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Published: November 29th 2006
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The Unsatisfied Man
Best mini-bus label we saw in Georgetown, spotted at the toll booth for the Demerara River bridge. Felt the driver wanted something more from life... Essquibo week-end
When we got back into town from the Rupununi we had a day in GT then headed off with Tors and some other GT possee to a beautiful house that we rented just near Bartica… This time there were enough of us to rent almost the whole speedboat for our group alone, meaning we were really riding in style. The house was a fantastic throwback to the days of empire, with bougainvillea along the balconies and a pool. The pictures kinda speak for themselves.
We had a really relaxing week-end and shared Katherine’s Birthday. Time was spent in a very pleasant cycle of swimming in the pool followed by eating large meals. I have to say having only been out of the UK for 3 weeks we were still fairly impressed by the amount of scarce foods found on the table that week-end. Everything from olives to goat’s cheese to red wine... For the benefit of our respective parents, we carefully observed an hours gap between eating and swimming so we didn’t get cramp. Honest.
It was also nice to meet a couple of the people Tors had been talking about especially Andre and Marissa who
Cashew Fruit and Nut
Yup - where Cashews come from - after a lot of roasting to stop them secreting a noxious oil that takes your lips off - now I know why they're expensive in shops. picked her up from the airport when she first arrived in Georgetown and put her up until she found her feet/house.
Kaiteur
Well yes you guessed it, no trip to Guyana would be complete without a trip to Kaiteur and having finally got in touch with the much spoken of Malcolm and Margaret (travel agents extraordinaire) we managed to get ourselves onto a “cargo” plane which was headed in that direction. We were picked up by taxi from outside the house and driven back out to Ogle airport. When we got there instead of going to the main terminal we drove around (OK so the driver and thus us was lost for a bit) then found our way to meet up with Elizabeth. We were put straight on the weighing scales (something I’m getting increasingly used to for small flights..) and then escorted to the small back office and waited there with another couple who were sharing our flight. After an initial period of banter “Captain Ron” appeared and introduced himself, there was then a call for “chairs” and to our amusement a couple of plane seats emerged from the cupboard… Finally after what seemed and age we
The House for the Weekend
On the banks of the Essequibo River, just South of Bartica, is this lovely house. were escorted out onto the tarmac to our awaiting plane. It was a tad on the small side being a six seater but was made more cosy by the presence of onions and potatoes which were crammed inside. There was a ripple of nervous laughter from the four passengers as we realised that this mighty machine was taking us airborne. My initial instructions were to ensure that the potatoes didn’t fall over during take off and landing which I have to say was a fairly redundant job as captain Ron was a superb pilot and both were so smooth we hardly noticed. After a brief delay (when we realised that Jas didn’t have a seat belt and one had to be found to attach to his seat) we took off over GT. Any concerns I may have had were quickly alleviated by Captain Ron who I later found out had over forty year flying experience and was clearly an old pro. I’m not so sure about the lass sitting next to me in the plane who spent much of the flight with her hands over her eyes.
Look at the Pretty View
The scenery on the way to the
The View for the Weekend
The view of the river South of the House falls did indeed look like what everyone had said rainforest looked like from the sky - large fields of broccoli. After an hours flying time we swooped down in over Kaiteur falls. Yes it was beautiful and looked exactly like the photos but the astounding thing was we were pretty much the only people there. We were greeted by one of the local rangers named Elvin who yet again reinforced our opinion of the Amerindians by proving to be a really nice and knowledgeable bloke. Whilst we did our tour of the falls with Elvin, Captain Ron took off to do a couple more deliveries. The falls were pretty breath-taking, but we won’t bore you with details of descriptions of the falls I’m sure the photos will do a better job than I could. What was also stunning was how beautiful the surrounding rainforest was with a mixture of bromeliads and tree-ferns in addition to the typical rainforest vegetation. We got to see the tiny (but apparently very poisonous) Golden frog that inhabits the bromeliads. We also got a (distant) glimpse of the Cock-of-the-Rock, the pretty red bird which lives in the surrounding rainforest.
After 2 hours on the
The Pool for the Weekend
Again - tough life but someone has to live it! ground it was unfortunately time to head off again. If anyone reading this is thinking of going to the falls I would really recommend either staying over night or doing the day walk to them, it’s difficult to know which would be better but we could have easily stayed there for longer. It was so peaceful and pretty. On the return trip I was lucky enough to get to sit in the co-pilot seat with Captain Ron who gave me a few pointers on flying. I’m thinking that most planes no longer have a manual throttle but I still got a rough idea of which buttons did what which was awesome. Curiously Jas, who was sitting in the back of the plane, noted it to be covered in a fine white powder… curious he thought, Captain Ron disappears mysteriously for a couple of hours then returns with his plane covered in white powder… (OK so it was probably flour but it just sounds so much more exciting otherwise!)
We landed (seamlessly) in GT and headed back home all too soon.
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