Life in a tree house

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We are living in a bamboo tree house, in the rain forest on the island of Dominica. The house is set alone on a hill, high above the actual lodge. Up in the house we have a bed, a hammock ,a composting toilet and a large balcony. Below, there is a cold shower!



Lizards keep us company and an agouti (a long legged guinea pig) lives underneath the house. But the forest comes to life at night. As the sun sets, the quiet of the day is replaced by the sound of raucous insects, frogs and toads. They sings us to sleep – under a mosquito net, in our little tree house in the middle of nowhere. It is a full moon at the moment and we spend the evenings on our balcony watching the fire flies. Candles light our room at night.



The mountains are all the result of volcanic action. It is said that Columbus described Dominica by screwing up a piece of paper and holding it in his hand and it does look that rugged.



There is a lot of walking in Dominica's mountains. We have walked to high waterfalls and to lakes. All pretty and interesting but it is the flora and landscape on the way that is the star attraction. We walk through primary, untouched rainforest and the diversity and density of plant life is mesmerising. We do also hear bird life but the foliage is too dense to see the birds well.



A lot of our walking has been on the new Waitukubuli long distance trail – a fourteen day walk that takes in the length of the island. The trail crosses a lot of streams. It rained heavily last night, so the rivers are full and the crossings challenging. But it is lovely walking and, as we see nobody, it seems that we have the entire rainforest to ourselves.



We get about by minibus, always full of local passengers and their shopping. Travelling through the capital Roseau, a small place of colourful low rise buildings, we realise that we are back in the real Caribbean with reggae music everywhere, dodgy roads and happy people.



Tourists staying on Dominica are few and far between – we do meet occasional groups on a tour from a docked cruise ship. We, luckily, have a few more days on this idyllic island before we head north once more.

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