It’s a remarkable country. Sandwiched between Venezuela, Brazil and Surinam, this wonderful little English speaking country has achieved something extraordinary. It has kept its forests, savannahs and wetlands almost fully intact. The country receives about ten tourists per day…..

Our group assembles in Georgetown, its capital. There we will overnight. The following morning we have two options. One is to fly into the interior on a commercial flight and land in Lethem in the Rupununi when we then drive for 2 hours across the savannah to the village of Yupakari. This is the standard route. If everyone in the group would like an upgrade, the other wonderful option is to charter our own plane. We then fly from Georgetown for an hour over primary rainforest and land at an airstrip at Kaieteur Falls for a couple of hours. It’s an extraordinary sight. We’ll observe a Guyana cock-of-the-rock lek and golden frogs amongst the tank bromeliads.Then we’ll fly on into the interior and land on a dusty airstrip after another 45 minute flight across primary rainforest. We land on one of the natural savannahs near the Rupununi river where we will have our first encounter with Ashley Holland, the greatest outdoor guide I have interacted with in thirty years of wildlife film making. He will transport us for the thirty minute rattle across the savannah to the village of Yupakari. There we stay for three nights. www.caimanhouse.com

We rise at dawn in search of giant anteaters with the plaintive cry of the eastern meadowlark all around. We find them and follow them on foot as they go about their termite finding mission. We stop when they stop, we walk when they walk. Quietly. Downwind.  Fork-tailed flycatchers  catch insects above their heads. A natural, unspoilt grassland just for our group. Burrowing owls peer from their burrow dens. It’s  utterly magical. Ashley has adapted an old truck to be the first safari vehicle in Guyana!

We drift down the Rupununi river and  find giant otters returning to their den. We spend a morning at a beautiful giant lily pond and watch the creatures reveal themselves. A huge variety of birds everywhere….macaws screaming overhead by day and the river alive with nighthawks in the fading light. We join the local team that is studying black caiman and catch one in the dead of night to monitor its health and for population analysis. Your visit protects all these things. Employment is hard to come by, especially for women and we try and employ as many as we can. For this leg of this we employ people from Yupakari village land only. All the land we travel around for this leg of the trip is theirs.

We then travel upstream in full expedition mode with a convoy of small boats carrying all our supplies to the remotest wilderness camp in Guyana and one of the most remarkable places I have ever seen. Ashley and team experience is invaluable here. Picture mile after mile of rainforest and then turning into a smaller creek. Travel for another hour as the forest gets higher and higher. It is simply fabulous. The camp is poised atop the river bank just downstream from a series of cascades.. Our dining table overlooks the river. The animals of the forest are all around us. There is nobody else in this entire area. Five minutes from camp is the most accessible harpy eagle nest in the world. Built in a giant silk cotton tree – their tree of choice it seems…one can get level with the nest by walking up the hill. The eagle knows we mean no harm and is utterly oblivious to our presence. Sloths and monkeys make up much of the menu.  Sit and watch family life. All the other birds will come to you…the motmots, trogons, wood creepers, jacamars, humming birds, parrots, scarlet macaws.

Then swim in the natural swimming pools amongst the rapids. Bird watch from the water. The cleanest of waters in the world. Nothing upstream but rainforest clad mountains. Walk through the forest to smaller waterfalls and natural swimming pools. This is the way the world once was. Red-rumpled agouti, white-lipped peccary, tayra, tapir and jaguar use the series of simple trails we have made through the forest. Drift downriver at dawn listening to the extraordinary avian sounds with howler monkeys and spider monkeys joining in the chorus and in the dead of night…looking for tapir, ocelot, tree boas, jaguar…you just never know. You can do any of these activities just with your own guide and boatman if you like at a time of your choosing. We employ enough people so as individual requests can be met. All staff are now from Katoka village who have the land title for this the Mapari. Their land and indeed our camp abuts the Kanuku mountains protected area, the largest of its kind in Guyana. Endless, unspoilt forest. It gladdens the soul.

We have fantastic cooks who deliver three great meals every day. All out of a temporary kitchen under a tarpaulin. We sleep in a long house type building. An open sided palm thatched structure. Now it’s time to learn to sleep in a hammock! We have only had a couple of guests in all the years who opted for a cot bed instead. But that can be done. So don’t worry.

Catch dinner if you like.  Piranha and the wolf fish are great to eat. Stop and watch electric eels in their pools as they come to the surface to breathe. Climb Venom Hill – it’s a bit of a workout – but the reward is the most extraordinary view. Endless rainforest in every direction as far as the eye can see with Blood mountain making its presence felt in the distance…..and somewhere down below…our camp….amongst the trees in this utterly pristine part of this planet. Your visit helps to keep it that way. Both communities that we deal with are really invested in the idea of very small number/ low impact tourism. They are our very good friends and you will be treated as theirs. Simply the most wonderful people.