A day out to Middleham Waterfalls Dominica (Part 1)

Eddison collected us and Peter and Jackline (SY Ellen) from our respective boats and delivered us to Paul, our guide and driver for the day’s outing. Having visited Dominica a month or so previously, Peter and Jackline had said that they wanted to visit one of the large waterfalls on the island, preferably one with a reasonably long walk to get to the falls. So, Eddison had suggested we visit Middleham Falls, a short distance east of the capital Roseau. But to start with, Paul was determined that we should view ‘The Pink House’ in Portsmouth. It certainly wasn’t like anything we had been expecting to see in Dominica. I’m not sure what the neighbours think but the tour guides love it!

The drive along the coast road from Portsmouth to Roseau was illuminating. For most of its length this road, which connects the 2 principle towns on Dominica, runs right along the coast closely following the contours of the island. Dominica is a steep island, with little flat land and its precipitous sides are scarred with numerous steep ravines. If this road were in Spain, it would cross each of these at the mouth of the ravine on a bridge high above the valley’s base. But the road is in Dominica. Bridges are expensive, so the road follows the contours of the coast and runs up each ravine until it reaches a suitably narrow point for a short bridge or, ideally, it runs around the top of the valley. Unfortunately, Hurricane Maria and, 2 years before, Hurricane Erica brought significant quantities of rain. Some of the ravines carry rivers all the time, others just at times of extreme rain. In either case, the storm water has, in many places, hugely damaged the coast road, primarily by undermining the ground on which the road is built. In some places the seaward half of the road has just disappeared, collapsed when the ground underneath it was washed away by stormwater. In other places bridges have been damaged by falling trees and/or by trees and buildings being washed down the rivers and ravines and/or by their foundations being undermined by the sheer force of the stormwater. In some places fords are being used in place of the bridge. In other places temporary Bailey bridges have been erected but usually only one Bailey bridge at each river meaning that traffic from each direction has to take turns using the single-file crossing. And there’s little if no repair work going on on the road. Before Hurricane Maria, a Chinese team was on the island repairing the road and rebuilding the concrete shorings where the ground under the road was steepest. However, a large number of the team were killed in Hurricane Maria when their base was itself flooded by stormwater so the project has halted. Meanwhile, the road continues to erode and, indeed, in places got noticeably worse in the short time we were on the island. What will happen when the road linking the 2 main towns in Dominica finally collapses and closes?

Paul was keen that we see some of the towns close to our route and so made several short detours off the coast road to show us the damage wrought by Hurricane Maria. In most of the small towns and villages huge amounts of rebuilding and reroofing work was underway and the electricity company was busy working on the pylons to get the power back. I took a few pictures but it didn’t seem right to take lots. In some places the towns had been pretty much flattened by the force of the storm (again, mostly due to the volume of storm water flooding down the ravines). There is very little flat ground in Dominica so many of the towns and villages are built at the mouth of the valleys at the base of the high ground. The result, following a period of prolonged intensive rain, is predictable. Unfortunately, the villagers have nowhere else to build, so they are rebuilding their homes in exactly the same places, which will likely result in the same destruction when the next hurricane hits.

At Roseau we turned inland and into the countryside ‘proper’. Six months on from Hurricane Maria, the greenery was returning but the trees were not as they once had been. Instead of having leaves spread over large branches, many of the branches were gone and the trees were shooting leaves from any available growth point, giving them a sort of fluffy look. However, in the worst hit places we could still see plenty of bare trunks and, of course, more damage to people’s property. In some respects though, Hurricane Maria had done us a favour. The damage to the canopy meant that sightlines that are more normally hidden by branches were open to us and we had wonderful views across valleys that before and in years to come we would not be able to see.

On the trail to Middleham Falls

As well as the damage to the foliage and to buildings and bridges, on the higher ground Hurricane Maria had also caused landslips and made some hillsides unstable. In central Dominica the road network in is less a network and more one road in each valley, dead-ending in the very high ground. We took one of these roads in towards the start of the trail to Middleham Falls (the road also leads to the Titou Gorge) but we were brought to a standstill by workers bulldozing large volumes of mud off the hillside above, onto the road and then transferring it into lorries for disposal elsewhere. Clearly, the road was at risk of landslips from above and, being the only route to get to some of the more important tourist sites, the Government had ordered the hillside to be stabilised. So, Paul’s minibus could go no further and our hike started a bit early. This was of no great concern to us, though it was something of a novelty to climb over large mounds of earth on the road, in and around the diggers, with a vertical drop on one side and a hillside of unknown stability above us on the other. Thank goodness that the Health and Safety Executive hasn’t yet reached Dominica! Once clear of the road we had a wonderful hike through the rainforest. With the trees stripped of their leaves and branches we had great views and could see far more of the terrain than would otherwise have been the case but it was good to see the new regrowth everywhere – evidence of a wetter than normal dry season. It was clear from the huge piles of logs along the way, that a vast amount of effort had gone into clearing the path to the falls following Hurricane Maria’s destruction. As we understand it, one of the Government’s priorities after the hurricane was to reopen as many tourist sites and walking routes as possible as tourism is one of the cornerstones of the island’s economy. Without income from tourists, the Government’s ability to rebuild the rest of the island’s infrastructure would be drastically reduced. Our only disappointment on the hike was the lack of parrots. There used to be vast numbers of sisserou and red-necked parrots in Dominica, species which, at the time, lived only on this island. However, since Hurricane Maria generally they have been little evident. Why they have disappeared (killed in the storm? Flown to another island before or after?) Paul could not say. What we do know is that their main food source, fruit, has gone because of the damage to the trees. Whether the parrots have relocated to another island and will return when the trees have recovered and start bearing fruit again only time will tell.

After walking through the forest for about 35 minutes we got our first glimpse of the Middleham Falls. From a distance they didn’t look to impressive although they did look most attractive.

Getting closer we could see the plunge pool in which the main fall ends, before this forms its own mini-cataract into the river below. Gauging the scale of it all was really rather difficult.

All that changed when we reached the viewing platform and could view the falls from about the level of the plunge pool. The Middleham Falls are actually over 380ft high and our sense of scale was aided by the presence of another couple at the edge of the pool.

It had been a hot and sweaty walk into the falls so it seemed totally appropriate to go swimming…..

….which was great fun. After initial shock, we found the water to be surprisingly warm and it was very odd to be swimming in fresh water again after so long swimming off BV in the sea. Swimming directly under the falls was surprisingly bearable too as the long drop is broken by a ledge a relatively small distance above the surface of the pool. So, whilst the ‘shower’ gives you a fair pummelling it was by no means painful. We all agreed that we could have stayed in much longer but we felt that we should get back to Paul who had decided that he needed to stay with his minibus rather than abandon it at the side of the blocked road.

So, after a quick change and one last look back at the falls, we headed back along the route we had taken in.

Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica