Trip description

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Geo: 34.7243, -82.7812

We flew from Greenville via Atlanta to Antigua where we
changed planes and flew on to Dominica where we picked
up our rental car and drove to the village of Calibishie where
we checked into our rental cottage at Sea Cliff Cottages.
Driving on the left on narrow roads still recovering from
the damage done by the tropical storm that eventually
became hurricane Erika in 2015 was a challenge.
Compounding the difficulty was the fact that we arrived
just at dusk and by the time we left the airport, it was pretty
dark, and the headlights on the car left a lot to be desired.
Low beams were pretty useless so I developed a practice
when meeting another car of dimming the lights, slowing
to a near dead stop, and waiting for the car to pass me
on the right. Made for a pretty stressful drive but
we made it.

The weather was rainy and windy off and on for our
first day in Dominica and since we didn't really want to
get back in a car, we took our umbrellas and walked to
various places around the cottages. After walking down
to the village of Calibishie for breakfast, about a 20
minute walk, we returned to the area around our cottage.
The cottages were located on a ridge overlooking a
small bay called Hodges Bay with the Atlantic beyond.
Hodges river empties into the bay and, though I didn't
get a chance to do it, would be a good place to rinse off
the salt water after a dip in the ocean. There was steep
trail that led down to the black sandy beach at the river's
mouth with the shore lined with large coconut palms.
There were lots of coconuts on the ground with young
coconut palms sprouting from them

After Hodges Beach, we explored some of
the area between the cottages and the village. There was a place
just down the road that harvested cocoa pods and made their own
chocolate. We went by it but found it closed. Just beyond it was a
road down to another beach on a bay called Baptiste Bay with what
looked like a small inn with a really neat looking, but totally
empty, beach bar. We saw not a soul either around the bar or the
beach. We returned to the main road and, after a bit more exploring
and having skipped lunch, opted to have an early dinner at what
turned out to be our restaurant of choice for the next three
evenings. The Poz (catering to people with positive attitudes)
restaurant was the number1 rated restaurant on Dominica on
TripAdvisor and was just about a five minute walk from our cottage so
was very convenient.

Our second day we did drive around the
northern end of the island. The roads were very narrow in places and
very curvy and hilly. A sticker on the dash of the car cautioned you
to drive carefully and use the horn frequently, which I did. Anne
got pretty tired of hearing that horn. The drive, while tedious in
many places, had some spectacular scenery. We stopped along the way
at one spot and took a short trail down to Cold Sulphur Spring.
Very interesting – and smelly – with sulpher smelling gasses
bubbling up through the water feeding a small stream. On the western
side of the island, we visited Cabrits National Park where we were
able to do some actual hiking along about 6 miles of trails to some
of the ruins around Fort Shirley, a restored fort built by the
British and French during the late 18th century. We had
hoped to see some of the endangered parrots of Dominica at a preserve
not too far from Cabrits. While we made it to the preserve, which
was a lot further than we thought and along even narrower roads, we
were too late to spend a lot of time there and saw no parrots. We
returned to our cottage by a shorter route, though just as narrow,
hilly, and curvy as before. Dinner again at Poz.

For our last day on Dominica, we stayed
out of the car and followed a suggestion from our hostess at the
cottages. We took a hike along one of the roads that banana farmers
used to access their farms along the ridges of the northern part of
the island. We hiked up a long ridge past many fields of banana
trees and several fields of fresh vegetables to a summit which
connected to several other ridges. We followed one of those ridges
down to the village of Calibishie and then back up to our cottage,
completing a hike of about 6 to 7 miles. That afternoon, with it
raining off and on again, we walked down the main road to the other
side of Hodges River and followed a side road down to the beach on
that side of the river. Interesting to see the beach on the other
side of the river where we had been on our first day from a different
angle.

Before I leave Dominica comments I
really want to say how friendly and welcoming the Dominican people
were. We've visited several Caribbean islands over the past 4 or so
years and on most of them the people, while not necessarily
unfriendly, seem mainly glad to take your money but were not
enthusiastically welcoming. Some were just downright surly. On
Dominica, whenever we had any kind of interaction with the people we
met, whether it was to ask for directions, something we did often, or
asked for any information, or just said a friendly hello, we were
invariably met with friendly, extremely eager to help, welcoming
attitudes. They seem justifiably proud of the beauty of their island
and welcome others to enjoy it. So refreshing to see that sort of
atmosphere on an island that is probably one of the poorer,
economically speaking, of all the Caribbean islands. Perhaps their
attitude is influenced by the fact that they haven't yet seen too
many annoying tourists.

On Saturday, we got up very early and
drove to the airport, having been told to arrive no later than 6:45
in order to turn in the car and catch our 8:30 flight to Antigua.
Good thing we did arrive that early. We checked the car in fairly
quickly, checked in for our flight, checked our baggage, paid our
exit fees, went through the emigration procedure, and were at the
gate ready to depart around 7:45, thinking we were there in plenty of
time. At approximately 7:50 the announcement that our flight was
boarding was made. We boarded, they closed the door at 8:05 AM and
we were off – 25 minutes early. That has never happened to us on
any of our trips before. Guess everyone who was supposed to go was
there and on board, so why wait. We arrived in Antigua about 8:40,
some 30 minutes early, went through Antigua customs and immigration,
picked up our bags, and went to pick up our car. Since we were
early, now we had to wait for our car. One person was in the car
rental office building and when we asked about an agent for the Avis
desk, she called someone. Eventually the Avis agent showed up.
Avis is generally one of the better car rental companies, but the
agent at this branch was borderline rude. Just the opposite from the
people we met in Dominica. She made it clear that she was not
happy that we were early and had made her come in early, even
though, at 10:00 AM we were only about 1 hour before I had indicated
that we would arrive when I made the reservation. Who knew they
didn't staff during normal business hours.

We finally got the car around 11:00 AM and following our hostess's
excellent directions made it to the Song of the Sea B&B with no
problem. Located just beyond the village of Willikies on the
northeastern tip of the island, away from most of the touristy crowds
and overlooking a beautiful small bay called Lawrys Bay, the setting
was ideal for us. The B&B was a one room apartment beneath the
main residence for our hostess. While small, it had the requisite
two beds, microwave, and refrigerator, private bath with a shower
exposed to the outside but still very private, WiFi, and a patio
overlooking that beautiful bay. There was a walkway down to the
water's edge, and while there was no sandy beach, it was possible to
enter the water there for some pretty good snorkeling in the shallow
bay. Breakfast each morning at the B&B was a real treat and
probably the best meals we had while on Antigua.

One disadvantage to the B&B's
location was that it was fairly remote and not near very many
restaurants. The one closest was called Mama's Homemade Pasta and
was located only about 15 minutes away at Long Bay beach but it
closed at 5:00 PM. So, after checking in and getting settled a bit,
we drove over and got a bite to eat for lunch and ordered an order of
fettuccine with meatballs to take back to the B&B for our dinner
that evening. Seemed sort of funny to eat Italian in the Caribbean
but it really was very good. After lunch, we drove back toward the
more developed area to a grocery store where we picked up a few
necessities of the beverage variety and returned to the B&B where
we were finally able to relax and enjoy the view, and a couple of
those necessities we had picked up. The fettuccine was excellent for
dinner that evening, I had mine with the meat balls while Anne had
hers without. The serving was large enough that there was enough
left for my dinner the next evening.

On Sunday, we drove to Indian Creek
National Park in hopes of doing some hiking there. A limestone
formation along the coast called Devil's Bridge is located on the
headland of Indian Town Point and is something of a tourist
attraction. We were able to hike a bit around the coast at Indian
Creek Point but, though we explored the rest of the area, found no
good hiking trails. We did find a short dirt side road that led to
the shore of a separate small bay where we were able to follow a
trail along the shore for perhaps a mile before having to return.
All along the shore there were piles of discarded conch or whelk
shells that had apparently been harvested by local fishermen. All
had the telltale slot broken near the pointed end where the animal
had been extracted. The shells were really quite beautiful, and Anne
picked out several for souvenirs. Once cleaned up a little, they were
every bit as nice as the ones for sale in the souvenir shops.

After the short hikes in the park, we
drove to the southeastern coast of the island and the area of
Falmouth Harbor and nearby English Harbor and Shirley Heights. We
parked at Falmouth Harbor and walked around the waterfront a bit
before finding a nice dockside bar/restaurant where we were refreshed
with typical island beverages. Moored at one of the piers there was
a ship that looked for all the world like a very modern naval warship
of some sort. It was painted battleship gray and had what appeared
to be a military hull number painted near the stern. I asked about
it and was told it was really a yacht owned by some Microsoft mogul.
Guess he liked the military look.

The next day, we first drove to an area
in the mountainous southern interior of the island where the remains
of a small pond or lake called Wallings Reservoir was located with
hiking trails around it. It was about the only area on Antigua that
could be called a rainforest, unlike Dominica which was pretty much
all rainforest. And it did rain on us there pretty heavily. There
are no rivers or significant streams of fresh water on the island so
the reservoir originally provided fresh water for the islands
occupants. Today there are desalinization plants that provide the
water for the cities and developed areas, and this area is now
maintained as a natural recreation and picnic area. Our B&B had
a rainwater cistern that provided water for bathing and tooth
brushing and bottled water for drinking. The rain at the reservoir
made hiking there a messy proposition so we opted to head back to the
Falmouth and English Harbor area where we had read about some trails
that we wanted to try to find.

We ended up first doing some of the
touristy things in the area. We purchased tickets for admission to
Nelson's Dockyard National Park which, in addition to Nelson's
Dockyard, includes Dow's Hill Fort where we watched an excellent
introductory multi-media program at the interpretive center there
with the ruins of the blockhouse and other military fortifications
including the Lookout at Shirley's Heights, all dating back to
British colonial times. Down the hill and back toward the harbor was
the entrance to the restored area of Nelson's Dockyard at English
Harbor. Here is where we finally stumbled upon a trail to hike.
Unfortunately, since we did not know the trail was there, we failed
to bring our water. Behind one of the restored hotels was the
trailhead for the walk to Fort Berkley which guarded the entrance to
the harbor. Branching off of this trail was another called the
Middle Ground trail which climbed the hill overlooking the harbor and
connected to a beach on the other side. We hiked to the summit and a
bit beyond before returning to the dockyard, having finally gotten
our miles in for the day. We settled in at the Copper and Lumber
hotel restaurant for a late lunch and, after hiking with no water,
some much needed, at least on my part, hydration. We drove back to
the B&B where we did some last day e-mailing and packed up our
belongings in preparation for heading home the next day.

After another delicious breakfast (our
hostess Katie makes the best veggie omelets!), we said our good-byes
to everyone, including the three resident dogs, two of which had sort
of adopted us and spent lots of time with us when we were on site.
Max, the cat, was a no-show!

We ended up at the airport with hours
to spare before departure. Bird Airport is small so there was not
much to do there. Had we been in ATL, we could have walked during
this down-time, but here, we passed the time with people-watching.
Finally aboard our Delta flight, we were served 'farewell to the
islands' mimosas, always a good beginning! We had a three-hour
layover in ATL which wasn't a bad thing given how long it took to get
through customs and immigration. I'm glad there are checks and
re-checks in hopes of catching any bad guys trying to get through,
but it does seem like a lot of redundancy in the process! Our flight
to GSP was the last one of the night, not arriving until just after
midnight. Thankfully, there were no delays with it; we finally
arrived home @2:30am. Long day-- happy to be back with the cats but
sad to no longer have the beautiful views of the Caribbean!

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