The Living Edens : The Lost World Tepuis - The making of and history of exploration

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" background="../../../images/backgrounds/background4.jpg" link="#0000FF" vlink="#F4BA0B" alink="#8000FF"> <font size="5" color="#0000A0"> </font> <table width="822" border=" 0" cellspacing=" 0" cellpadding=" 0"> <tr> <td width="184"> <p><font color="#004080"><font color="#C0C0C0" size="2"><a href="../../LRP_main.html" target="_parent">[Last Refuge main page]</a></font></font></p> <p><font color="#C0C0C0" size="2"><a href="../../../photolibrary/AWlibrary_main.html" target="_parent">[Adrian Warren Photo Library]</a></font></p> <p><font color="#C0C0C0" size="2"><a href="../new_articles/articles_main.html" target="_parent">[Back to Article Page]</a></font></p> <p><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="tepuis_Main.html" target="_parent"><b>The Making of <br> "The Lost World"</b></a></font></p> <ul> <li><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_team1.html" target="_top">The Team</a></font></li> <li><a href="Tepuis_story_page1.html" target="mainFrame"><font color="#C0C0C0"></font></a><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_story_page1.html" target="_top">The Story</a></font></li> <li><font color="#C0C0C0">The filming</font> <ul> <li><a href="Tepuis_recce.html" target="mainFrame"><font color="#C0C0C0"></font></a><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_recce.html" target="_top">The Recce </a></font></li> </ul> </li> <ul> <li><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_trip1_November.html" target="_top">Trip 1 </a></font> </li> <li><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_trip2_Jan.html" target="_top">Trip 2</a></font></li> </ul> <li><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_credits.html" target="_top">Film Credits</a></font></li> <li><a href="Tepuis_references_page1.html" target="mainFrame"><font color="#C0C0C0"></font></a><font color="#C0C0C0"><a href="Tepuis_references_page1.html" target="_top">List of References</a></font></li> </ul> <p><font color="#C0C0C0"><b><a href="../../../photolibrary/sp_lastest.html" target="_top">IMAGE GALLERIES</a></b></font></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </td> <td width="638"> <p align="center"><font size="5" color="#0000A0"><br> </font></p> <table width="600" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><i><u><font color="#990000">The Living Edens "TEPUIS" Behind The Scenes ...The STORY ..Page 1 of 13</font></u></i></div> </td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width="600" border=" 1" cellspacing=" 1" cellpadding=" 1" align="center"> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman" color="#004080"><b><font size="4">The Making of the Tepuis Film : "The Living Edens : The Lost World"</font></b></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="600" border="0" cellspacing=" " cellpadding=" " align="center"> <tr> <td width="84" height="33"><a href="../../../photolibrary/sp_tepuis_all.htm"><img src="../../../images/photo_articles/tepuis/button_galleries.jpg" width="59" height="25" border="0"></a></td> <td width="437" height="33"> <div align="center"><a href="../new_articles/articles_main.html" target="_parent">To Article Main Page</a></div> </td> <td width="79" height="33"> <div align="right"></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="84" height="13"> </td> <td width="437" height="13"> <div align="center"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman" color="#004080">[<a href="Tepuis_story_page1.html">p.1</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page2.html">p.2</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page3.html">p.3</a>][<a href="Tepuis_story_page4.html">p.4</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page5.html">p.5</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page6.html">p.6</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page7.html">p.7</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page8.html">p.8</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page9.html">p.9</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page10.html">p.10</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page11.html">p.11</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page12.html">p.1</a>2] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page13.html">p.13</a>]</font></div> </td> <td width="79" height="13"> <div align="right"><font color="#004080"><a href="Tepuis_story_page2.html">next page</a></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="600" cellspacing=" " cellpadding=" " align="center" height="876"> <tr> <td width="560"> <p align="center"><font size="4" color="#004080"><u><br> THE STORY</u></font> <blockquote> <p><font color="#004080"><i>"South America is a place I love, it's the grandest, richest, most powerful bit of earth upon this planet............the more you know of that country, the more you would understand that anythin' was possible - anythin'. Now down here in the Mato Grosso or up in this corner where three countries meet, nothin' would surprise me.</i>" (Conan Doyle: "The Lost World") </font> </p> </blockquote> <p align="center"> <a href="../../../photolibrary/sp_tepuis_all.htm"><img src="../../../images/photo_articles/tepuis/tepuis6x6_2c.jpg" width="250" height="230" alt="aerial image of Roraima in cloud, Venezuela" border="0"></a> <p align="center"><font color="#004080" size="2"><i><font size="1"> <b><font color="#006A00" size="2">RORAIMA</font></b></font></i></font><font size="2"><b><i><font color="#006A00"> from the north</font></i></b></font> <p align="left"><font color="#004080">We are flying, in a small single engine aircraft, over an ocean of puffy white clouds, concealing endless and luxuriant rain forest below, heading towards an extraordinary flat-topped plateau, rising above the world below, and the cloud layer, like a giant fortress, an island in the sky. Its summit, partially obscured by mist, is dark and forbidding, and its vertical flanks are decorated by waterfalls, falling like delicate threads of gossamer for thousands of feet to the forest below. The mountain is called Roraima, the "Lost World" of prehistoric life made famous in the 19th Century novel by Conan Doyle. It sprawls across the point where Venezuela meets Brazil and Guyana, in northern South America, and, until it was climbed for the first time in 1884, there was speculation among scientists that its vast and ancient summit might harbour life, perhaps even prehistoric life, protected in isolation from exterior forces of evolution. That life on the mountain is indeed unique was confirmed by the first expeditions that eventually reached its elusive summit, but it took almost fifty years of exploration to find a way to climb it. Mount Roraima is just one of over a hundred spectacular tablelands of ancient sandstone that lie in Venezuela, which the local indigenous Pemon people call "Tepuis". Even today, they represent one of the least explored regions of our planet. They are composed of some of the oldest known rocks in the world, laid down in Precambrian times, before life appeared on Earth.</font> <br> <br> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="204"><img src="../../../images/photo_articles/tepuis/Roraima_expedition1971_BW2.jpg" width="193" height="300" alt="RORAIMA's PROW from the north ridge 1971"></td> <td width="394"> <p><font color="#004080">I first became interested in this area of South America when, as a young biologist in 1968 and 1969, I was working in a little known area of the Guyana Highlands. I spent the next two years organizing an expedition that, in 1971, took a team of scientists into unexplored territory leading to Roraima's impressive northern prow, an overhanging, sheer rock face. We parachuted in, then spent a month cutting a trail through the forest before climbing a steep knife-edged ridge, where no one had been before us, to the very base of the prow. But we could go no further: the 1,200 feet of overhanging rock between us and the actual summit was beyond our climbing capabilities. Although our expedition had been rich in discoveries of new species, especially of frogs, it was disappointing not to be able to climb the prow, and I determined that one day I would return to stand on that elusive summit.</font></p> <p><font color="#004080"><i><font color="#004000"><b><font color="#006A00" size="2">RORAIMA's PROW from the north ridge 1971</font></b></font></i></font></p> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="600" border="0" cellspacing=" " cellpadding=" " align="center"> <tr> <td width="84" height="13"> </td> <td width="437" height="13"> <div align="center"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman" color="#004080">[<a href="Tepuis_story_page1.html">p.1</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page2.html">p.2</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page3.html">p.3</a>][<a href="Tepuis_story_page4.html">p.4</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page5.html">p.5</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page6.html">p.6</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page7.html">p.7</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page8.html">p.8</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page9.html">p.9</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page10.html">p.10</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page11.html">p.11</a>] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page12.html">p.1</a>2] [<a href="Tepuis_story_page13.html">p.13</a>]</font></div> </td> <td width="79" height="13"> <div align="right"><font color="#004080"><a href="Tepuis_story_page2.html">next page</a></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> <div align="center"><b><font color="#0033FF"><br> <img src="../../../images/photo_articles/tepuis/PBS_Tepuis.jpg" width="300" height="20"></font></b> </div> <p align="center">  <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">var site="s10sasitorn"</script> <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://s10.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s10sasitorn"> </script> <noscript> <a href="http://s10.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s10sasitorn" target="_top"> <img src="http://s10.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s10sasitorn" alt="Site Meter" border=0></a> </noscript>  </p> </td> </tr> </table> <p align="center"> </p> <hr width="100%"> <div align="center"> <p><font color="#004080">[<a href="../../LRP_main.html" target="_parent"><u>Last Refuge home page</u></a>] [<u><a href="../../../photolibrary/AWlibrary_main.html" target="_parent">Adrian Warren photo library</a></u>] [<u><a href="../../contact1.html">Contact Us</a></u>] </font><font color="#004080">[<a href="../../copyrightnotice.html">Copyright Notice</a>]</font></p> </div> <div align="center"> <p align="center"><img src="../../../images/photo/logosmallest3.jpg" width="126" height="62" alt="Last Refuge Copy Right"></p> <p align="center"><font size="1"><b><font color="#004080">Web site designed by: <a href="mailto:info@lastrefuge.co.uk">Dae Sasitorn</a></font></b></font></p> </div> </body>