IN 1972, Haresh Ramsamooj made an incredible journey to the United States. Recently he made another, this time a bit closer to home.

Thirty-one years ago, Haresh Ramsamooj started out on a journey. Nineteen years old at the time, and with G$250 in his pocket, he set out to hitchhike his way from Guyana to the U.S.A.

Armed with his travelling documents and letters of credence from the Office of the President, the young Boy Scout took a GAC Flight to Lethem and from there decided to travel overland until he could reach America.

Speaking with the Sunday Chronicle, Ramsamooj recalls that in those days there was a 'floating shop', a modified pontoon, that traversed the Takatu River. He befriended the owner, a Brazilian woman and some others and went across to Bom Fin. He remembers the Brazilian border town as being far less modernised than it is today.

"Bom Fin was red (dirt) road, bushy. Today it's asphalt," he said.

After spending the night in a hammock in Bom Fin, he hitched a ride to Boa Vista and from there hitched another, this time on a Brazilian army truck en route to Santa Elena, across the border in Venezuela. He says that both the Brazilian and Venezuelan armies were involved in a bilateral road building project at the time and he had made friends with some Brazilian soldiers working on the Brazilian stretch of the road. The truck took him halfway to Santa Elena and he got a ride in a private car for the other half.

From Santa Elena, he took a ride with - and this admittedly seems a bit hard to swallow - some nuns who dropped him off at Ciudad Bolivar.

Two events stand out in Ramsamooj's memory in relation to his spent time in Venezuela during that trek 30 years back. He says it was mid-November and there was this chilliness in the air. From Ciudad Bolivar he could see the majestic Mount Roraima.

The other event was less nostalgic. He says that he was interrogated by Venezuelan military police as to why he was not flying to Caracas, instead of walking. He eventually convinced them, with the aid of his official travel documents and they gave him an official stamp and sent him along his way.

He related that he met many other hitchhikers and adventurers along the way, the most memorable of whom being an American on his way to Tierra del Fuego, on the southernmost tip of Argentina, to see some penguins.

He travelled from Caracas to Bogotá (Colombia) to Panama to Nicaragua. Travel through Nicaragua was difficult, particularly since the country was at the time embroiled in civil conflict between the National Guard of the governing Somoza dynasty and different factions of the Sandanista rebels. Sporting long hair and a goatee at the time - what he refers to as the Che Guevara - he was in very real danger of being mistaken for a Marxist guerrilla and being shot by government troops.

From Nicaragua, he made it into Mexico and then to the U.S. where he went to an older sister living in Florida. After staying a brief time with her, he hopped on a plane back to Guyana.

Ramsamooj spent the years after that travelling to different parts of the interior, places like Orealla, Matthew's Ridge, Mahdia and Morawhanna. He even spent a brief time teaching in Lethem.

More than 30 years after making that incredible and unfortunately undocumented journey across the Americas, Haresh Ramsamooj is now an insurance agent with Clico Life and General Insurance Company.

The job may not be as staid, as it sounds. "I love adventure, I love travelling, I'm an outdoor person, more extrovert than introvert," says Haresh Ramsamooj. He explains that his job allows him to do just that.

A few months ago, Ramsamooj came up with the observation that too many of the insurance companies were concentrated in the Georgetown area. To offer Clico a more competitive edge, (and, as one might suspect, to sate his inner adventurer), Ramsamooj had the idea of making some headway into the Lethem market.

He had earlier this year made two trips to the border town, using the Correia bus service. Still a maverick after 30 years, the insurance salesman told the Sunday Chronicle that his reasoning was simple.

"If the Correia bus could make it, why can't my car," he reasoned.

When one considers that the car in question is a 20-year-old Nissan Laurel, with the only outstanding feature being the word 'Zest' emblazoned on the front windscreen, that reasoning becomes a bit more complicated.

After his manager had granted him approval to make the trip, at 07:20 hrs on the morning of November 5, Ramsamooj, left his home at Herstelling. In the trunk of his old car, were two spare wheels, an axe and a cutlass, and an extra gallon of gasoline to supplement his already full tank. In the passenger seat was friend and neighbour, Neil.

On reaching Linden, he found that his steering wheel was shaking so he went to a mechanic who, on learning that he planned to travel to Lethem, gave him a grim prognosis on the state of his steering equipment. Ramsamooj, determined to continue on his journey, went to get a second opinion. When another mechanic in Watooka gave him the all clear, he gladly drove on.

Two hours later, around quarter past twelve, he and Neil arrived at Demerara Timbers, Mabura Hill. At Mabura Hill, they lodged their names, as is required by law, at the Police outpost there.

Fifteen minutes later, they left for the Kurupukari Crossing. He remembers being advised to keep on the left from this point on but he says that there were so many side roads on the left side of the main road that they got lost twice. Fortunately, they eventually met up with some Mekdeci workers who put them back (no pun intended) on the right track.

On the way, he remembers getting some directions as well from the driver of a logging truck who advised to keep going until they passed Devil's Hill. When he asked why it was called Devil's Hill, he was told that it was on account of the large number of accidents that occurred there.

While travelling over the hill, he says that the steepness caused his car to struggle in order to keep moving and the needle on his temperature kept on rising.

They passed Devil's Hill without incident, however, and at 15:30 hrs they had reached Kurupukari Crossing, on the Essequibo River. He paid $7 000 for a ticket on the launch and when they got over, around 16:00 hrs, they took about a half hour break to rest and snack on the roti and boulanger choka he had brought. They then left for Annai, which took them another two and a half hours.

After stopping briefly at Annai, and befriending an Englishman who owns a small hotel there, they continued again on the final 90-mile stretch of the journey to Lethem. On their way there, they made friends with some men travelling in a Land Cruiser and this, he says provided them with a sense of security, as well as the benefit of their fog lights.

This was to prove indispensable especially when one of his tires blew out. It was quickly replaced with one of the spares but misfortune quickly struck again when, while crossing a bridge, his back wheel fell into a gap between two planks and broke his muffler. And not too long after that, another tire blew out and he was forced to use his final spare.

He remembers cruising along at between 30 and 40 miles per hour along the Rupununi road, under bright moonlight night sky, the open savannah on the left, the Pakaraimas on the right.

It was while he and his friend, Neil, were lost in the landscape, that their friends in the Land Cruiser sped ahead. He remembered starting to sing to help put his obviously worried companion at ease.

As midnight approached, he spotted two red lights and knew instantly that they (the lights) were from the town of Bom Fin in Brazil. After almost 17 hours on the road, they had finally reached Lethem.

Ramsamooj says that anybody he has told about the trip has had usually one of two reactions. The more usual one is disbelief. The other reaction to comment from persons including Minister of Tourism Manzoor Nadir, is either that he is very brave or very crazy.

He spent three weeks in Lethem during which time he went over to Bom Fin, repaired his car and visited the Mocha Mocha Hydro Power Station (out of commission after a devastating landslide). He also visited several schools in the area, and of course, he sold insurance.

When asked why is it that he made the trip in his own car in the first place, Ramsamooj said that he wanted to prove that the ordinary Guyanese family or adventure-loving persons like himself can make it to Lethem on their own. He is extremely appreciative of the job that Mekdeci is doing with the road and sees it as being crucial to the success of his trip.

Finally we asked Haresh Ramsamooj whether he was going to take his old Nissan Laurel, 'Zest' for another trip to Lethem anytime soon.

"Maybe only up to Annai," he answers, "From there the roads need work."

Haresh Ramsamooj, currently in his early 50s, seems to possess the undying spirit of a true adventurer. Two incredible journeys, 31 years apart and he still seems ready to go on another at the drop of a hat.