With so many mountains in the Christoffelpark, the most impressive being the Christoffelberg with a heigth of 372 meters according to Werbata, there must also be a large system of channels to get rid of the water flowing from these mountains in the rain period. Such a channel is called a 'roi' in Papiamentu. This time we decided to walk through a number of such rois from the border of the former plantation Knip and Savonet to the plantation house Savonet. We could do this thanks to the help of one of the park rangers who was willing to drop us off halfway between the Seru Mangel and the Seru Bosman at a small parking place.
There we started our hike at 8:15 AM downhill into the valley where we reached the first roi. We were here in the past looking for the remnants of a building on the Werbata map.
From there we would walk through the roi till the entrance of the park, a distance of about 4 kilometers. It took us 5 hours to do that. Sometimes it was easy but most of the time we had to leave the roi to find our way a bit higher on the hill when the roi itself was impenetrable because of Wabis. Along the road we found impressive Brasilwood trees, probably very old. But we also encountered the tough vines of the Palu di lechi. Thick or thin these vines are hard to break and have a habit of catching your feet while walking. They also are a threat for the other plants because they tend to overgrow and suffocate the other vegetation.
Also along the road there were patches of Aloe, some reddish because of lack of water, but most healthy green. And we saw the usual Bromeliads on the ground and its cousins the Tilandsia in the trees. Because of the drought we also saw a lot of dead Iguanas. We stopped counting at ten. One that I saw was still alive but hardly. Normally they run away when you approach them in the wild but this one kept lying for dead.
After a while we crossed the park road and soon after we reached a path in the roi where walking became a lot easier. At our right we saw another path. That path is used by the people that like to walk from the entrance of the Christoffel park to the parking lot at the foot of the Christoffel mountain.
The last roi that we walked through is called the Roi Beru. There we found the remains of an old dam that was built in this roi. At that time most of us were quite tired. We reached the park entrance close to half past one.
No rights can be derived from this report.
In blue our track
View from the road between the Seru Mangel and the Seru Bosman
Carel started his descent. Eddy and François are at rest
Moss on a small Brasilwood tree
A young Kadushi di pushi
Eddy taking a rest in the first roi
One of the many large Brasilwood trees that we saw along our track
Part of a 'chapi' (tool for agriculture)
Apparently a very thirsty person was here before us
The Kalbas fruit grows directly from the stem
No yellow paint from Uniek Curaçao, natural yellow moss on a piece of wood
Carel and Dirk in another part of the roi
The inner structure of a Prickly pear leaf
A gin jar; we drink water but apparently in the past this was different
Flower of the Prickly pear / Infrou
A small cluster of Bromeliads
Another impressive Brasilwood tree
This looks like petrified wood but is probably just stone
Two fungi on a tree
This Iguana is tired and hardly moving
The skull of a dear
Here the roi is already wider and better accessible
A Tilandsia in a tree
Another skull, this time from a male goat
Palu di lechi
Roi Beru, a large roi
In the rain period here will be a small waterfall
The path to the Seru Kristoff
A dam in the Roi Beru
Roi Beru with to the right part of the old dam
Nicely structured mountainside
