Mount Roraima Trek: Guide to Venezuela's Lost World
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Loading... - Dylan Scott
- 21 Oct 2022
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Usually, a 6-day Mount Roraima Trek, covers 64 km, including the tabletop (but not flat) surface where you can find many plants that don’t exist anywhere in the world and endemic animals, such as black frogs, tarantulas, and snakes.
THE STORY OF MOUNT RORAIMA
Mount Roraima is one of the table mountains scattered in Venezuela’s rainforests.
A mystic table mountain, sacred to indigenous Pemons, is considered one of the oldest geological formations on Earth, originated when African and American continents parted around 2 billion years ago. Indigenous Pemons call table mountains ‘tepuis’, which means ‘houses of the gods’.
The mountain stretches on the border of Venezuela, Guyana & Brazil with the majority of the mountain in Venezuela. The only way up (apart from a few technical rock climbing options) is from the Venezuelan side near Paraitepuy village.
While most treks around the world focus on getting to the top, Roraima’s secrets lie on top of the plateau. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Mount Roraima is a 14 km long mountain with cliffs on each side, 600 m high in a few places and the highest point, the Maverick Rock at 2,810 m.
The remoteness of the mountain inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel The Lost World which describes a plateau surrounded by cliffs where dinosaurs live.
Because of the (almost) daily rain on the tepuis, the rocks and cliffs form several waterfalls. The tallest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, is only 220 km away in the same national park as Mount Roraima. Visiting and swimming under the Angel Falls was an unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime experience.
MOUNT RORAIMA TREK
After our visit to the Angel Falls, we took a night bus from Ciudad Bolivar to Santa Elena, the nearest town to Roraima where all the agencies and guides are. We’ve met the rest of our group from US and Brazil.
I was the only girl in a group of 6 trekkers, a guide and several porters. The next morning, our guide and porters loaded jeeps with all the gear and we were off to Paraitepuy village, the starting point of the trek.
Day 1 – Paraitepuy to Tek River Camp (13,5 km)
Across savanna and a first sunset swim
Our trek started easier than we expected. We walked across savanna on a very dry and well-trodden trail. Table mountains Roraima and Kukenan were rising in the distance and the gruelling sun made us walk slowly. It was an easy 4-hour walk.
One of the luxuries of trekking through an agency is having porters. They carry all the food and gear except our personal stuff, set up and pack our tents and prepare all our meals. Since this was our first multi-day trek ever, we welcomed any help and could enjoy other aspects of the trek. Read More…
