You’ll fall for Guyana: thundering waterfalls, amazing wildlife, pristine forests – this wild and beautiful South American country offers the adventure of a lifetime

There are two good reasons to go on holiday: to seek adventure and to find perfect peace.

These two things may seem mutually exclusive, but they are not. Far from it. Most decent trips will give you a good mix of both – and that counts double if you’re looking for wildlife.

When I went to Guyana, I found both peace and adventure just twelve hours away. As things got better, I first got the rest and then the adventure. Traditional stories usually tell the other way around, so I’ll stick with that and give you the adventure first.

But before I do that, I had better say something about Guyana: and the first thing we must learn is that it is unique. Formerly British Guiana, it is the only English-speaking cricketing nation in mainland South America (the nation swapped the ‘I’ for a ‘Y’ when Guyana gained independence in 1966). You’ll find it there in the top right corner; the great West Indian captain Clive Lloyd was born in Guyana.

Perhaps the most important fact is that it is one of the least populated countries on earth: with only about 800,000 people in the entire country, and most of them live in the capital Georgetown and along the coast. It follows that you don’t have to travel far to find wild places.

Simon says that in Guyana (pictured) ‘you don’t have to travel far to find wild places’. While there, he saw “continuous expanses of rainforest that resemble the largest collection of broccoli in the world”

Simon reveals that Guyana is one of the least populated countries in the world

Heading south from Georgetown, you’ll see plenty of green below: uninterrupted expanses of rainforest that resemble the world’s largest collection of broccoli. Before long we were sitting around the table at Karanambu Lodge, once a family cattle ranch and now an exciting ecotourism destination. Those who have sat at the same table before me include Sir David Attenborough, who came here while filming one of his first series, Zoo Quest to Guyana in 1955, and naturalist Gerald Durrell, author of My Family And Other Animals, who wrote his book. animal collection journey here in Three Singles To Adventure.

Adventure was the Guyanese city that had captured his imagination. Durrell tells of a Marx Brothers-style adventure in Karanambu in which he somehow captured a giant anteater. Early the next morning we went looking for another one, but with cameras and binoculars instead of lassos.

The problem with a target species is that you have to find it if you want a satisfying experience. It’s all very well enjoying the laconic song of the Eastern Meadowlark and the imposing presence of the Jabiru Stork, but I had always longed for a giant anteater and it looked like we were going to miss this.

We drove through the savannah in a 4×4 and the sightings of the laughing falcon did not convince everyone of the value of this trip. We turned around: an endless plain with a lonely stuffed figure. This was Francis the vaquero, or cowboy, and he and his horse were staring at a bush.

We walked over to the bush and looked too… and out of it emerged one of the most unlikely animals you would ever see if you traveled the entire length and breadth of the Earth. It was indeed a gigantic anteater: more than six feet tall, a huge bushy tail, and a face so narrow it almost looked like a tube. This stretched a good foot; it had no teeth, a small mouth and a tongue that could have been over 18 inches long. It can deploy this tongue 160 times per minute as it eats ants and termites in astronomical numbers and tears apart their mounds with cutting claws.

It was decorated with subtle stripes and it barely bothered us. It remained in view for a few minutes as it continued its strange, highly specialized existence. I’d travel the world for a wild sight that lasts a few seconds: this anteater was much more generous than that. I had fulfilled a lifelong ambition, just as I had fulfilled another the night before. This was the peaceful one.

Simon visited Karanambu Lodge (pictured), ‘once a family cattle farm and now an exciting ecotourism destination’

Guyana is an Indian word meaning land of many waters: Karanambu is close to the Rupununi River and a peaceful boat ride along the main course and its many meanders, backwaters and lakes is a joyful thing. We traveled sweetly on, past kingfishers and hummingbirds, along walled waterways and in places covered by dense riverine forest until, as the light faded, we emerged at a lake of lilies.

Not just any lilies: this was the giant Amazonian water lily, Victoria amazonica, with lilies 6 feet wide and flowers that can span 18 inches. The underside of each leaf gets its strength from a beautiful system of trellis work. (Joseph Paxton borrowed the idea to create the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851.)

The enormous flowering lasts only a few days. Each chamber produces its own heat, which attracts dung beetles and then closes, trapping the beetles inside. The next day they are released and go off to spread the lily’s pollen elsewhere. We sat in silence in our boats drinking rum punch as the rain fell with exquisite softness on an impossible vista of beauty. Perfect peace and great adventure… but the journey had even more wonders.

Kaieteur Falls is twice as high as Victoria and four and a half times taller than Niagara: the world’s largest single-drop waterfall, with a drop height of 230 metres. It is a place that attracts the attention and fills the ears with the thunder of the waterfalls, the water. The fallen leaves were a deep tea color and behind the great waterfalls there zoomed white-chinned swifts.

There was something unexpected here, one that made me gasp in shock and delight: A few steps down a side path in the spray-soaked woods surrounding the falls, three birds sat on branches and gave each other an old-fashioned look. They were the size of small city pigeons – and the brightest orange you’ve ever seen, a ridiculously unbird-like color, and their whole face seemed walled in with even more orange feathers. These were Guianan cock of the rock: the males compete with each other through extreme colors, while the females make the actual choice. You can make your own joke about human behavior here to your taste, but the birds themselves were enough for me.

On the Market: There are only about 800,000 people in Guyana, and most of them live in the capital, Georgetown. Above, a local selling citrus fruit in town

Simon remembers seeing many ‘extravagant’ birds during his trip. Above, a brightly colored hornbill

Then we were back in Georgetown for food and drinks, all pleasant enough. The people, with a mixed heritage, including African, Indian and Native American, create a pleasant atmosphere without oppressing you; you score points if you can handle the many excellent chili sauces that accompany the food. The local wiri-wiri pepper is not something to take lightly.

Guyana is changing: large offshore reserves of crude oil are driving greater prosperity. Every visitor hopes that he will navigate the journey well and follow the route that leads to greater comfort for all, without damaging the essential good atmosphere of the place.

I made the trip back to Georgetown with a head full of wildlife: and even here there were still treasures to be found. In the botanical gardens we found the beautiful red and green macaw and the toco toucan: birds with extravagant imaginations that turned out to be real.

And one final memory: looking out over the sea before heading back to the hotel, packing and the airport, over the rich silt of the coast a bird glowing red like a hot coal on a pile of nutty slop. Here was a scarlet ibis: and as I looked, it flew into the air and caught the sun, and for a moment the air was on fire.

Durrell understood the euphoria that comes from the best experiences in wild places, and he wrote about it in Three Singles: ‘In a state of drunken happiness you feel that you would not only forgive your friends the wrongs they have done you, but even your friends. family members.’ I raised a last glass to him and boarded the plane home.