More Dominica Pix

During Gayle's visit, we decided to take the boat about 15 miles down-island to Roseau for a few days. Roseau is the capitol of Dominica, and a good place for provisioning. We took a mooring ball near Sea-Cat's dock, from which we could take our dinghy into several of the local docks for shopping and sight-seeing. Sam took a few days off to go with us aboard KINGDOM. We returned to Portsmouth for Gayle's return flight.

While we were in Roseau, Gayle arranged for two days of SCUBA diving with the local dive shop boat. Sam, Susan and I stayed aboard Kingdom.

The four of us did go down to Champagne Reef in the dinghy for an afternoon of snorkling. Champagne Reef is so named because there are volcanic steam outlets among the reef formations. This looks and feels like you are swimming in a warm glass of champagne. The water, of course, is crystal-clear. The fish were amazing in their variety, and we saw eels, as will as a colorful school of squid. Unfortunately, we did encounter some tiny jellyfish, nearly invisible to the eye. We all were stung, but Sam and Susan were hit the worst. We were told later that these were "String of Pearls" jellyfish, and that they had been blown in from offshore by a recent storm. We had not encountered these before in our dives there, or anywhere else in Dominica. We were also told that the the only antidote to their stings is the urine of a certified dive-master. Hmmm...

Sam and Walt prepare the lines for mooring off Roseau.

Sam took us into the mountains on a rain forest hike. This is the entrance to the Morne Diablotin national park trail.

I have no idea what this plant is, but Susan says it is a "Birdnest Antherium"

Along the trail, we observed lots of bromeliads, including orchids growing wild. There are also two rare species of parrots on Dominica, one of which lives in the rain forest. We spotted a pair far up in the forest canopy, but they fled before we could really photograph them.

The scale of these trees is enormous. It is impossible to photograph one of these in its entirety. The trunk of this particular specimen is easily 30 feet in diameter. It is like being among the giant redwoods of California.

Happy hikers - Sam, Gayle, and Susan

This lone lightning-ravaged tree is actually perched on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a deep river ravine. But the forest canopy is so high and so thick, it decieves the eye into thinking this is just a little dropoff. Note the giant bromeliad at the base of the stump.

Sam took us on another interesting (and Very Challenging) hike. We started at the top of a mountain spine, and hiked (actually, slid, slipped, and fell) down a trail that led us downward about 1000 feet to the Chaudrie Pool. It is a lovely swimming hole formed by a waterfall at the bottom of a steep ravine.

This is the starting point for the trail down to the Chaudrie Pool. Note the cloud-covered peak in the background. Believe it or not, the Dominicans consider this upland to be "farmland". They grow bananas here, and plant terraced vegetable gardens.

At the Chaudrie Pool, we found another specimen of the Dominican Mountain Crab. This one is bigger, and appears ready to defend his territory from all comers.

I swear, these guys are so bright and colorful, they look like they're made of plastic. I was fascinated by them.

Molly needed a good nap after the hike through the rainforest, and then down the mountain to the pool. I had to carry her up and out - she slept peacefully the whole way.

One of the greatest swimming holes I've ever been in anywhere. Very cold, very pure water.

Sam, checking his phone messages at the bottom of the ravine. Good thing there were no urgent ones...

Old guy

Gayle, fiddling with her camera after our swim.

Chaudrie Pool - need we say more?

This is a view of Prince Rupert Bay from the Cabrits Peaks. One of those little white spots down there is our boat.

A last, larger view of Prince Rupert Bay. One of our favorite anchorages in all the Caribbean.

Dominica offers great natural beauty; friendly and hospitable people; great diving among incredible reefs, and a large, comfortable harbour. What more could a cruising couple ask for?

Exploring Dominica

We spent nearly a month in Dominica. Where did the time go?

Well, first off, our friend Gayle Danner came to visit, so we had a few days of preparation prior to her arrival, cleaning her stateroom, stocking the boat, and planning activities. We met with our friend, local tour guide and boatman, Lawrence Roberts (aka “Lawrence of Arabia”, aka “Meggy”) to renew our friendship with him and his crew. We arranged Gayle’s airport transport, and talked over possible hikes in the interior, as well as dive sites. Lawrence, his partner “Uncle” Sam Haynes, and their longtime friend Andrew took excellent care of us all during our stay.

Gayle arrived on Saturday, May 2nd. Since she had travelled so far in one long day (Phoenix/Atlanta/Peurto Rico/Antigua/Dominica), we allowed her a day to rest up, which also allowed her luggage a day to catch up with her. Sam tracked down her bags, and delivered them from the airport directly to our boat.

We introduced Gayle to the interior of Dominica via the Indian River. Lawrence rowed us up the river to the Bush Bar. It was raining torrentially nearly the entire way. Once there, after a few rounds of Dynamite Punch, we hardly noticed the weather. This was Molly’s first land excursion in Dominica, too. We ordered lunch, which was chicken, accompanied by jungle-grown “provision”, which basically are root crops such as dashine, yams, etc. Delicious!
One of the guys climbed a coconut palm tree, so Gayle could have fresh coconut. She was shown how to crack and peel the nut, and I think she ate most of the meat of an entire coconut all by herself.Coincidentally, a hundred or so students from Ross University Medical School showed up at the Bush Bar while we were there. Seems it was some sort of beginning-of-semester outing for new students. It was suddenly like Grand Central Station in the middle of the damn jungle! It was fun though. We played dominoes.

The following day, Gayle went with Sam on a guided tour. We didn’t go with her, since Susan and I had done this particular tour on a previous visit. The itinerary included the Carib enclave on the eastern shore, a wonderful lunch overlooking the ocean, and a hike to Emerald Pool and waterfall. Sometime during this tour, Gayle fell in love with Dominica, and with Sam.

Next day, we went SCUBA diving. As we were gathering our gear that morning, I discovered that my dive bag containing my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device), regulator, and octopus were missing. The last time I had used them was in January, at St. Martin, to clear a driveshaft that had been fouled by a crab trap line. I stowed the gear, and had no reason to check on it since then. As it happens, that is also where Carol and Teffany signed off our crew list. I hate to think that they may have taken it, but no one else knew where it was stowed. I will probably never know.

Anyway, I was able to use rented replacement equipment from Cabrits Dive Shop, and we really enjoyed the day’s diving in Douglas Bay.

Diving in Dominica is “world-class”. The island boasts some of the healthiest reefs in the world. An amazing variety of soft and hard corals are inhabited by an incredible array of fish and crustaceans. I cannot begin to name all the species we identified, but we saw several varieties of moray eels, which fascinated me. Susan and Gayle both saw seahorses, which are some of the rarest finds. Susan and I both learned to relax into the dive, move slowly, and conserve air, which allows for more “bottom time”.

On this dive, we met a French Canadian couple, Pierre and Celine, who are highly skilled underwater photographers. She was using a video camera, while he shot still photos, focusing on the tiniest organisms he could find. They provided us a CD copy of some of their shots, which we will try to include here. Inspired by them, we’ve decided to try to acquire some sort of underwater camera, so we can share our experiences more fully.

We took a day off to rest, and then dove again in two more nearby locations. Again, we were completely enchanted by the experience.

A day-by-day account of our activities in Dominica would probably be tedious to read we will simply recap some of the highlights of our treks to national parks, waterfalls, natural hot springs, rivers and mountains via pictures. Sam was our tour guide and driver throughout. His knowledge of the island, its flora and fauna, is encyclopedic.

Pirate's Roost restautant, overlooking Scotts Head Bay - Sam points out the sights to Gayle and Walt
A dusky view of Scotts Head Bay fishing village

Walt, Gayle, and Sam - We stopped here at the end of a long day of hiking.

This is a hot-spring-fed pool in one of the national parks. Dominica has several semi-active volcanos, which supply hot water to these pools. They vary in temperature, and in their mineral content and sulpherous aroma.

This was near the end of a day of hiking, and the hot spring was fabulous for our tired and aching muscles.

At first I thought this was a plastic crab, but then he moved! This is a Mountain Crab, which we found at an altitude of 1500 feet, on the trail to Trafalgar falls.

Isn't he cute? These guys remind me of the alien character in Steven Spielberg's movie, "E.T."

This is Gayle at the foot of Trafalgar Falls, the highest waterfall in Dominica. There are actually three separate waterfalls coming over the precipice, about 50 meters apart. But the canyon is so narrow here, we couldn't find a vantage point to photograph them all in one frame.

One of the three falls of Trafalgar Falls.

Old guy and falls...

I'm including this shot (even though it is dark), in an attempt to show scale and perspective, and the height of the falls in relationship to human size.

Gayle and Sam, hiking the trail to Trafalgar Falls - the easy part...

Lunch is served! Maria is a fabulous cook. We each ordered different entrees, and each was excellent.

Gayle and Walt, waiting for lunch to be served. Maria's roadside restaurant is perched cliffside over the river canyon that is formed from the flow out of Trafalgar Falls. From this vantage point, we lost count of the number of different tree and flower varieties we could see while dining.

Susan, Sam and Gayle. This was taken at the overlook above Roseau, the capitol city.

This only one view of the majestic panorama overlooking Roseau. At the base of the hill is the Botanical Gardens. Beyond them is the old city cemetery. This shot is not close enough to make out much more than that. You will just have to come and see it for yourself...

Susan and Gayle.

Gayle at the Bush Bar, a mile up the Indian River, near Portsmouth.