Exploring Dominica with Mike and Cate

For our last sighting adventure on Dominica we decided that we would share a car hire with Mike and Cate from Kealoha V.  Our grand day out started early on Monday 19^thMarch with a dinghy trip over to the hire car office and also the police station.  The hire car office confirmed that they had a vehicle and so Mike and Nicky walked to the police station to buy temporary Dominican driving licences whilst Cate and I stayed with the dinghy.

The PAYS dock where we left our dinghy for the day

It took a while but eventually we had both a vehicle and legal drivers.  Mike, Cate and Nicky took the car and we arranged for them to pick me up at the PAYS dock where we would leave the dinghy for the day.  On my own in the dinghy it was a fast trip on the plane but as I arrived at the dock I realised that all was not well with the engine. The impeller had shredded and, with no cooling water flowing through it, the engine had got very hot.  I left it on the dock to cool down and planned to pull the leg apart to replace the impeller when we got back to BV at the end of the day.

Views from the northeastern coast of Dominica. Bottom:  The small town of Calibishe

Our route took us east across the narrow part of Dominica which got us out onto the northeastern shore.  From here we followed the coast road a few miles looking for Point Baptiste and Red Rocks just beyond the small town of Calibishe.

Red Rocks

We parked at the end of a dead-end road where we took a small path through the undergrowth to Red Rocks. The Rastafarian warden spotted us and came over to meet us.  He was very friendly and described Red Rocks as ‘his little bit of Mars on earth’.

Climbing into the gully

Red Rocks is an area composed of compacted mud which has been eroded into strange shapes.  There’s a deep gully running through the middle of the site which we climbed down into to explore.  In places the gully is a very narrow squeeze to get through and it all felt rather magical.  Carved into the wall of the gully was a small room which the warden described as a meditation room.  He could not tell us how old it is but it was clear the warden had been looking after the site for most of his adult life and had spent a fair amount of time relaxing inside it.

Views south down the coast from Red Rock (top) and to the northwest looking at Morneaux Diables (2824ft)

He was very proud of his Red Rocks haven and took us all over the site before retracing our steps past his small home and back to the car.  On the way he explained all about the flora and fauna on the site.  Clutching our entry fees, he then slipped off to the nearby café for his morning coffee, wishing us well, “from one brother to another… just a different coloured model”.  He was quite a character.

We continued a further 8 miles down the eastern coastline to find the Carib Territory Reserve.  The road down to it was incredibly steep and at one point we wondered if our rather asthmatic hire car would make it back up the hill after our visit. [Ed: we actually stopped and discussed whether or not we should continue in the vehicle or whether we should proceed on foot.  In the end, the heat of the day persuaded us to continue the drive down, reasoning that, if necessary, the lightest person could always drive the car up the steepest bits of the hill, perhaps with the others pushing!]

Columbus called the Kalinago tribespeople, the people who inhabited the Caribbean islands, ‘The Caribs’.  They were fierce warriors and an uneasy relationship started when the European settlers colonized the islands.  On Dominica, fighting was largely superseded by trading although there was one bloody massacre.  Sir Thomas Warner, the Governor of St Kitts, had a son with a Kalinago slave woman from Dominica and another son, Philip, with his English wife. When Sir Thomas died, the Kalinago son had no one to protect him so he fled to Dominica and became a powerful chief on the island.  The exact circumstances of the massacre are unclear but in 1674 Philip was sent to Dominica to quell the Kalinago.  The two half-brothers met for a feast but it is said that Philip stabbed his half-brother to death and his troops massacred the remaining Kalinago at the feast.  The French named the site, located on the western side of the island, Massacre Village and it is still called that today. In retaliation, the surviving Kalinago took revenge by attacking Marie Galante, killing all of the settlers and sticking their heads on poles on the beach; now called Massacre beach.

The remaining Kalinago retreated into a small area on the windward coast of Dominica and in 1903 this land, the Carib Reserve, was given to their descendants by the British.

The Kalinago Culture Village

Today the Kalinago are mainly engaged in farming and fishing.  They apparently still make their traditional canoes by hand although the example we saw at the culture village had definitely seen better days.

The tribespeople were very skilled at pottery and carving and we saw examples of their craftwork for sale in the village.  We also watched the ladies weave a variety of coloured baskets.  This skill has been handed down through generations and it alleged that the baskets can be woven so tightly that they are watertight.

Sadly, the village had been badly damaged by Hurricane Maria and many of the displays and small huts had been blown away.  When we visited they were in the process of rebuilding them but we were not able to see the traditional bread making display or their display of music and dance.

Crayfish River waterfall

However, walking about the site our indigenous guide gave us a good explanation of how the tribe’s culture is maintained and how the land is jointly owned by the people.  The site meanders down to the beach divided by Crayfish River which makes for a picturesque focal point for the settlement.

The site may not have been at its best, but we were still glad that we had visited to understand more about the original inhabitants of the islands.  We were, however, all getting rather hot and so our next destination was planned to include a swim to cool off.

Emerald Pool

Emerald Pool is one of the most visited sites on the island.  Having parked the car we should have had a beautiful 10 minute walk through rainforest to find the small grotto surrounded by tropical plants, flowers and ferns.  Sadly, here too Hurricane Maria had wreaked havoc and the rainforest was distinctly defoliated and bashed about.  The waterfall and pool were still very picturesque but it will be a while before the full jungle paradise scene grows back.

On the plus side the site was very empty and there was just one other small group of people there when we arrived. By the time we had changed into swimming costumes, we had the place to ourselves.

Emerald Pool – a great place to cool off

Having cooled off with a refreshing swim in Emerald Pool, our thoughts turned to a late lunch.  Roseau was a convenient stop on the way out to Trafalgar Falls and so we went to the same restaurant there that Paul had shown us when Nicky, Peter, Jackline and I had our trip to Middleham Waterfalls.  The local food hit the spot again and, replete, we continued on to our penultimate destination for the day, Titou’s Gorge.  Unfortunately, the same road-block and landslip work that had affected our trip to Middleham Waterfalls a few days before, stopped us from reaching Titou’s Gorge so we left that as a ‘one for next time’, back tracked and headed for Trafalgar Falls.

Trafalgar Falls - the twin waterfalls plunge 125ft and 75ft

We needed to make a bit of a detour but, eventually Nicky’s navigation got us to the site.  The view of the 2 waterfalls from the viewing platform was excellent but we wanted to get closer.  Cate and Mike had scrambled up a few days before with a guide from Roseau and had said that the warm water pools below the falls were wonderful to swim in.

The boulders under the 125ft waterfall were surprising effective (and large) obstacles blocking our way

The right hand 75ft waterfall

However, clambering up towards the left hand, 125ft waterfall took a lot longer than we had anticipated.  The huge boulders at the base of the fall made for a serious obstacle course and hampered our progress considerably. Higher up we could see the area that we wanted to get to, but we were running out of time.  We knew that part of the waterflow at that higher point has hot, heated by volcanic activity, and it would have been nice to have climbed high enough to reach it.  However, we were all very conscious that we still had a long drive up the western coast of the island on a road that was just single track in places due to landslides. It was not a journey that we though that we should make after nightfall and so, reluctantly, we turned back without having reached the hot springs area.

The journey back went well but, despite our early retreat, it was still well past dark by the time that we got back to Portsmouth.  I was concerned about our overheated outboard but fortunately we were not the only yachties arriving back at PAYS.  That was jolly convenient for us because the duty PAYS chap was getting ready to run the other crew out to their yacht and he was happy to give us all a lift.  So, we set out on his boat, towing our dinghy with its poorly engine behind.

Changing the impeller on the outboard

Safely back aboard BV, I removed the leg on our overheated outboard and began the game to try to find all of the little bits of rubber from the shredded impeller.  When I thought that I had found sufficient numbers of the pieces, I fitted a new impeller and then put it all back together.  But because it was now very dark and we had an early start planned for the morning, the field test would have to wait until the following day, after our sail to Pointe À Pitre on Guadeloupe.

Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica

Cabrits National Park Dominica (Part 2)

Fort Shirley

Back closer to sea level we spent some time wandering around the main body of Fort Shirley. The grounds here are well-tended and the buildings have been beautifully restored but none were open to visitors when we were there. Fort Shirley was built by slave labour, primarily using local stone, timber and lime mortar produced from coral collected from nearby reefs. However, some of the buildings incorporated red clay bricks brought from England as ships’ ballasting.

Fort Shirley Lower Battery

Lower Battery

The Lower and Upper Batteries of Fort Shirley were sited to guard Prince Rupert’s Bay and dock, though quite where the dock had been situated was not clear to us.

Whilst some of the officers did live in the Officers’ Quarters, many did not as the main garrison, close to the swamp, was considered (and probably was) quite an unhealthy place to live. Instead, they lived with their families higher on the slopes of West Cabrit or even, apparently, as far away as Roseau.

Fort Shirley never actually saw any action though the garrison witnessed the Battle of the Saintes and the fort was the scene of the revolt of the 8^thWest India Regiment in 1802. In 1805 an attack on Dominica was mounted by Napoleonic forces and Roseau fell to the enemy. The British Governor, George Prevost, escaped to Fort Shirley where he readied the troops and refused to surrender. The French commander, General la Grange was sufficiently deterred by the stronghold, left the island and sailed north with his squadron, presumably to Guadeloupe and, ultimately, Napoleon’s displeasure.

Upper Battery & Signal Station

The Upper Battery, as well as providing a gun emplacement, also housed a flagstaff and signal station that was part of a chain of signal stations running the length of the west coast of Dominica. Messages could be passed rapidly up and down the chain assuming, of course, that the visibility was good enough!

Land crab massacre

Western high battery

From Fort Shirley we took the path up to the western high battery on West Cabrit. As on the path up East Cabrit, along the way we found lots of broken land crab shells. Clearly some of the local birds find land crabs a tasty meal and perhaps easier to catch with there being less foliage after the hurricanes.

It’s a grove snake in the upper picture, honest! Damn autofocus

We also spotted a rather large, black Grove Snake, which was a bit of a shock. But I think we shocked it more than it shocked us as it slithered away too quickly for me to get a better picture of it.

Cruise ship dock

Having climbed both high points we realised that time was pressing on and that we needed to return to BV in good time to shower etc before attending the well-reknown PAYS weekly barbecue. But there was just time for me to snap some pictures of the cruise ship dock (small cruise ships!) which, like so much else on the island, took a real pasting from Hurricane Maria. Hopefully, the Government (or perhaps one or more of the cruise ship companies) will soon be able to fund a rebuild of the dock so that more much-needed tourist dollars can return to the island.

The green flash at sunset

Back aboard BV we had time to watch the sunset before heading out for the barbecue and this time, with a beautifully clear horizon, we did get to see (and capture) the green flash.

PAYS infamous barbeque

The PAYS barbecue was as good as its billing with more food than we could eat and, as Peter from Ellenhad warned, a deadly and apparently unlimited supply of rum punch. Tempting as it was to stay and talk/party into the early hours, we had planned to spend the next day, our last on Dominica, on a road trip around some more of the island’s sites with Mike and Cate (Kealoha V) so an early(ish) night was called for in preparation for a prompt start the next day.

Cabrits National Park, Dominica

Cabrits National Park Dominica (Part 1)

Fort Shirley

From the anchorage we could clearly see the restored Fort Shirley, part of the Cabrits National Park, which also includes the 2 high points overlooking the anchorage and Douglas Bay to the north. Since we still had valid multiple entry National Park tickets, on Sunday 18 March we decided to stretch our legs and walk up the Cabrits.

Trail on East Cabrit

The road from the PAYS dock runs along the shoreline to the park welcome centre at the cruise ship dock. Here we were met by a National Park guide who wanted to check our tickets and who then suggested we stop in at the visitors’ centre before heading further up. We’re glad that we did as we learned a little about the history of the area and Fort Shirley in particular, which put a useful context on our walk.

We decided to head up Inner or East Cabrit first. Of the 2 hills, this is the less visited and the paths, cleared of hurricane damage, were clearly not well used. As we climbed upwards they became more and more overgrown but we were determined to reach the top.

Commandant’s Quarters

Part way up we stopped at the ruins of the Commandant’s Quarters. The ruins had once been an elegant house designed by the colonial American architect Peter Harrison. The site was chosen as a cool, sheltered place, away from the swamp at the bottom of the hill on the landward side. However, it turned out that there was very little breeze in the chosen location and, in time, the Commandant’s Quarters were moved to a breezy location on West Cabrit, a much healthier site.

Views over Prince Rupert Bay from the eastern high battery

Our climb continued along increasingly overgrown paths until, suddenly, we were at the top and on the eastern battery. We saw plenty of ruins at the summit but none were identifiable to us. However, they apparently comprised an ordnance store, a powder magazine, a cistern, troops’ barracks and a couple of batteries, one looking out to the south (over Prince Rupert Bay) and east (over the causeway towards ‘mainland’ Dominica)….

Views over Douglas Bay from the eastern high battery

….and the other looking north out over Douglas Bay……

Looking north to ‘enemy territory’: The Saints and Guadeloupe

….with Guadeloupe and The Saintes beyond. It was from here and also the western high battery on West Cabrit, that the garrison watched the unfolding of the Battle of the Saintes 12 April 1782.

Cabrits National Park, Dominica

Portsmouth market Dominica

The anchorage (L) and main quay where we left our dinghy

The most significant weekly event in Portsmouth is the Saturday market. Farmers arrive in the evening on Friday night, party in the bars and then set up their stalls in the early hours of the morning.

We’d been told that he best time to visit the market was around 6am to ensure that we got the best produce, but we decided that was just a little too early for us. Instead we aimed for an hour later. The bay is very sheltered and so the dinghy trip across to the main town quay was easy and dry. Provided we didn’t lock it, we could leave our dinghy on the quay whilst we visited the market. It had to be left unlocked in case it needed to be moved by the port staff to allow a ferry in. But then the port staff also had a guard on the quay keeping an eye on things.

It was good advice to visit the market because the fresh vegetables were excellent. It would take much longer for them to be able to sell fruit again after the hurricane damage, but we did manage to buy a pineapple, bananas and a watermelon. Laden down with those and a lot more vegetables, we wandered along the stalls taking in the atmosphere.

It was really colourful and the main street was alive with activity as everyone hunted for the best deals. Typically, being Caribbean, there was also lots of music playing. Bars, which had been open all night looking after the traders, were still serving drinks and adding to the beat but we thought that the best music was from the live band that had set up on the pavement.

It was a great way to start the day and very beneficial in that we restocked our food supplies with good fruit and vegetables that would last well.

Shopping complete, we decided to route back to BV along the shoreline. Most of the buildings along the beach are restaurants, cafés, or small businesses linked to supporting visiting yachts. Most of the dinghy docks and seating areas had been badly damaged and were only slowly being rebuilt as building materials became available. Sadly, just a handful of the businesses were functioning which was a shame because they desperately needed to be up and running to bring in money to fund the rebuild.

We passed the PAYS building (pictured above right) and the Purple Turtle restaurant and bar (above left) which had been one of the more popular watering holes for yachties. It was still working in a limited way and, like many buildings, it was still relying on tarpaulins over the roof to keep the rain out. It used to have very good Wifi but, apart from in the capital Roseau, most of the restaurants and cafés on the island are still waiting for the telecommunications infrastructure to be repaired before they can provide that service to visitors again.

Close to the anchorage is a hotel development being built by a Moroccan company. It was supposed to have been finished this year but sadly was badly damaged by Hurricane Maria at the latter stages of construction; a pretty major setback for them. We did hear building work was continuing, so hopefully the project will eventually be finished.

SY Ellenleaves to head south

We got back to BV by 0930, just in time to wave goodbye to Peter and Jackline, onSY Ellen.We were sad to see them go. They are good company and it had been great fun visiting Middleham Falls with them but in the yachting world, with everyone moving about, you have to accept that there are lots of farewells. We are unlikely to see them again for quite some time because they are heading south for the hurricane season.

We spent the afternoon stripping BV of spare towels, clothes, shoes and tools, essentially anything spare that duplicated stuff we were already using on board and which we didn’t expect to need immediately. Through another OCC member, Nicky had found out about an orphanage that has been doing amazing work for several years placing unwanted children in foster homes. After meeting up with the lady who runs the orphanage Nicky felt that in a small way we could help. She found out that the orphanage has always provided support for their foster families but after the hurricanes it has been particularly hard for the families. The orphanage team has been helping the foster families rebuild their homes and livelihoods and have also been desperately trying to help them replace items that were simply blown or washed away. The electric drill and other tools will hopefully help with the building work, and the linen, shoes and towels will be of far more immediate use to the foster families than hiding in lockers on BV waiting for the ones we are using to wear out.

Prince Rupert Bay, Dominica