Continuing our southerly route along the Peloponnese coast and through the Saronic Islands, we have been travelling considerably slower than our first 2 weeks. We have visited reasonable sized towns and found a few lovely bays, but not many. Old Epidavros is a safe harbour and nice town. While there we took the bus inland to the ancient archaeological site and the “theatre” which is very well preserved. Around the site 2000 year old buildings are being renovated to their former glory with EC money. Unfortunately, in many cases they are 90% renovation and only 10% original. Kate’s birthday was a great day. Lots of present opening in Angistri in the morning (travel flower vase a real hit) then sailed to very cute Vathi for an extravagant lunch (giant prawns in tomato and feta sauce) and ... read more

After a pretty disappointing whale watch in California last year, it was with high expectation we handed over our money to go out yesterday. We weren’t disappointed. We were lucky to have a PhD student in Oceanography and an expert in Sperm whales as our guide and we learned all there is to know about these fascinating animals. As they stay in family groups and in the Caribbean Sea west of Dominica they tend to hang around for weeks at a time, it was a case of “if you see one, there will be more". It took 2 hours before the skipper called “there she blows” and we moved closer to see the whale. The Oos, Ahs and Wows from all aboard were uncontrolled. Then she rolled forwards and her tail came out - Fantastic! The ... read more

On the north east coast, the beach at Pointe Baptiste was a real find. From our Sea Cliff cottage it was a short walk down an overgrown track to this cute beach. We were the only people on it until a local woman called Fi came by after fishing off the rocks at the point.. Had a good ole chat to her about life on the island. We swam and snorkelled in the strong current. On the north west corner of the island is the excellent Toucari village nestled in it’s own bay. On a small cul-de-sac road with few tourists and no through traffic, this palm lined bay and beach is a real find. These are some of our favourite photos - so far! Dominica is the location of the last Carib settlement in the ... read more

I wrote this back in February and no idea why I didn't publish it... We won't go to them all, but here are the places the filmed in the last 2 films. Indian River - site of the witches house (a great river trip on 8 Feb) Vieille Case - Old Church Hampstead Bay - Waterwheel Titou Gorge (swam up it 2 Feb) Londonderry River - Beach High Meadow, Soufriere Scotts Head - Cannibal village Interactive map of Dominica Short video of locations ... read more

On the way to the trail we met Ben (from Paris) on the road. He had taken the bus from Portsmouth and was walking the few miles up into the interior until the nice English folk picked him up. The trail was simple and prepared, all Jurassic trees and unreal root structures. We were supposed to be able to see parrots but it wasn’t until we returned to the car park that we heard then spotted some. This was Dominica’s national bird, the Sisserou or Imperial parrot. Fantastic. We headed off with Ben to the falls and started our trek up river. The first river crossing Ben made look easy, I managed to get both feet wet and Kate took her boots of and waded through. The second crossing we all got our feet wet so ... read more