Within the first hour of the trek I trained my ankle when walking into a hole covered by grass. The pain was incredible and the foot swell immediately to the mid shin. Nevertheless I carried on walking not feeling any pain. The first day walking through savannah and grassland was not very spectacular. At times we crossed bits of tropical forest which was interesting. We also crossed the one or other creek, where we filled up the drinking water. We made it to the camp at Kukenam River, which I crossed with great difficulty. We met a group of Germans who had a fantastic time at the top. At this stage I was afraid I might have to give up. My foot looked real bad and hurt like hell. Benetton cooked a fantastic meal, we had a chat about Indian spells, spiritualism and shames and went to bed early. I slept very badly, waking up often because every movement sent agony through my ankle. I did not want to take painkillers, to save their effect for when I really needed them.

21.3.2002: I woke up in the morning and was in pain. I knew I could not keep pace with Benetton and the porter, so I agreed to go ahead while both packed up camp. The walk went through fields of fern and low bush land. The sun burnt down hard and it was really humid. Also there was not enough vegetation around to have a break in the shade. At an average incline of 40 degrees this got really tiring. However the sight of the two mountains was amazing and you could actually see them coming closer, which was a real incentive to go on. I had already forgotten about my injured ankle. The path at this point went constantly, no shadow. At about noon we we were up two thirds of the way. Also then Benetton pointed out a field of Brocchinea reducta which also had some sundews and Utricularia humboldtii. I found two flowering plants. Alone that made up for the walk to them. The whole area was very swampy at an angle on a hill site. After the excursion to the fields we could see more swampy areas with more carnivorous plants. I was getting tired and my leg started hurting again. It became clear I could not keep to the schedule and may have to return. Finally we made it to the base camp (we were supposed to make it to the top that day) which lies at the edge of the rain forest.

I discussed the situation with Benetton who had a cell phone on him. I had two options: return now or go up and fly back by helicopter. I opted for the latter even though this could cost up to $2000 more. Thankfully Benetton had the phone on him, so we could organize the flight back. So the new plan was: ascent on Friday, Saturday on top, Sunday morning down (the weather is very unpredictable).

22.3.2002: Again I went ahead of Benetton. The porter had left before and was to leave the rest of the food and tents at the camp at the top and would straight walk back. This was actually one of the most fascinating parts of the trek, through light mountainous rain forest with lots of tillandsias, orchids, other epiphytes, ferns and moss growing on rock and trees. Some of the scenery was absolutely stunning. I saw many orchids, some flowering. Most were growing between roots of ferns or inside air moss that covered branches of trees and bushes. I went up very slowly, enjoying the plants, observing whatever I could. It was like being a child again. The path was quite steep and difficult at times, but the forest let me forget about my foot. The rain forest leads up to a ramp, which allows getting up the 500 meter wall of Mt. Roraima without climbing gear.

The side elevation looks like this:


After three hours we were up at the viewpoint (it took two hours to get to the base of the ramp, another hour to the viewpoint). The terrain from the beginning of the ramp to the viewpoint was not as nice as the previous walk through the rain forest. The forest was more dense and dark. Often we had to climb over wet boulders of rock. This part was somewhat like a natural but broken staircase (of boulders thrown randomly into the trees and roots of the forest). At this time of the day it was foggy and cold as the clouds usually gather at around 2000 meters. The view from the viewpoint was breathtaking - the whole savannah laid out in front of us. We had a quick meal for lunch (a packet of biscuits each). Then we had to go downwards for a while, which was the toughest part for me. Walking downwards put much more strain on my ankle than walking upwards. At this point it was clear to me that I wouldn’t make it down, unless my ankle healed in no time.

When I saw the final ascent I was shocked. The path went through two waterfalls up for about 100 meters on debris coming down from the top of the ramp and then for another 200 meters through boulders of sandstone mixed with scrubby vegetation. We got pretty wet up the first part - even though we passed both waterfall cores in several meters distance - it was like heavy rainfall all along in the area near the falls. I needed to make a short break every twenty minutes from now on, as the final ascent was at more than a 45 degrees angle. Also we were in full sun shine - the clouds were now below us.

Nearing the top I found the first Heliamphoras and was very happy. At around 1:30 pm we were at our camp site - a cave 45 minutes away from the mound of the ramp. The view was fantastic and the landscape like nothing I have ever seen before. It was well worth the hard work of getting up the mountain. To fully explore the top you need at least three days up there - some of the more interesting landscape is eight hours walk from the ramp and requires to move camp.

Below a map of the areas of Roraima Tepui I went to, plus an explanation of weather patterns.



Now a bit about weather patterns up there: typically mornings are misty but clear pretty soon on the south side of the mountain (unless it rained a lot the previous night). The mist literally drops of the cliffs. During the day, moist air from the rain forest is heated up and rises. The mountain is like a barrier and cloudy air presses against it. The clouds are literally sucked up the northern mountain walls. As the mountain top also heats up air coming from the rain forest is re-directed over the mountain top. However during the day the humid air gets heavier and eventually mist settles on the mountain top. At night it rains. Depending on the general weather situation the fog lingers longer and comes earlier.

23.3.2002: On the next day we got up really early to go to the Abyss and The Window. Half an hour after sunrise the fog had fallen off the cliffs into the savannah. A very eerie sight. As it was raining heavily the night before, we didn't make it to the north side of Mt. Roraima before the fog came in. The whole north side of the mountain was covered in thick mist. Nevertheless I had a fun time, looking for carnivorous plants. I found some more Heliamphoras and a flowering U. quelchii. Later that day we had a bath and some lunch. The for was slowly rising near the Abyss but not enough. So we went for a walk along the southern ridge and decided to go back to the north side later. Actually the landscape looks quite amazing in the fog and I shot some great pictures. Later on Benetton found a live tarantula (7 cm diameter) which hide under stones during the day. He was also going to look for a scorpion but did not succeed. We fed it a worm. Also he taught me that some of the plants on the top are edible. In particular the hearts of Stegolepsis , which are very tasty indeed.

We made our way back to the Abyss. The plateau had cleared enough to give it another try. Around that time some more people arrived (approx. 15 - it was quite busy because of the Easter holidays). Up to now there were only a canadian couple and me. In fact when the canadians heard that I was flying down by helicopter they wanted to catch a lift and saved me some money. We made it for the Abyss in time and the view was unbelievable. It felt like looking down to earth through a cloud framed window in the heavens. At the deepest point the rock wall goes down 700 meters straight. I tried to go to the edge and look down, but couldn't get myself to go closer to it than a meter. In the end I laid down and had a look that way. The evening fog started to creep up the walls - spectacular. So we rushed to The Window but the clouds in the valley between the table mountains was too thick.

We made our way back to the camp slowly. Had another bath and filled up on drinking water. I searched for some more carnivorous plants and went to bed early.

At this stage I wanted to thank Benetton and Andreas Hauer from Kamadac tours , who have been very good at showing me around and organizing the trek for me. I would advise everybody who goes to Santa Elena to plan in two days before going and then book the trek locally. You may be able to share with people or even if you book a one-man trek it will be half of what you would pay if you booked outside of Venezuela. Santa Elena seems to attract adventure tourists from all over the world and most local tour operators speak english or german.

Carnivorous plants: Roraima Tepui is part of the so-called Guyana shield one of the oldest stone formations on this planet. Besides Roraima Tepui there are several other table mountains - all of them botanically very interesting.. On and around Mt. Roraima there are several quite different types of habitat for carnivorous plants. In the savannah in small bogs, which can also be found on the hill side of Mt. Roraima the following species of carnivorous plants occur: Brocchinea reducta , Utricularia humboldtii and Drosera roraimae. On the actual table mountain you find Heliamphora nutans, Heliamphora minor , Utricularia quelchii and again Drosera roraimae. Also on occasion, you can find solitary specimens of B. reducta.

On the south side of Mt. Roraima large specimens of H. nutans were growing in full sunlight at the edge of water basins and in stone ridges. On the north side I found H. minor and smaller plants of H. nutans (I may be mistaken and the alleged H. minor are in fact small specimens of H. nutans). The north side seems to have a wetter and colder climate. The fog clears less often and shorter than on the south side. In both cases, there are more plants near the mountain edge. The mountain top is covered by large swampy areas, at whose edges you find sundews. They also grow in wet quartz sand. U. quelchii was growing in wet sandy areas as well, near rocks or amongst tillandsias. I saw quite a few plants, unfortunately hardly any were flowering. The Heliamphoras were often growing in clumps, together with Stegolepsis guianensis. I also saw them growing together some endemic Dendrobiums.