Dominica

Dominica

Tuesday 23 - Friday 26 January 2024

We arrived on Monday by late morning.  We immediately began the check-in process, first an on-line registration and then a trip to customs.  

On Tuesday, we took a trip up the Indian River with our guide, Martin, and a French-speaking group of four.  Compared to 2018, the vegetation seemed much more lush.  We saw several green herons, two yellow crowned night herons, a ringed kingfisher (a life bird), several cattle egrets, many crabs and mullet.  At the terminus of the river trip, our guide led us on a walk upstream.  Returning to the dock/bar area most of the party, including Mike, had a highly alcoholic drink of indeterminate origin. We chatted to the younger couple from France, who have a farm in Provence, and were visiting her uncle and aunt. On the trip back downstream we heard, but did not see, a mangrove cuckoo. Could that be a “life hear”?  

Wednesday was a quieter day, mostly spent thinking about our friend Lynn and reflecting on life and death. 

On Thursday morning, we picked up a rental car and started to explore the interior of Dominica near Roseau, the capital.  Our first objective was the hot springs at Wotton Waven.  Based on a recommendation from Richard (S/V Sisserou), a boater we had met in Les Saintes, we tried to find Ti “something” Glo Cho.  The drive got pretty interesting! At one point we stopped to ask a lady if we were on the right road for the hot springs.  She laughed and told us we needed to go back down hill.  After asking few more pedestrians we found the correct turning and eventually the correct hot spring resort.  There were two hot pools, a mud pool and several cold showers along with changing rooms.  The hotter of the two pools was too much for me, but the “cooler” pool was great.  Clearly the owner was a real gardener.  Everywhere there were plants with colorful foliage or flowers.  There were many tree ferns, breadfruit trees, palm trees—a profusion that was fantastic.  

That afternoon we retraced our path and took a different fork low down in the valley to arrive at Trafalgar Falls.  This is a site within the National Park.  A short walk through rain forest led to the viewing platform where the two waterfalls could be seen.  The falls were magnificent.  On the left was the “papa” (taller) on the right was the “mama”. The sound of the water was astonishing.  No birds could be heard over the roar.  Mike walked up the rocks at the base of the falls to get a better view.  I sat and soaked in the atmosphere, figuratively and literally (it did rain). On our drive back to Portsmouth we were delighted by a rainbow that seemed to be in front of us for most of the journey.  

On Friday, we elected to drive along the north coast for a change of pace.  The weather was quite wet first thing and slowed us down a bit.  Very rapidly our route climbed steeply.  We spotted the sign for the “Cold Soufriere” and decided to take the short walk.  There was the pool of water with bubbles rising.  One imagined that the water would be hot, but no, it was cold.  What was extremely obvious was the sulfurous odor.  All those bubbles must have been H₂S or some other noxious gas.  Mike termed it an “olfactory offense”.

Our next stop was at the Bwa Nef waterfall that was recommended by some people we chatted to at the hot spring.  After only two steps along the path, you felt you were right in the rain forest with that lush profusion of vegetation.  We could hear the stream off to our left as we walked along.  We encountered the farmer whose property we were crossing.  He showed us the crop he was planting.  It was a ground provision that he called tania (?).  It grows underground and is starchy.  (We bought some at the market so we will let you know how it is.) Getting up to the waterfall required some wading and clambering over rocks but it was well worth the effort.  I think I would describe this as the Bridal Veil type of fall. 

After a bit more route finding problems, we arrived at our final destination, Red Rocks.  We remembered visiting this area in 2018 but could remember nothing about the approach.  The road ended abruptly at a chained off gate.  Signs suggested that we would be trespassing if we continued—so we carried on.  A short walk and some steps led to the area we remembered.  The smooth humped shapes of the red clay/rock had been sculpted by run off.  A view across the bay showed the swell breaking on the rocks and beach.  As we soaked up the view and took photos, the skies cleared.  We enjoyed a much sunnier drive back to Portsmouth by an interior route. 

  

Gloria

Apologies for so many photos but I gave up trying to decide which to include and which to leave out ... maybe they give you a sense of how beautiful and wild this country is.

Mike

A tributary off the Indian River

Martin, our excellent tour guide

Another group enjoying the Indian River experience

One of the streams at the Wotton Waven hot springs - such a beautiful area. Hot water was pouring down the orange bank on the left, and the pipe carrying water from one of the hot springs to a bathing pool can be seen in the background

There seem to be streams everywhere you look 

The vegetation is so lush it defies description ... we think this is a Coleus house plant! (shot at Wotton Waven hot springs)

Trafalgar Falls - Papa (125 ft high) on the left, Mama (75 ft high) on the right. To capture the whole area I needed to resort to a panorama, created by merging a set of five wide-angle shots. I like the result, but it doesn't really capture the scale of this area ... the falls are several hundred yards away and moving across the boulders and streams was very challenging.

Papa

Mama

The road across the mountains in the north ... driving is a little intimidating but worth the effort. At least we weren't too concerned about our speed ... the speedometer on our rental doesn't work!

The amazing Bwa Nef waterfall

 A cairn built at the base of the Bwa Nef waterfall

I think this lizard may be a Dominican Anole

Red Rocks on the Atlantic coast