Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Photo of the Week: Kaietuer Falls, Guyana


I took this picture from the edge of Kiaetuer Falls - the drop from here is straight down 741 feet (250 meters). On average there are 30,000 gallons of water being shot over every second. Swifts nest in the fall's overhang and at sunset you can watch them dart in and out of the water; stretching away from the falls are swaths of virgin, misty and surreal Amazon Jungle. This is, by far, the most stunning waterfall I have ever seen anywhere, ever.

To get to the falls you have to either hike five days through untamed tropical forest (a dream trip of mine) or do what I did and fly in a chartered 5-seater airplane. I flew in with my father and a two-person documentary film team. The only reason I had the guts to go and stand on this ledge was that the documentary cameraman stood in the same spot and filmed the falls gushing for several minutes.

When my father saw him there he yelled to the other documentary partner, "That guy's got balls!"

To which she responded, "He's got three!"

Yet after the guy had been there awhile it looked pretty safe and not so scary so I slowly inched out to where he had been standing. The water was only up to my ankles and the current at the far side here wasn't strong. I held out my camera to the edge and *snap*.

4 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your blog, amazing photo from the top of the waterfall, Regards

    http://anewlifeincyprus.blogspot.com/

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  2. Your dream trip sounds petrifying to me, but also has always sounded like something I feel I need to do. Y'know what I mean?

    I just love your writing Celeste.

    j x

    ReplyDelete
  3. that is a stunning photo, I am afraid of heights though, so rather you than me that close to the edge......

    Gill in Canada

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