IHANA.COM big trip - diary - August 2002

The road was fairly good as we cruised through huge open plains towards the low forested hills ahead. The guidebook said Guyana drives on the left like in England but we weren't sure and we crested the blind hills in the middle of the road, ready to swerve over depending on which way someone else was coming. Fortunately the first vehicle encountered was a little motorbike heading the same way as us and driving on the left so when the first Bedford truck came towards us we knew where to steer!

First Bedford truck encounter

Bike riding bowman

Carefully straddling deep ruts

Further on we passed an indigenous village and a short while later, after 140kms, the track deteriorated and turned to mud holes with big ruts. We saw a black puma cat thing then met a local coming by on his bike carrying a bow and arrows and had a chat with him in normal-ish English which was a strange experience.

Driving off the high lift jack

Long stretches of quagmire

Barefoot in the mud

The mud was deep and so were the ruts which were wider than the landy meaning we had to drive either one wheel in and one out or try and drive around the side. Most times the jungle was too thick to skirt the track so we had to literally plough through, using the high lift jack to raise the back wheel, put a sand ladder underneath and drive forward. Just like in Canaima a few weeks ago...great.

After 4 more hours we'd made very little progress and were covered in mud, pissed off and knackered. We managed to squeeze the landy off the track onto the side, cooked and went to sleep, resolving to turn back the next morning. We've done enough of this stuff already.