On Thursday January 30, 2014 we visited the Christoffelpark once again. But this time we went to the part to the North of the entrance and more specific to the area bordering the Northern part of the former plantation of St. Hyronimus. We met at 8 AM at the entrance of the Christoffel park and drove with two cars towards Serka Manuel. There we parked the cars and started our hike. Our target for the day was the Werbata triangulation point that we hoped to find on top of the Seru Bomba Bua
From the cars we saw two Warawara's on top of Serka Manuel. Not knowing if there was a nest that they would protect we climbed carefully to the top of Serka Manuel. Half way I decided to go back and take a lower route. The rocks were too steep for me and there was little support for hands and feet. Carel had a similar idea so we walked around the two tops of this steep hill. The others made it to the top and also to a second top. We met again at the foot of the second top. From there we walked in the direction of Seru Bomba Bua. Halfway to the top of the Seru Bomba Bua (87 meters high) there is a subtop of 76 meters high. Of course we wanted to go over that top too.
The vegetation was extremely dense and difficult. Not that there were a lot of plants with thorns but there were many Infrou cacti (Prickly pear) on the ground and an awful lot of horizontal vines that slowed our progress. This is clearly an area of the park where no one comes. We found some artifacts but these were all more than a century old (case bottles and gin bottles).
From the subtop of the Seru Bomba Bua we had a nice view in all directions. Looking back we could see the two steep rocks of Serka Manuel and in the opposite direction we could see our target. We took a short break to enjoy our traditional apple and then we continued. First downhill to cross the valley between the two tops and then again uphill. Reaching the top Fred was the first to discover the triangulation point. And, as we hoped, this one is completely undisturbed. It is eroded a bit but the identification plate on the side looks as if it is freshly made. There is a good chance that we are the first to walk here since Werbata placed and used this point to produce the first topographical map of Curaçao.
After a long lunch break we went back. And although we normally like to take a different route for the way back we were almost forced to use the path that we made on the way up. In the valley we could divert and follow a rooi back to where our cars were parked.
It was a long and tiresome hike. Although the distance was less than 2 kilometers it took us almost 6 hours to cover this distance. But finding an undisturbed Werbata point made it all worthwhile.
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