John Gimlette's Voyages

THE SLAVE MARKETS. The film vividly depicted the horrors of being sold in New Orleans; the humiliating nakedness of the slaves, the separation of mothers and children, and the treatment of humans as commodities.

The movie "12 years a slave" is making quite an impact. In the next few posts, I shall be highlighting a few differences and similarities between the horrific experience of Solomon Northup and that of Guianese slaves.

This is the old Dutch fort, built in the 17th century, guarding the river Essequibo (Guyana).

To survive, any fort had to be unobtrusive, well inland, heavily-armed and easy to defend. This one even had a vigilant name: Kijk-over-al, or ‘Watch over all’.

This man has just killed a poisonous snake (a labaria) in the sugar cane, on the Wales Estate, near Georgetown (Guyana). He's lucky, hence the wide grin. About every twenty years, I was told, one of the workers is killed by a snake. 

Today the British police announce that they want to interview Nigella Lawson about here cocaine use. It's a sad day for a talented and much-admired TV personality - but it's right that she is investigated. 

I love the mystery that we tourists get out of travel.

Take this place, the Rupununi (the nearest thing to 'the Wild West', in Guyana). Life here can be thrillingly odd. Most visitors, like me, enjoy all this feeling happily out of their depth. With so much to misunderstand, after a while anything seems possible.

This is what remains on the Mora Camp, on the Mazaruni River, Guyana.

These days it's a promontory of semi-derelict terraces, with lemon trees, flamboyants, corolla, mangos and bamboo. At the bottom of the slope is the Mazuruni – looking like a sheet of mercury – and a cluster of bushy islands, including Kijk-over-al. 

Four hundred years ago, the river Essequibo was regularly raided by pirates, mostly English and French freebooters, plundering the Dutch. Occasionally, they return.

This is Dadanawa, deep in the southern savannahs of Guyana. It was built by a Scot called Harry Melville who arrived here in 1891. 

This is the viewpoint at the top of Turtle Mountain, in the Iwokrama reserve in central Guyana (that's me in the foreground, trying not to look hot).

There are some fabulous stories about how this place was created and how it got name (tales that even include a giant worm). But the myth is almost nothing compared to the peculiarity of life up here.