Lower Kara Kara

Francine Stellingburg’s twins Alianna and Aneisha. Aneisha holds a calabash, which her mother uses as a bowl.

Lower Kara Kara sits on the outskirts of Linden among lush grass, trees and the rippling black waters of the Kara Kara Creek. The village is home to approximately 300 persons, most of whom are indigenous or of indigenous ancestry.

After arriving from Georgetown at the Linden Car Park, one takes a taxi to get to the end of Speightland and crosses the Kara Kara creek in a canoe. Alternatively, you can have the taxi take you along the longer route into the village but feeling the call of the creek, I chose the first.

At Speightland I asked one of the villagers how to get to the other side. He said his name was Clint and he was well-known in the area. A beaming Clint pointed to three canoes and said if I could paddle, I was welcome to borrow whichever one I wanted; that turned out to be a joke. As I got into the tiny boat, the Cola-coloured water seeped over the side but Clint calmly reassured me it was nothing to worry about. In a few minutes, which appeared longer, I arrived.