Surinam

[see all the pictures from surinam]

Us at coppename river In October / November 2003 my father and I took made a trip to Surinam. After flying from ice-covered Holland for about 8 hours, we arrived in Paramaribo. Although the day was coming to an end when we arrived, temperatures were still around 38 degrees. This resulted in obvious effort of our body to lose some heat by sweating. After spending a day in Paramaribo we were joined by our guide, R.v P. who took us with a 4WD truck with lots of supplies and food to the city of Witagron. Here we transfered all our equipment into a 'Korjaal'. ; In this korjaal we continued for an other 2 hours, covering about 60 km over the Coppename river.

My dad getting drinking waterWe we reached the Raleigh Falls we transfered our equipment from the korjaal, and placed it under plastic covers on the forest floor. The korjaal then took us to the other side of the river. In the tourist housing present there we spent the night. The Raleigh Falls is an area of several rapid and small waterfalls in the Coppename River. Since the upstream area of this river is uninhabited, the water that comes from the falls is safe to drink. The start of a routine was there: Every morning after taking a warm bath in the river (Which was at appr. 34 degrees centigrade) we took our waterbottles, and filled them to the rim with fresh river water!.

The next part of our trip started just upstream of the Raleigh Falls. So after breachfast we packed our things and waited for our boat driver to come and bring us to the other side of the river. After about 45 minutes of waiting, we decided to go to the other side on a more traditional fashion: We tied our shoes to our belt, and swam across. On the other side of the river we started to walk with our camping gear. All the equipment needed to be transported to a small side-arm of the Coppename river, about 15 minutes walk through the forest. After we had made our first trip through the forest, the Korjaal was there, and Gillean, Pedro and me went to the other side of the river to gather our personal things.

Crashing through the rapids Around midday we were ready to depart from Raleigh Falls, and we set off. With all the fuel (120 liters), food and persons the Korjaal was very heavy. So we were a bit worried wether the korjaal was going to be able to take all the rapids on our way. Already after 15 minutes we had the first challenge: One big rapid ahead of us. Were we at first worried that we might get wet due to rain, that illusion was taking away straight away! The korjaal dove into the rapid, emerged, and all of us were soaked by a big wave of water.

In the evening of that day we made camp on a narrow stretch of rocks, along the Coppename River. Pedro and Gillean took their machette's with them into the forest. When they returned, after about 30 minuets, they brought a pile of young tree-stems with them. In no time they build a simple framework, using nothing but the vines from the forest, their machettes and the trees. On top of this frame-work they placed a plastic tarp, which served as a roof.