Orinduik is the other half of the standard Kaieteur day trip, and its opposite in almost every way. Where Kaieteur is a single 226-metre drop into a gorge you can only look at, Orinduik is a broad staircase of terraces on the Ireng River, tumbling over steps of jasper — a red semi-precious stone that the water has polished smooth — and you are allowed in.
That is the point of stopping here. Flights out of Ogle usually take in Kaieteur first and then hop 25 minutes west to Orinduik, where the schedule allows an hour or so to swim in the pools between the terraces before flying back. After the enforced reverence of the Kaieteur plateau, it is a relief.
The far bank is Brazil: the Ireng is the border here, and the savannah rolling away on the other side is Roraima state. The Patamona villages of the Pakaraima uplands are the nearest settlements, and there is nothing at the falls themselves — no lodge, no shop, no road.