BEFORE THE ROAD TO BRAZIL…THE TRAIL TO RUPUNUNI

– NOW THE PHILIP MOORE ARTISTS’ RETREAT AT YUKURIBA HEIGHTS

Who said you can’t go home again – if like me, you think of Yukuriba Falls as home you can.

...and thus, the genesis of another pontoon crossing at Kurupukari
…and thus, the genesis of another pontoon crossing at Kurupukari

If your thoughts of home were kept alive for decades with your cherished memories suffused in an incense as heady as hiawa light burning through a rainforest night before The Road To Brazil or even The Trail To Rupununi – then to now – you will, you must, you do go home again.
Hiawa is a perfumed sap oozing from the trunk of the hiawa tree; in its dried form , forest dwellers use hiawa for light at night; also sometimes used as incense in the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

The pontoon on the hill looking down on the Essequibo before launching
The pontoon on the hill looking down on the Essequibo before launching

I went home again to Yukuriba Heights last week, to vision (in situ) exactly what the design of the Yukuriba Creative Farming Community’s Organic Farm and Philip Moore Artists’ Retreat would look like….couldn’t help reflecting all along the way of my bumpy ride, on that verity – “the more things change, the more they remain the same.”
Save for a few settlements along the Mabura Road, and the well-appointed Peter & Ruth travellers’ rest stop at #58, nothing’s changed

Home again on Yukuriba Falls, in low water season ...sitting, reflecting beside a table rock where I worked on my novel ‘Clarise Cumber- Batch Want To Go Home’; Ticknor & Fields U.S.A., Women’s Press, U.K.
Home again on Yukuriba Falls, in low water season …sitting, reflecting beside a table rock where I worked on my novel ‘Clarise Cumber-
Batch Want To Go Home’; Ticknor & Fields U.S.A., Women’s Press, U.K.

much on the way to Yukuriba; although the road’s a lot less treacherous than it was three decades ago when Terry Fletcher and his team of Trail to Rupununi pioneers forged Southward after meeting endless challenges associated with repairing all the bridges and opening the trail between Mabura and Kurupukari.
After that, according to Terry Fletcher’s account, their next major challenge was how to cross the Essequibo River at that location. The shortest distance across the river was 600 meters or about three eighths of a mile, with a small island in between.

This vast expense of rocks creating the Yukuriba Falls rapids in highwater season, is open for exploration in the dry season; it’s all part of the Yukuriba Artists Community and Organic Farm, a proposed sanctuary for creative minds with an artists’ retreat named in memory of the late, great, Guyanese artist: The Philip Moore Artists’ Retreat
This vast expense of rocks creating the Yukuriba Falls rapids in highwater season, is open for exploration in the dry season; it’s all part of the Yukuriba Artists Community and Organic Farm, a proposed sanctuary for creative minds with an artists’ retreat named in memory of the late, great, Guyanese artist: The Philip Moore Artists’ Retreat

On the other side, the Southern Bank of the Essequibo, an old abandoned pontoon (no doubt left over from the days of the Kurupukari

Cattle Trail), sat on a low slope above the river, the pioneers decided to repair it, mobilize it, and set up a primitive pontoon ferry across the river…. genesis of the current pontoon crossing at Kurupukari.
They planned methodically; GUYSUCO loaned a tractor with a winch and an operator. They bought eight hundred meters of steel cable to mobilize the pontoon. When the tractor arrived at Kurupukari, the team attached the steel cable to the winch, and, using a korial, paddled across the river with the other end of the steel cable which was connected to the repaired pontoon.

 

“A beauty too, of twisted trees...”
“A beauty too, of twisted trees…”

Thus with the help of the 800 meters (half a mile) of cable, and the tractor’s power, they were able to winch the repaired pontoon down the incline into the River. They now had a working pontoon that could ferry men, vehicles and equipment across the six hundred meter wide Essequibo River.

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