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Published: March 16th 2009
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Dominica is on par with Bequia in terms of how much I like the place and how much I enjoyed my time there. The island is gorgeous, it’s one of the taller islands and therefore holds rain clouds rather well, this means that it rains a lot here but also means that there is an abundance of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, rainbows, hot sulphur springs and even a boiling lake. Dominica is known for its rainbows and moonbows, we saw some excellent rainbows and beautiful sunsets, but no moonbows unfortunately. The scenery here is some of the best I have ever seen and I believe Dominica has some wonderful natural beauties that I have been lucky to set eyes on. The island is quite large, so to take full advantage of what was on offer we decided to hire a car for the day and check out as many different areas as possible. We went to Emerald pool, which is a gorgeous enclosed pool with a waterfall. The only downfall here was the amount of tourists that were there, which Scott found out very quickly as he turned round after climbing half way up the waterfall, butt naked, to see a group
of about 20 tourists staring and laughing behind him. We went to an area known as Carib Territory, where the last remaining ancestors of the original Caribbean people live. They have traditional craft making of wicker baskets and ornaments, they build stilted houses and they all look like they are slightly Polynesian. The highlight of the day for me was Trafalgar falls and the springs; we had to climb a short way through rocks before we came to large, cool waterfall where we went for swim. We then clambered over some more rocks to reach the hot springs that are nearby and relaxed in one of the pools of hot cloudy water. This is one of the nicest things I have ever done, as the last time I had hot water on my body was the 19th December 2008, and here I was, after swimming in a cold waterfall, sitting in beautiful hot water surrounded by rainforest and excellent people. Our journey also included a 1-hour drive in the wrong direction, some close collisions with oncoming traffic and lunch overlooking a spectacular view of the bay.
We stayed in Dominica for 2 weeks so we had plenty of time
to explore the area and meet the people. We met some excellent characters along the way, including a guy known as ‘black boy’ who owned a little bar just off the beach where we were anchored. We went over for a drink and to say hi on many evenings, conversation with him was always interesting as he was constantly as high as a kite. We also met a great lady who owned a cafe called ‘pumpkins’ and served really good, cheap food. She is an excellent cook and our compliments often earned us a free piece of cake or salad with our dinner, it’s a shame she couldn’t join us on Bob and cook us meals more tasty and substantial that our usual fried egg and baked beans. We also bumped into Tom and Jenny (the Dutch family from Bequia) and introduced them to Black Boy and Pumpkins.
We arrived just in time for Carnival, we were lucky to arrive when we did as Dominica and Martinique are the only islands to celebrate this in February, but Martinique cancelled Carnival this year due to the strikes. We enjoyed 3 days of parades, music, colourful costumes and street parties. There
was a number of trucks that drove slowly round the town centre blasting music out of their speakers whilst thousands of people danced around in the street following the trucks wherever they went. We joined in with the dancing a little, although Alex’s finger dancing didn’t quite match up to the excellent way the locals moved their bodies.
We went snorkelling to a place called Champagne Reef where volcanic gas made millions of tiny bubbles in the water, much like a glass of Champagne, as the name implies. Alex and I also went for a hike to Titou Gorge one afternoon and after walking uphill for about 2 hours we finally arrived at the gorge and went for a swim. We swam through water with great sheer cliffs at either side of us, when we came to the end we were greeted by a waterfall tumbling into the gorge. Next to Titou Gorge was a sulphur stream with warm water flowing through it, after being in the cold water of gorge we welcomed a warm swim, although it wasn’t nearly as nice as hot springs near Trafalgar Falls.
Unfortunately, we found out some bad news whilst in Dominica,
our beloved crew mates, Scott and Shannon, have to cut the trip short as they have run out of money and will only be with us for a further 3 weeks. Whilst I’ll be glad for the extra space, I don’t think it’s a fair trade for losing them and they will be greatly missed.
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