La Gran Sabana and Posada La Casita.

We are currently parked at the excellent Posada La Casita camp site/hotel about 12km to the east of Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela. One of the reasons for choosing to stay here is that the camp site is operated by the same company that runs Gekko Tours, and they can arrange our flight to Angel Falls. (Both companies are run by Peter and Maria Rothfuss.)

The camp site has a swimming pool, good restaurant, 110/220 volt electrical hookup, a town shuttle bus service, and a tame toucan! Camping costs about $4USA per person per night. The "three day" trip to the Angel Falls cost about $290USA per person. Credit cards are not accepted, but cash dollars are.

The one big problem with Posada La Casita is finding it! There are no signs and it is at the end of a convoluted dirt road. The camp site is at N08.090278 W63.489568 (Phone: 0285-617-0832 or 0414-856-2925). To reach it you must turn south west off the main road into Ciudad Bolivar at N08.105045 W63.469565 (just by the foot-bridge). Even with this information you will have to ask several times, or phone before you get here. Probably the best way to find the camp site, during office hours, is to go to the Ciudad Bolivar airport (N08.126394 W63.537595) and ask at the Gekko Tours office (Phone: 0285-632-3223). They will then get a 4x4 to lead you to the camp site.

We crossed into Venezuela from Brazil near Santa Elena. The border was fairly straight forward, with a relaxed Brazilian customs official warning us that Venezuelan customs would require a very thorough search of our vans. In fact they did not even look inside. Neither did we need the Venezuelan visas that we had got in London (where we were told we needed these if we entered Venezuela by land).

As well as getting our Carnets stamped on entering Venezuela, and having the vehicle details entered in our passports, we were also issued with a computer printed A4 sheet with the driver's name and vehicle registration details allowing us to temporarily import a tourist vehicle. This form is required at the many army check points (see below).

One of the first jobs in Venezuela was to fill with fuel. This was our first of many encounters with Venezuelan soldiers who seemed to be posted at the fuel stations near the border. Fuel, both petrol and diesel, is cheap, very cheap. To be precise diesel is $0.02USA per litre (Yes two USA cents or one UK penny a litre!)

After the somewhat boring scenery in parts of northern Brazil, La Gran Sabana in southern Venezuela was a welcome change, with lush green hills, spectacular waterfalls and tepuis (large flat topped mountains). The superb tarmac road from the border all the way to Ciudad Bolivar is only slightly spoiled by being stopped for 10 minutes every 100km at the rather pointless army check points.

Several of the waterfalls by the roadside in La Gran Sabana have camping areas. We parked at Salto Kama (also known as Kamameru) at N05.415947 W61.219258.