Dominic

Karinya
Tim And Vicki Schofield, Captain Cal 7 and Jess 4
Thu 27 Jan 2011 11:53
15.34n 61.28w

We have now been in Dominica for 6 days. We started in the capital
Roseau, the anchoring is bad there so we used a mooring. The boat boys
are a lot more friendly since my last trip here and they try provide a
service. We were going to hike up to the boiling lake from there but
they wanted £150 and its a 6 hour hike, it maybe a bit of a stretch
for Jess. So we left for Portsmouth in the north which is a large bay
with great anchoring.
Here we went up the indian river with a guide which was great. Saw a
green back heron feeding its young chicks in the nest.
We then took a hike up to Fort Shirley, the British cleared a huge
area of the hills to build a garrison, most of it is overgrown, but
quite interesting reading the history of the European wars in the West
Indies. The British and the French fought over Dominica, the Brits
managed to retain it until independence in 1976. They used it mainly
as a safe haven for their pirates that were steeling Central American
gold from the other European countries that were the source of the
steeling. Very complicated but at least they were doing it for god
and country.

Yesterday we rented a car and drove the island it is quite an
interesting island, named for eco tourism which means everything is
run down in its natural state of disrepair with fruit falling off the
trees because the locals are too high on dope to bother cultivating
them. Ok not everyone but eco tourism definitely means bare minimum in
facilities, the good part is very little of the rain forest etc has
been ruined and very few tourists around.
We took a hike up to the Trafalgar falls, 2 high falls in dense rain
forest. Running next to the river was Sulphur springs. We found a
deepish pool and sat in the hot water with a waterfall of hot water
filling it looking at the Trafalgar falls through thick rain forest.
Hard to describe but quite breath taking. Callum has become really
good at catching the local lizards and chases them every time we go
hiking.

We starting to get the school routine back in place, Jess is way ahead
of the curriculum, Cal is a little behind so we need to buckle down
and get him up to speed. For him its mainly maths and english as his
reading, history, science etc is well above par.

Today we heading back south to Roseau and slowly making our way down
to Grenada.

When we get a good internet connection we will download some photos.

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