Travel Diary - Day Forty Four

Day Forty Four – Kaiteur
Monday 12 Oct 09

Another early start. We had to leave by 6am to be at Ogle Airport by 7:15am. David, Helen, Kelly and I were meeting Harry at the airport to travel to Kaiteur, the highest single drop waterfall in the world (about 540ft). First stop was the scales. Everyone was weighed, even before we went to the office to pay. Then it was into the cool of the Guyana Air offices to pay for our trip. Arrggghhhh!!! My visa didn’t work. AGAIN. Fortunately I had a good load of cash on me and David was able to loan me the rest of what I needed. Phew! But to say I was unimpressed is to put it rather mildly!

Once we were all paid up and booked in we were off to the airport to check in and wait for the plane. It was a simple pass through the usual machines and into the transit lounge. As these things go it was quite well appointed and comfortable. The funny thing is that they are trying to sell it as an international airport and the transit lounge has seating for about 30 people. The current runway is way too short and they are in the process of lengthening it. The whole idea is that it is much closer to the centre of Georgetown than Cheddi Jagan, the current international airport. Of course it takes no account of the fact that there are people living virtually on the end of the new runway – but they don’t matter because they are poor and they don’t vote, so who cares! About the only plus I can think of is that I was able to take a photo of the Sophia Presbyterian Church as we came into land later in the day. Not sure that really counts…

We were supposed to fly out at 8am. 8am came and went and we were sitting there. About 8:30am a representative from the airline came to explain that there was a major thunderstorm in the area of the waterfall and that we wouldn’t be leaving until that passed. They would give us an update at 9am. 9am came and went and we were sitting there! The thunderstorm was still in the area, but passing. Eventually the plane taxied out about 9:30 and we were ushered out and onto a small 15 seater that had everyone, especially the larger of us (David is significantly bigger than I am) squeezing rather carefully between seats to get to where we needed to be. Much to my good natured disgust Helen got the co-pilots seat. I told her that I was dibsing it for the trip back . And then we were off. It was rather cool to be in such a small plane and getting an excellent view of the city of Georgetown as well as the rivers, the cane fields, the bush (sorry, rainforest) and everything else that we flew over. We were low enough the whole time to be able to see the ground clearly. Excellent!! I got some great video footage. Must organise some flights in NZ for the same purpose.

The airstrip we were flying into was on a plateau next to the falls. We landed going uphill – that helped slow us down, not a bad thing considering the drop not far past the end of the runway . There is very little in the way of structures at the airstrip – the plane brought the refreshments and that is about it. There is a small lodge that you can stay at overnight if you wish but you have to bring all your resources, including water. Another lodge building is in the process of being constructed but otherwise there is nothing there. And that is a good thing!! Our escort met us at the airstrip. Leroy is an AmerIndian and I reckon he has close to the best job in the world. This place is awesome and I mean that in every sense of the word.

We walked from the airstrip to the falls – about 10min. Oh, and it was an extremely humid 33C – nice.grin. Along the way we saw the lodge, originally constructed for a visit by Pierre Trudeau sometime back. Then we stopped at a plant whose name completely escapes me but which is home to the Golden Frog. About an inch long they are bright yellow and, for a frog, quite a beautiful little creature. Apparently they only live in this particular plant, in this particular part of Guyana. Some of the flowers around the place are rather beautiful, but other than that, allowing for the fact that the plants are a bit different, and the leaves different shapes it was eerily like walking through the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland. I felt completely at home.

As we neared the falls you could hear the roar and then without any warning we were there. From a distance and to the side it is just a waterfall. It is only when you get up close that you see the stunning nature of what they really are. The drop from top to bottom is amazing and the effect on the whole view is incredible. To be honest you would run out of superlatives long before you finished describing this place. And somehow it wasn’t just the view. I think the Celts would describe this as a ‘thin place,’ a place where there is a strong sense of God simply being there. I wanted to simply sit there, absorbing the feel of the place. Of course there was more to it than that . All of the viewing points are at the top of the falls. The only way to get to the bottom, without jumping, is a two day drip down river and then up again and they don’t offer that as an option to tourists. Actually, from what I could get out of Leroy no-one does it. Seems a pity.

Right next to the falls there is a ledge that sits out over the drop – the fall from there to the bottom is marked as 741ft by a sign that points out that the rock is an overhang, there are no handrails, and you walk out on it at your risk. No woosy OSH out here – hallelujah – if you want to kill yourself you can go right ahead and there is not a thing in your way – as life really should be. We all promptly walked past the sign to get a better look. Helen lay down with her head over the edge and walked right up to the edge – carefully I have to say, but right on the edge for all that. You wouldn’t want to suffer from vertigo, that’s for sure! And the view was stunning. When I get a chance I will post some of the photos on my blog – that may not be until I get back to NZ but we’ll see.

After spending a while right next to the falls Leroy led us off and around the cliff to another vantage point that let us see the falls from a bit of a distance. Here the sign asked you not to go within 4ft of the edge. David took a photo of me right next to the edge – whoops, did I really do that?  From there we went to another viewing spot that was further away again. It was this one that got us the most spectacular photos and video. In between we walked along bush tracks that took us through beautiful, lush vegetation and great platforms of conglomerate rock with nothing growing at all. It was great to see Harry having a really good time. He has wanted to go to the falls all his life and this was just the opportunity he needed. I think the rest of us were just stunned by the whole experience. It was expensive - $US155 for 2 hours at the falls, but worth every penny. If you ever get the chance to visit take it, you won’t regret it! (I should charge the Guyana Tourism Board for that one).

We eventually arrived back at the airstrip a little later than we should have done – I blame Leroy for that, but I’m not complaining about getting a few extra minutes. The pilot was somewhat agitated but we all knocked back a cold drink before we got on the plane – we sure needed it by then! On the flight back I got the co-pilots seat. Fantastic! The view was even better than before. We got back to the airport about 2pm, quite a lot later than we originally expected, but we had sat in the same airport for most of the extra time so that’s just how it is. From the airport we farewelled Harry and caught a taxi into Georgetown so the others could do a bit of shopping and Helen and I could go and get some money from the bank. In the end we were too late for the bank – most banks are closed by 2pm and some even earlier – this country needs to get a grip on life and start working a bit harder! The others managed to get what they were looking for.

We stopped in at a restaurant for a cold drink and a snack and I used the next door internet booth to do quick check of my email. Then we called the taxi driver who had brought us from Sapodilla to the airport and he came and picked us up to take us home. Kind of nice having it work that way because the drive is over an hour and trying to find a taxi driver to do the job for us would have been pretty difficult. The amazing thing to me was that the round trip – two hours by taxi, came to just $G7000, that’s $NZ49 for four passengers. Not bad!!

By the time we got back to Sapodilla we were shattered. It was supposed to be a preparation day for our presentations, but although I think we all got a little bit done it was a pretty early night for all of us.