15:34.009N 061:27.713W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Fri 25 Jan 2013 02:09
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"Portsmouth, Dominica - 24th January"
Our Trip up the Indian River yesterday afternoon
was quite amazing. We were collected by Eric Spaghetti and taken to the
river mouth, where we had to purchase a National Park Permit each, not from a
ticket office at the dock, but 5 minutes walk up the road to the local gas
station! When we returned to the dock, our permits were dutifully punched
by a National Park Ranger. He was so very enthusiastic about the
topography of the island and told us that there are 12 known waterfalls on the
island but waving his arm at the hills in the distance he said that
there are many, many more which have not been discovered yet, the
vegetation is so dense covering the many mountains, hills and
valleys that it is quite understandable. He told
us that the island has the longest trail in the Caribbean, it is so
long that it is impossible to do it all at once and so is
normally hiked in sections. We hope to come back in a week or two and
do part of it.
We boarded our open local design wooden boat
and set off under outboard engine for a few yards until we had passed under the
road bridge and then the engine went off and our guide picked up his long oars
and rowed us on up the narrow river. It was so peaceful, just the
creak of the rowlocks and the occasional sound of insects and
birds high in the tree tops. We hadn't gone very far before an
iguana, clinging to one of the tree trunks was being pointed out to
us. We learnt that this river is quite unique in Dominica as it is the
only river which can be navigated, the rest are either too shallow and
rocky or just too steep. We wound our way up the river, which became
narrower and narrower. Overhead the swamp bloodwood trees hung on both
sides, interspersed with coconut trees rising tall and straight bearing their
new coconuts, at their base old fruits lay rotting and new palm trees sprouted
from the huge pods, whilst long vines dangled down into the water. As the
river narrowed the canopy formed a complete canopy and became quite cathedral
like. The bloodwood trees have amazing buttress roots, which spread
out over the ground and down to the water, twisted and tangled creating
beautiful wavy designs making a natural defense to the eroding banks of the
river. Occasionally the river bends had sandy beaches on
which we saw moor hens and small blue herons looking for their
supper. We also saw a gold crested heron, several sand
pipers, kingfishers and an Ibis. We didn't see any parrots, but could
hear them high in the canopy above us. Eventually we arrived at the
head of the river, it was so narrow that the boat was unable to turn around,
this didn't matter as one of the enterprising PAYS members has built a Jungle
Bar there with a wooden dock for the boats. Needless to say we stopped for
a drink and on offering our guide a drink he accepted and said the bar tender
knew what he liked. I noticed her pouring him a rather large rum!
Noel had something called Dynamite but thought that my choice of
fresh fruit juice was the better choice! The bar was
interesting, surrounded by the jungle and beautiful flowering shrubs.
Mainly it was an open wooden building with a wood shingles covering
the building behind the bar, the corners of the building were supported by
long thin tree trunks, the one visible to us looked solid until we noticed that
further down the trunk the termites had nearly eaten it right through.
The chairs in the bar area were all made out of huge tree trunk sections
standing on their ends with a square cut out to form both the seat and the
back. In garden a chicken happily pecked away at some opened coconut
shells, chasing off a rather large type of blackbird which tried to share the
delicacy. On the tables were plates of cut up grapefruits for the
customers to help themselves, so juicy and sweet, even a small dark finch like
bird with a beautiful red patch on his throat thought they were good too.
Eventually it was time to leave and we all went back to our boat wondering what
would happen next, our guide rowed us backwards several yards before pushing the
stern in amongst some huge buttress roots and then skillfully manoevered the bow
around with his alternate rowing action. The journey back down
the river was even more fascinating as the day light began to fade, it was one
of those trips that you just did not want to end.
Today, we took a long trip in Rustle across
the bay to the Customs Dock where we left her and went for a walk to find
the hot springs. We walked through a residential area, of various
size houses, some of wood, some more ornate and built of stone, most with
banana trees growing in their small gardens and a small primary school, the
very young children all immaculate in their yellow and grey uniform. We
passed several huts offering laundry services, massages and auto
repairs. As we progressed down the lane and out of the residential area we
came to the track which would take us to the springs. It was a very narrow
and very muddy track, covered in places by large palm leaves disappearing into
the jungle. The foliage was as we had seen passing up the Indian River,
only this time we had to negotiate the large buttress roots, whilst avoiding
slipping off the bank into the stream. It was great fun and fortunately we
knew that it was not a long walk and after crossing the stream three times we
finally came upon the hot spring. It was not as big as we thought it
would be neither did it smell of sulpher as I thought it might. As we were
equipped with our bathers we enjoyed submersing ourselves in the hot
water. There was some evidence that this hot flowing water may be
used for local clothes washing, although it was not close to any houses
that we could see. It was a fun experience and in a completely natural
environment, compared to the developed hot spring baths that we had visited
whilst touring in New Zealand.
Tomorrow we will leave Portsmouth and progress
north to the Isles Saintes or Guadeloupe depending on the wind direction and
progress. We said good-bye to Eric Spaghetti this evening, thanking him
for his help and paying him for our mooring, ferry service and Indian River
trip. He has been very trusting not wanting to take payment until we were
leaving, he wished us a safe journey and will be here to help when we come back,
or if not he assured us that his friend Lawrence of Arabia will be
here!
Photographs: "Indian River" and
"Buttress Roots"
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