Kaieteur National Park

(Permission to enter park must be obtained from the National Parks Commission, Georgetown, T225 9142 (arranged by tour operators).) The Kaieteur Falls, on the Potaro River, nearly five times the height of Niagara, with a drop of 228 m, are almost 100 m wide. Ranking with the Niagara, Victoria, and Iguazú Falls in majesty and beauty, they have the added attraction of being surrounded by unspoilt forest. Lying within a national park, there is also plenty of wildlife: tapirs, ocelots, monkeys, armadillos, anteaters and birds. At the falls themselves, one can see the magnificent silver fox, the cock-of-the-rock and the Kaieteur swift, which lives behind the falls. At dusk the swifts swoop in and out of the gorge before passing through the deluge to roost behind the water. Tiny golden frogs live in the tank bromeliads. In the dry months, April and October, the flow of the falls is reduced; in January and June/July the flow is fullest. In the height of the wet season (June), the overland route is impassable.

The Pakaraima Mountains stretch from Kaieteur westwards to include the highest peak in Guyana, Mount Roraima, once believed to be the inspiration for Conan Doyle’s Lost World. Roraima is very difficult to climb from the Guyanese side, but Wilderness Explorers offer trips via Brazil and Venezuela.