Gran Sabana - Roraima Trip

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We just arrived yesterday from a very big trip to the national park called Gran Sabana, in the south of Venezuela. We started driving to there at thrre o clock in the night. It was a horrible 10 hours ride, on two small benchs sideways in the back of the jeep! Our group (10pers.) probably looked like sardines in cans! The first night we stayed at Bruno's campside, an old swiss guy who felt in love with the venezoelan lifestyle and decided to spend the rest of his ligetime there! It was quiet strange to speak swissgerman with strangers, watching to swiss TV and listening to him playing the alphorn! It made me feel like home, but then in very different surroundings... As we found out the next dat, that place is very dangerouse.. Bruno had to use his gun already several time, cause the people there are very violent there and the police is the worst of all... The next day we drove further to a wonderful campside next to two waterfalls where we could take a natural shower (of course with biodegradeable soap). It was amazing to feel the force of the water and listen to the sound of it while it's falling down around you! Unfortunately I had high temperature, stomach cramps and the start of a long diarria later that day! So the next two days I was sleeping in a hammock every single minute I got the possibility to. I wanted to solve my energy for the big Roraima hike. This two days we were staying in an indogen village called San Francisco. We camped there in the backyard of a local family. It was such a nice place with a very high security. We could finally walk around alone again without takeing the risk to be touched ore attacked by locals.. They live like in a social community there. Every morning it's announced trough a loudspeaker which person has to cut the grass, do the cleaning, prepare some food, ect. They just do it as a social work for the community and don't earn money for it. They even don't have an expression for the word 'to work' in their language. I really enjoyed our stay there, everyone was so friendly and relaxed!In the morning of the fifth day we started our Roraima trip. With our ca 12kg backbpack we hiked towards Roraima. It took us around 5 hours to get to the first camp. There it had a lot of sandflies (locals call them puli puli) which bites your skin of. This bites itches quiet a lot and it acctually looks terrible. So as soon as we stopped walking we had to put up our tents very quik, take a shower in the river and put on long clothes immediately, that they don't eat you.. The 6. day we hiked about five hours further to the basecamp right under roraima. We showered once more in a river, which was sooo freezing cold, that you can't do anything else than scream when you're going into the water. But after that you feel so refreshed!On the 7th day we finally hiked up to the top of the 2800m high roraima. This was one of thebest days in my entire live. We got up at 5o clock like every morning, had porridge for breakfast and started walking as soon as we put the tents down and packed everything. Until here it's equal like every day before. But then the hiking was much different! We had to use legs and arms to get up there. Sometimes it was quite hard to find a good way and keep the balance with the heavy backpack on the back. The suroundings where so beautigul, it looked like in a jungle. And as we passed the jungle we had to climb further on like lose stones which came down from the (felswand)We were already up in the clouds by this time . It was just wonderful as exactly at the time we came to the top, the sun came out. Everyone of the group was happy and proud that we made it all in the same pace to the top of this (tafelberg). We had to walk further for 45min to our night stay which was a big cave up there. The landscape on Roraima reminded me to movies about the moon. There were bigblack stones, no animals (exept black tiny frogs) and plants which you'd never find in other places.After we put up our tents in the cave, we walked to an other cave where we could wash ourselves. We had to walk far into the cave to the waterspot and believe it ore not, it was even colder than the river the day before! It was crazy to lye in that water, simply crazy! But you have to do it, cause you must keep everything clean, to not take the risk of infecting the mosquitobites and scrachtes. It was already cold on the top of this mountain, then you have to shower in a freaking cold cavelake and after dinner you have no other option than sleeping in very cold tent! But we hada lot of fun and enjoyed the adventure! We also went to the very edge of the big rock. The viewwas amazing! It looked like a painting out of a plane. And theother thrilling thing was, when you sit on the edge and are looking straight down a lot of meters just rocks! The next day we could finally sleep two hours more, what means till seven! We went on a four/ five hour hike to see different things on the surface of roraima. The most wonderfull thing was the crystal valley. There were so many crystals that you had to walk over them to go trough the valley, so also the whole way was covered with the sparkeling stones! This part was so different from the typical misterious looking of Roraima. We continued walking over the tipical black stones in the fog. It was quiet cold that day and after we had lunch, it started to rain. Cause it didn't stop, we had to continue our hike in the rain. By then I found out that my raincoat isn't waterproof at all, so I was totally wet (even my bra was dripping) after 5minutes! It was horrible, i've never had so cold in my entire life. And we had to walk like that for about 2 more hours! Normally in such freezing moments you try to enlighten your mood by thinking of a hot shower ore a warm bed afterwards, but there we couldn't! You know that there is a tent in a very cold cave waiting for you and you won't get warm at night. So we just tried to keep ourselves happy by reminding us of funny things and singing a lot of songs. After we finally arrived back in the cave i couldn't hardly change my clothes cause my finger were like lamed from the cold! And then we got a hot chocolate which our guides made for us and I can tell you that's the best chocolate I've ever had!The following night was totally clear, so we saw tousands of stars, which was awesome! But we could only halfway enjoy it because ofthe cold! Some were crying due to a mental breakdown.. I slept that night with two shirts, two fleece, leggings and jeans, socks and a scarf in my sleepingbag and over it a huge plasticbag. Therefore I opened my backpack as much as I can and lied in it cause my rollingmat didn't kept the cold from the ground away! So finally I was warm and could sleep likea baby! The next the we climbed back down again. We had to walk carefully cause it was slippery due to the rain from the day before! We had soup and bread for lunch we arrived back down in the basecamp. After that we had to walk further back to the campside where we spent the fifth night. So we were walking for probably 8 hours that day. We also had to cross two strong rivers in the socks (it would be too slippery barefeet) what was quiet adventerous. My legs were so tired that evening that I was happy as lie finally in the sleepingbag again.The next morning we got up early again and had to hike the last part back to where our car was located. With our last energy we ran the last steps. Everyone was so proud what we just did with our group and all the hard moments were forgotten by then! As we got back to san francisco to get the rest of our things, we just enjoyed it so much that finally something drives you and you don't have to make the distance by walking! Afterwe got our things we drove to santa elena, where we spent one night in a bachpacker! There we the first hot shower after 4weeks and the first night in beds and not tents ore hammocks! Everyone was so excited and it felt like christmas! Actually the place was kind of fucked up and dirty but after those days in plane nature with a lot of mud and rain, it felt like in paradise! Funny was that everyone of us was asking the same question in the shower: "where can you make it colder?" - it was strange after all to have such hot water on the body.Santa elena is about 15km next to the brasilian border, so we went there for a short shopping session and a very big "all you can eat BBQ". We were finally back to the civilisation! And like we're already used to it, everyone wanted to take pictures con la gente blanca again!After the night in normal beds we started to drive all the way back. We spent the night again in the swiss camp and drove the rest the next day. It was a long journey and I hadto see a doctor once, cause everyone was worried cause my stomach was still bad. I got a lot of rehidtation drinks and also antibiothics, so I finally feel better now. Actually I wanted to test what it was, but it turned out as almost impossibile afterwalking from hospital to hospital for two hours.That's really one of the best thing if it's functionating like back in our country. But never mind! I'm here as a tourist, and tourists observe and don't judge! I'm about makeing some of the bests experiences in my life here! 😉

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