HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting Rosita out of the mud
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Rosita getting stuck in the mud
WORD OF THE DAY: Hector
DISTANCE TRAVELLED:
Mother Nature worked her charm last night and we got a massive storm that had an amazing light show (who needs Lightning Lake) and thunder to match the lights. I was in and out of sleep all night, and every time I woke up, the sound of rain was pounding on our mud roof. I just kept thinking how much trouble we were going to be in with Rosita sitting out there and the dirt road that we had to travel to get out, with all that rain I am sure was going to be trying to negotiate a mud quagmire. I do like the sound of rain, but I must say I have to draw the line when parts of the mud roof start to fall down in our room, that’s how much it rained constantly all night. Andrea had to move her hammock at one stage during the night as a large chunk fell on the end of her hammock and then later in the night Tash had to exit her hammock as the ropes started to give way, add to that Kate trying to find bug spray in the middle of the night, with the storm it was a pretty interrupted night. This is par for the course though sharing with other people and that was only with the 6 of us, the other room had 11 people in there and with the snoring saga continuing I really don’t know what people expect when they share with others.
So morning arrives and it is still raining. We are in a lot of trouble I just know it, after seeing the roads last night after a downpour the roads after raining all night would be even worse. But Gray was upbeat; he loves a challenge so we were all on track for our original plan. The camp guys were keen to get us an Anaconda, and after partly catching one yesterday, they now knew where one lived, so on our way out we were going to head back there and see if we could catch her to get our photo, this was very promising. Breakfast was supposed to be at 6.15am with a departure at 7am. Breakfast was late, getting on the tables at 6.35am and little did we know this was going to be an omen for the rest of the day. We all did really well and were all still on the truck at 7am ready to go.
Rosita moved back about 10m, and then Gray moved her forward about 12m and that was the last time she moved again for 5 hours. We were bogged before we had even got out of the camp gates. Yep bogged good and proper with the left back tyre lost in about ½ a meter of mud. We were going to be here awhile as we all piled out hopeful it wouldn’t be too long and bringing anything off with us. So much for the power of positive thinking. After an hour we realized we were going to really be here for longer than expected, so people started to go onto the truck to get books, diary’s and computers off. Mark lost it at one stage telling us to keep off the truck as she was jacked up and I really am not sure what other ‘bushman’ tactics s were being used but if it worked and Gray got out from under Rosita alive then that was the most important thing. There were 6 people working on getting her out, so it was just a matter of setting up the devices that were going to shift a 25 ton truck from the mud. It continued to rain during the morning but them stopped just after 10am, so the upside once we got out of the camp that the rest of the mud road would have dried up, ell more than what it would have been this morning. To keep the troops rallied we were served noodles at 10.30am and then lunch was provided at 12 noon. Considering they weren’t even supposed to be feeding us at all the lunch was super with a beef stew and salad and as we sat there, Rosita was started up and put into reverse for her push out of her hole. We were all riveted and after 5 attempts of rocking her back and forward she made the final push and was clear of the hole!!! You have not heard people cheer like we cheered!!! What a relief! We still had to get to the bitchemin road 5km away, but this was the first step!
Lunch was eaten in frenzy and we all loaded on 5.5 hours after our first boarding at 7am this morning. After only a few minutes it was decided that we would travel in the smaller vans till we got to the main road to keep as much weight out of Rosita as we could to give her a good chance of getting out. So we got off the truck again, boarded the vans and let Rosita pass us and she went first, the next van went and then we were in the last van which I think was the best one to be in as we just followed the tracks of the van in front. There was a lot of fish tailing by all three vehicles and to see Rosita skating and fish tailing was a little scary to say the least and I am glad that I wasn’t on her as I would have been scared shitless, but after a hairy 15 minutes we were back on solid ground and we had made it out okay. Credit to Allan, as not once did he say ‘I told you so’ the whole time and he pretty much stayed out of everyone’s hair, as I am sure he was more than a little frustrated about the whole incident and also the luck we had over the last 5 days was not on our side.
So with nearly 6 hours lost, we didn’t have time to look for our elusive anaconda, so we leave Venezuela and Los Llanos without seeing the largest snake in the world. Nature and wild animals are unpredictable and both were not on our side for this section of the trip. Out of the whole 130 odd days, this has been the biggest run of bad luck we have had for the whole trip. The poor newbies, it just hasn’t come together since Caracas. Things can only get better from here right!?
My fancy new simcard that I bought in Frankfurt hasn’t worked here in Venezuela. It is frustrating as I can see the network towers everywhere and I can’t jump onto any of them. I hope that it will work in Colombia, if not I am thinking I will buy a Colombian sim card as we are here for nearly 3 weeks and worth the effort.
It was just a drive day today, but they were hoping to get us to the Adventure camp at a reasonable hour to enjoy the camp and the area, as apparently there is a river and a waterfall, as it is a rafting camp. Sounds like heaven, but with the lost time, we were just hauling arse to get us in before dark. With 2 passport checks, 2 toilet stops and a goodbye to Allan, Hector and Jose at 5pm as they head back to Merida we arrived at the camp at 7.10pm and it was dark. We were sleeping in dorm style huts and what we could make out, the grounds were well manicured, they had a great eating area hut and you could hear the river from our rooms. It would have been nice to see this place during the day, but we were just thankful that we had made it!
So that was our adventure for our last day in Venezuela. We head into our next South American country tomorrow-Colombia and we are all pretty excited about this section of the trip. This will make it our 9th country of the continent before heading back into Ecuador and the end of the tour. I hate to say I am ready to leave after nearly 6 months in South America, I am really looking forward to seeing friends again in the States and then home looms closely behind that. But for now my Odyssey continues and I will continue to make the most of every second.
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