Day 131 - La Grand Sabana

(Ursula) We had just woken up when Emil knocked on the window and handed us hot tea. Wally made pancakes which we brought over to his house for breakfast. Then the men attempted to repair Emil's emergency generator but were unsuccessful.

We said our goodbyes to this lovely man and hoped he would receive the $100,000 for his staked gold mine. He gave us three samples from his collection as a souvenir. Each one was said to contain 7-12% gold.

A few miles after El Dorado, the pavement ended and continued as a dirt road, but it was in reasonably good condition. Later it changed to concrete slabs and started climbing up to a rocky plateau called La Grand Sabana. Very little vegetation was up there, and it looked strange, like the moon's surface with fine red sand.

We were now near Santa Elena de Uairen (the Brazilian border). But first, we had to cross a few rivers and hope we wouldn't get stuck. The third one was the worst. A bridge had been washed away and was missing. The only way to get to the other side was to drive down a rocky river bank and making across and up the steep bank on the other side.

Like the first two rivers, the water was generally shallow, but there were a few deeper sections that our VW Bus would not have been able to handle. So, Wally and I started to fill these sections with large rocks. It took us more than an hour to build a solid foundation. Then we made it successfully across and up the other bank. Wow!

We set up camp on a rock platform. It was the perfect place to once again wash our clothes and take a bath. Wally found a nice water hole downstream that resembled a bathtub. I saw him sitting in there, his torso fully lathered with soap, shampooing his hair. What a funny sight!

Heinz returned from a short reconnaissance walk downstream. He reported that there was a considerable drop-off and waterfall.

We all went to take a look and spotted the bridge that was washed away, looking like a shattered toy laying at the bottom.

Stats: Miles 146, Expenses $0.00Read more