Dominica Day 2.

Today we drove up into the countryside, to the Unesco World Heritage site of the Morn Trois Pitons National Park, an area covering 17,000 acres of unspoilt jungle. This area contains the Emerald Pool, the Valley of Desolation, the Boiling Lake, the Freshwater Lake, and the list goes on. This area is also packed with the native birds of Dominica, the biggest being the Sisserou and Jacou Parrots. There are a couple of varieties of Warblers, Humming Birds and Swifts and again the list goes on. The drive up started by trying to find the turn off at Canefield Airport as nothing is signposted here. After one false start we got onto the single track twisting road that climbs steeply up the side of the mountains into the interior. The driver is encouraged to peep the horn as he negotiates the murderously tight and inclined corners to let oncoming motorists know that one is there. Our Rent -a-Wreck, costing £20 a day was a large (for these roads) Toyota Corolla with over one hundred thousand hard won miles on the clock. It is clearly a Japanese import or grey import as they used to be called, as all the badging is in Japanese writing. Anyway, having to manually change to first on the automatic gearbox to get the wreck (it’s not a bad car really) round and up these corners was a regular feature. Occasionally, there would be two red and white painted 50 gallon oil drums at the side of the road with tape strung between them. This indicated where the road edge had been undermined and fallen into the abyss, and I kid you not, they drop off for thousands of feet. Negotiating these and through the landslides caused by the constant rain in this part of the rain forest, (350 inches per year) is not for the faint hearted. Beverley and John (I was too busy concentrating on the road) could see the explosion of colour and beauty that is the rain forest.

I drove on to the Emerald Pool where we walked along a jungle path to the pool, spotting numerous birds on the way and occasionally hearing the unusual call of the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, though we weren’t fortunate enough to actually see one, but we did see a couple of Warblers. We arrived at the pool after a 15 minute hike and went for a swim below the waterfall. (I know that swimming in pools below waterfalls features heavily in these blogs but we just never get tired of it) The pool is well shaded by the extremely thick jungle canopy and when we reviewed the photographs later we found that it was almost dark. The water was freeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzing, about the same temperature as Campbeltown Swimming Pool, but it was very refreshing in the tropical heat. We then returned to the car to have our packed lunch of bagels and cream cheese and a couple of local breads. There were some touristy stalls for the ‘Cruise Ship Tourists’ so we went across to take a look. As well as buying fresh bananas, now part of our 10 fruit’s a day regime, I bought a packet of home made tablet. We had this for sweet and I’ve got to say that it is the best tablet that I have ever tasted. It tasted of molasses and coconut and was a fudge more than tablet. At $1 a bag-20p, I went back and bought as many as I could with the change left in my pocket. I think it’s a ploy for the vendor not to have change so that you have to spend up to the value of the smallest note in your pocket, but hey, I’m a cop - I don’t trust anybody and the acute sense of cynicism that was carefully installed in me still holds good. ‘Do unto them first what they would like to do to you‘. Anyway, the lady (wrapped in a blanket because of the extreme cold - it was 27 degrees!!) told me that she had made it herself out of brown sugar and coconut essence. Whilst eating we noticed the abundance of the birdlife; if the vendors leave any food uncovered the birds are right there within seconds. I started to throw tit bits on the ground at the side of the car and hundreds appeared. I then placed some banana and a bag of crushed plantain chips on the bonnet and it was a like a scene from Hitchcock’s ’The Birds’ .The variety and colour was amazing.

We then drove on to the east coast, which is the windward coast here, with the big Atlantic breakers ending their long journey on the black volcanic sand beaches. We donned the swimming gear again and went surfing. The water here is knee deep out for a distance of about a mile and you have to go way out to catch a wave to surf on before it breaks. We were using Calum’s surf board that he kindly left on board ‘Swiftwing’. Bev had the best surf of the day getting a surf of a couple of hundred yards (no metric nonsense here).

We then drove through the Carib territory, these are the original inhabitants of the islands and originate from the American Indians, though they prefer to be called First Nations People, as they state that Columbus got it wrong, this is not India. We found that even the smallest wooden shack was beautifully painted and the gardens were well groomed and a riot of colour with an abundance of flowers. Each plot of about seven acres is planted with ground provisions such as Dasheen, Tanya and Yams. The whole area looked very well cared for and there is a clear genetic distinction between the Caribs and what we know call the locals, the descendant of slaves brought over from Africa. There were notice boards on some of the villages declaring that a new water scheme was about to be implemented bringing a stand pipe to every village.

Anyway, better go now as Jason, our ‘boat boy’ has just delivered hot bread direct from the bakery about a hundred yards from our anchorage and it’s time for breakfast.

Photos will be added when I can find a fast enough connection.

Douglas.