima in 1884.

Subsequent explorations and modern day climbers and trekkers find no dinosaurs, fossils or traces of prehistoric life on the top of the tepui. But they do find a fantastic world of crystal valleys, gorges, sandy beaches, mists and fog, fissures, rock formations, pools and waterfalls. That doesn’t mean you should not get there.

Mount Roraima is the tallest and most famous (thanks to Conan Doyle) of the table mountains called “tepui” and is located in the southeastern corner of Canaima National Park, near the borders of Brazil and Guyana.

Formed by the erosion of sea-bed sediment when Africa and South America drifted apart, they are among the world’s oldest geological formations. More to the point, if anywhere on Earth looks like the home of a long-lost line of dinosaurs, this is it! Indeed, to this day they still excite the imaginations of even the most experienced travelers.

Sir David Attenborough has a painting of Roraima on his living-room wall: “That mountain haunted me for 40 years,” he said in 2002, after finally realizing his dream and setting foot in the lost world. Standing at sunset on Roraima’s summit, with a view that stretches for nearly 322 km, it isn’t hard to see why.

Just a few feet away, the cliff walls drop 2,000 feet beneath. No lips, no ledges - just straight down. And as the setting sun performs miracles in the sky, it is easy to imagine a time when Roraima, indeed the world itself, was young.

There are no direct flights from Caracas or other large cities to the closest town with an airport, the border town of Santa Elena de Uairén. Many visitors fly to Ciudad Bolivar and take a smaller aircraft there. Some come in from Brazil.

From Santa Elena, it's about a two hour drive to the small Indian village of Parai Tepui, or Paraitepui, where you'll pay an entrance fee to climb the tepui, arrange for guides and porters (who are limited to 15 kg), if not already provided by a tour agency. You can also arrange for a guide and porters in San Francisco de Yuruaní, about 69 km north of Santa Elena on the main road. If you’re on your own, arrange for transportation back to Santa Elena at this time.

Plan to be in Paraitepui before noon, since no one is allowed to leave after two PM, as it's at least a five hour trek across the “sabana” to the first camp site. You can camp overnight in Paraitepui, but buy all your food in Santa Elena.

It’s about a 12 hour trip to the top of the tepui. The trip is broken by an overnight camp either along the Río Tek or the Río Kukenan, 41/2 hours from Paraitepui. If you have enough time, you can also push another three hours uphill to the base camp.

The next day is the four (or more) hour climb up the ramp, through cloud forest, waterfalls and rock formations to reach the top of the tepui. You'll camp in one of the sandy areas called ‘hoteles’ protected from the weather by rocky overhangs. Everything you take up, you must bring down, including used toilet paper. However, you may take no souvenirs from the tepui.

If you have only a day, you can take many of the trails leading from the camps, but to properly explore the black, craggy surface of the tepui, you should allow yourself at least an extra day.

Your guide leads you to the Valle de los Cristales to see the colorful crystals; through gorges and fissures looking like alien worlds; to pools called ‘jacuzzis’, but don’t expect hot water. You’ll see strange plants, birds and animals, even a tiny black frog that protects itself by curling up into a ball.

The descent from tepui Roraima takes about ten hours to reach Paraitepui. (If money is not a problem, an alternate way to see tepui Roraima is by helicopter, allowing two-three days on the summit.)

When you arrive at the top after a three-day walk in - two days crossing the rolling grasslands followed by the same grueling route up the cliff face first taken by the explorer Everard Im Thurn in 1884 - the barren, craggy summit seems something of a disappointment. Fret not, for its wonders are soon unveiled.

Soon you discover a weird landscape of gullies and hidden valleys, some as barren as a volcano, others lush with lichen, moss and stunted trees or covered in carpets of white sand. As you look up, you see Tolkienesque shapes silhouetted against the sky - a winged turtle here, a petrified palace of the winds there. It seems like the home of the gods.

Over the aeons, the summits of the tepuis, sometimes dubbed the Galapagos of the Skies, have evolved unique ecosystems - as many as 50 per cent of the species of plant and animal that live here are found nowhere else! You discover a rare orchid, a Catherine wheel flower on its spiky stem, a carnivorous pitcher plant or an ebony-black toad an inch long (Oreophrynella quelchii is older than the dinosaurs and can neither hop nor swim).

After a hard day of walking, bathe in crystal-clear rivers and wash away the grime under waterfalls. On the summit, you can find your own whirlpool bath set in a bed of quartzite crystal.

Some of these pools are sinkholes formed by the collapse of underground caves and lead to measureless caverns. The translucent gold water makes it look as though you are luxuriating in a Turkish bath even though the temperature is only a few icy degrees above zero.

In the middle distance you can see your starting point, the Indian village of Paraitepui, where you hired a team of Pemón Indian porters. On paper, the distances covered do not seem that great - a round trip of about 55 km - but the steepness of the terrain (particularly the knee-crunching descent), the remorseless attentions of the puri-puri bugs and the tropical heat of the grasslands should not be underestimated.

The tepuis are part of Venezuela’s Canaima National Park and environmental protection rules are strictly observed. There are three fixed sites for camping en route to the tepui and all food and drink is carried in. Latrine pits are dug at the camps, but from Roraima itself all waste is taken back out. On the summit, home is a cliff overhang at the entrance to an underground cave system.

With a clear drop of 2,684 feet (818m), Angel Falls is nearly eight times higher than Victoria Falls and 16 times higher than Niagara Falls. And it was on Auyan tepui, from which they plunge, that the Canadian gold-prospector and adventurer Jimmy Angel crash-landed his Flamingo monoplane in 1937, thereby discovering the falls to which he later gave his name.

From your jungle camp directly opposite, you can watch the cliffs change from red to orange and then pink as the sun rises in the sky and vultures, strangely graceful in flight, soar in front.

After your adventures on Roraima, the day trek through the jungle to the base of the falls is a stroll in comparison, but the reward is equally compelling. To bathe in water that has just plunged more than half a mile from a summit is a mind-boggling experience!

By this time you become so immersed in the otherworldly atmosphere of the tepuis that scientific explanations for their existence begin to pale alongside the powerful local legends and you look up at the surrounding mountains to see, in the rocks, the perfect outline of an Indian’s head! It is there. This is indeed the lost world.

FACT FILE

When to Go
You can climb Mount Roraima any time of the year, but most people prefer the dry season between December and April. However, the weather is changeable at any time, and rain and mist are a constant. With rain, the rivers swell and crossing may be difficult.

What to Take
Be prepared for hot, steamy days and cold nights on the top of the tepui. You’ll want reliable rain gear, tent, and sleeping bag, if not provided by your tour company. A foam mat adds comfort. Additionally, you'll need good walking shoes or boots, sneakers, a bathing suit, sun protection/sun blocker, hat, knife, water bottle, and a flashlight. A camera is a must, as is a cooking stove and food.

If you’re on your own, take more food than you'll need in case you want to spend an extra day on the tepui. Take plastic bags to carry your garbage out. Take a big supply of good insect repellant. The sabana is home to a biting gnat, jején. commonly referred to as la plaga, the plague.

Alexander's Quest Doesn't End Here! 

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