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THE STORY
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In 1985, we carried out an expedition to
Autana-tepui, arriving on the summit by skydiving out of an old
DC3. While we were there, we abseiled for almost 800 feet down the
wall of Autana to reach the caves. The scale of the place was unbelievable
- the ledge outside the cave had seemed tiny from the plane but
was actually covered by trees and enormous boulders. And the cave
itself was vast, with a central chamber in the heart of the mountain
reminiscent of a cathedral dome. We found ancient water marks on
the walls of tunnels, and beds of pebbles, polished in ancient times
by the action of water.
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Cave, Cerro AUTANA
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To fly from Autana to Roraima takes several hours
in a small plane, but, a very long time ago, their summits were connected
as a huge sandstone massif. The forces and upheavals of Continental Drift
however started a fragmentation process, breaking up the massif into the
hundred or so individual Tepuis as we know them today. The natural ageing
erosion processes of rain and wind have done the rest, including the surreal
sculpturing of the rock labyrinths on the summits of Roraima.
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Like so many adventurous tourists
do today, I followed Im Thurn's and Perkins' ascent route up to
the summit plateau by way of the famous ledge. When I first climbed
it in 1974, visitors were infrequent. Now, parties of people make
the easy climb almost every day. The trail is now a highway of earth
pounded hard by the passage of many people.
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Cliff
of RORAIMA from the ledge
| Reaching the summit,
though, is still a magical experience; the towering caricatures of
rock faces create an eerie landscape that cannot have changed very
much in millions of years. In every direction there is sculptured
rock, eroded into grotesque and tortured shapes by the action of rain
and wind. The surroundings are so lacking in familiar objects or frames
of reference that it is difficult to judge distances accurately and
to maintain one's sense of direction. There is also an extraordinary
and haunting silence; although one strains the ears to hear something
through the gentle whistling of the wind, there is little sound here
save for an occasional bird, and the gentle 'pipping' of an unique
little black frog known from nowhere else in the world. When you spend
a long time in a place like this, your imagination begins to play
tricks on the mind. |
Rock shapes, Roraima summit
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