Another long driving day as we head north and then west towards Ciudad Bolivar, so we are up early, leaving before 7 AM. We drive all day, stopping for lunch by the side of the road. At 5:30 PM we arrive in the town of Ciudad Bolivar. Formerly known as Angostura, the city is now named after Simon Bolivar, El Libertador, the man who led the independence struggles first in Venezuela and then Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
We are using this city as our base to reach the world's highest waterfall - Angel Falls, named after Jimmy Angel. Jimmy Angel, from the United States, first discovered the falls in 1935 from the air while looking for a river that contained gold. No one believed him and when we re-discovered it two years later, he crashed landed his plane on the top of the table mountain, taking 12 days to walk down to safety. He died in 1956 when he crashed a plane in Panama.
Anyway, on our way to our camp site, we first stopped off at the airport, where Jimmy Angel's plane is on display. It was recovered, restored and set up outside the airport. Quite amazing to see in person. From the airport, we headed out of town to our camp site that is operated by Gecko Tours. It is a bit of a way out of town.
We arrive there shortly after 6 PM and set up camp. We organise our bags for our trip tomorrow to the area around Angel Falls. Then we have a barbeque dinner - the only problem is that we have to cook the food ourselves. In itself not too bad, but when we pay a good price for the meal and have to fight with 30 other people for a small grill, it is a bit of a disappointment. After dinner we hang around waiting for a briefing on our trip. The tour organiser has had a bit too much to drink and is taking his time. We finally get our briefing (the trip sounds exciting), wash up and head off to bed.