Wednesday 16 & Thursday 17 April 2014

 

Customs was a long dinghy ride away on Wednesday but the clearance in was straightforward in that clearance out is granted at the same time.  A return visit is not necessary unless you decide to stay longer than 2 weeks.  This is a great reduction in hassle.

 

A boat boy came during the day to ask if we wanted to go to the PAYS Cruisers barbeque.  PAYS is the ‘Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security’, the organisation of boat boys and tour operators and the proceeds go to fund the boats, fuel  and jettys.  We wanted to support this and whilst the bbq itself was average there was a very good atmosphere and it was good to mix with other cruisers who were anchored or moored in the bay.

 

We met John and Lena from ‘Yachtsman’s Dream’ from the US and Michael and Karen on ‘Nauti Dog’ from Canada.  They had arranged a tour bus for the next day and asked us to join.  The tour would be a little unusual because it would include a visit to a herbalist who lives up in the hills somewhere who had been recommended to Lena by close friends.  Not normally our thing but it would be something different.

 

We were collected by Martin (known as ‘Providence’) in his boat on Thursday morning to take us ashore to the mini bus.  Providence became ‘our’ boat boy and the custom is then that we don’t get bothered by any others.  A good system.  Unfortunately there was heavy rain for most of the day so the views were restricted but it was probably the best way to spend time in that weather.

 

 

Portsmouth harbour is to the left.  Anchoring is forbidden in the bay on the right:-

 

 

 

 

Paul, our driver, was very informative and stopped frequently to pluck various leaves and fruit for us to smell.  We were puzzled when we pulled up outside a small wooden house only to be told we had arrived at the home of Bella, the herbalist.  It seems this isn’t a commercial operation but herbalism is ‘what they do’.  We were made very welcome and they insisted we sat down in their very small room whilst we chatted.

 

Bella pointing out the benefits of various herbs including treatment for liver and kidney disease, prostate conditioning, nerves, cancer,high blood pressure, erectile disfunction etc etc:-

 

 

 

 

Bella’s husband explained that the latter ‘really worked’ and he had some recently and beamed that he ‘could keep going all night man’.  Bella seemed less impressed as she carried her baby.

 

An attentive audience:-

 

 

 

The family were obviously very happy living their very simple life.  After an hour we moved on through the rain forest.  Next up was an example of what used to be the typical wood shingle house in Dominica.  This one is now used by the refrigerator repair man!  :-

 

 

 

 

 

Intrepid tourist by babbling brook:-

 

 

 

 

Abandoned water mill:-

 

 

 

 

Then on to ‘Red Rock’ which is a promontory formed by the lava from a volcanic eruption:-

 

 

 

 

And later to a small holiday resort where the owner made chocolate in small quantities.  The holiday houses were lovely:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In late afternoon Paul took us back to the bay where Providence was waiting to take us back to our boats.