If Christopher Columbus came back today Dominica is the only island he would recognise. Dominica is the region’s most unspoiled country and its most exciting destination for spectacular natural beauty. Dominica is characterised by its valleys, gorges, pinnacles, waterfalls and lush vegetation. Greenery erupts everywhere, growing upwards, curling, stretching, climbing and falling, till the whole land is covered in a verdant tangle of trees, vines, shrubs and ferns. Add to this the birds, butterflies and brightly-coloured flowers you can imagine its almost magical nature. The high mountains attract clouds, creating frequent showers altered with sunshine and a result of this the island is known  as the land of many rivers and rainbows.

For a whole day we took a guide showing us the Northern part of the island. This guide’s name is Uncle Sam ;-). We all packes ourselves in his van, 6 adults, 8 kids and a dog! 

  

We passed the house of Elizabeth Pampo Israel, the oldest person in the world, lived here till her death in 2003 at the age of 128 years!

Our first stop was at the North East coast of Dominica - Calibishie. Beautiful sight over the Atlantic Coast!

  

  

We then headed off inland for an walk to the Chaudière Pool which looked like an easy walk at the start…

    

  

  

… now started the real hike with flip flops, small kids and a dog. A very interesting and exciting walk that took us over one hour. If we had known how steep and muddy it was going to be as well as jumping over the river, we would have thought  it wouldn’t work with the kids. We are happy we did not know what to expect otherwise we would have missed a great adventure ;-)! Finally it work out many thanks to Uncle Sam who then carried Inez all the way back. However when you see how fit he was, Inez weight was nothing for him, ha, ha….

    

        

Uncle Sam showing Alex how to cut open a coconut.

And finallly the Chaudière Pool was there! What a sight and what a lovely swim!

     

  

Even the kids enjoyed it!

  

  

Well deserved coconut after the walk and the swim!

   

The way back was shorter and far more steeper. We would have needed another Chaudière Pool to wash off all our mud as the rain poured down… A memorable walk!

On our way for lunch we stopped for more views over the Atlantic, passing a Coconut Farm and beautiful flowers and verdure.

  

  

  

Lunchstop with a view over David Bay.

  

The soft drinks were served in a coconut! However the local fruit guava was not the Alex’s favourite…

    

A lovely lunch where the kids found something more fun than walks… they were delighted!

    

  

Our last stop of the day was to another waterfall. The landscape is so beautiful that another waterfall is worth the walk. This time the walk was flat and took only 20 min :-)! 

And WOW what sight!! The Pennice Spanny Falls were even more spectacular than this morning and half the energy to get there!

    

  

This wall is full of vegetation and water pouring down. 

    

  

These pictures are taken with the GoPro camera!

One of many rainbows on Dominica.

 

This is a ”Walking Tree”. It grows on other trees using it roots to ”walk”. Fascinating!

Thankyou 99 Bottles and Morning Haze for a lovely day together!