Three days trekking in Dominica

Forty-one kilometres, three days hard trekking the Waitukubuli Trail with an average speed of 2km/hr gives you an idea of the sort of terrain Andy and I had to tackle on the wonderful, unspoilt island of Dominica.  We love trekking and are good walkers but the “moderate” trails left us exhausted!

Farmer taking his yams to market

The Dominicans’ are an optimistic people. They rarely say something is “hard” or “a long way”.  It is “a challenge” or “for the well trained”.  We were to experience this positive attitude every step of the way. With one accord everyone we met was full of praise for their beautiful island and their wonderful clean and abundant water.  They were happy to engage in thought provoking political and environmentally aware discussions – from the taxi driver to the market stall micro-farmer. We liked the rugged, jungle covered Dominica and its people very much.

Our visit did not get off to a promising start. Our airline LIAT – “leave island at any time” - did just that. As we had been warned LIAT also stood for “luggage in any terminal”, we were travelling hand-luggage only.  Eventually we joined our pre-booked taxi who had been waiting for us well over an hour but he apparently had another customer to pick up (why? when we were paying full wack we wondered) and we found ourselves waiting another hour for him to decide the customer was not going to arrive. We had planned for a full Friday but the day was trickling away. It was a long journey along the length of the island, the roads are very minor and the maximum speed of traffic perhaps 30km/hr.  Not a bad thing at all and we enjoyed our guided drive to the mid –South interior of the island and a village called Wotton Waven. 

LH building - our 1st night hotel in Roseau

Sadly when we arrived up the steep narrow road at 2pm they had forgotten they had taken the booking and had no room until the next day, so sent us to a backpackers hotel in the capital Roseau along with the promise that they would collect us first thing next morning so we could start our day 1 walk!

Jelly coconut seller

another (bit too) friendly local in the market!

Roseau proved to be a pleasant experience and I preferred it over noisy and dirty St Johns the capital of Antigua. Clean friendly with a fantastic fruit and vegetable market, by 5 pm everything was closing and everyone going home to their family.  This made finding a restaurant away from our hotel impossible but the lovely hard working lady who seemed to run the place single handed cooked us a very acceptable meal.

a rather large tree!

Our Petit Paradis host Al was at the Roseau hotel by 9am as promised, our Roseau host had prepared our lunch-time roti’s and we were packed for the walk. So after a quick drop off of luggage we were on our way into the forest – straight away wading through mud. This was going to be a constant theme – mud, very steep and narrow paths, sheer ravens and high tropical forest. Also streams to cross by stepping stone, breath-taking views of mountains and valleys, muddy bottoms as we slid down another steep long slope (well me not Andy!), wet feet as we waded through another puddle or a shelter in a pig-sty or under my brolly(!) in another rain down-pour.  It was just wonderful!

The map was not good and we found ourselves lost three times on the first day. The trail is well marked with blue and yellow painted stripes but if you miss a turn you can walk quite a distance before you realise.  Every time we started to wonder where we went wrong a farmer who knew the way appeared - given that we saw very few people and no other walkers the whole three days this was amazing luck. Day one saw us walk an extra hour due to wrong turns but despite this we managed to complete section 3 of the trail in seven hours (as per the indicated time for the trail) and found a bus back to Roseau immediately.

Now old hands with Roseau and already a regular customer at the fruit-juice man stall near our Friday night hotel we tallied for slightly too long and found all the buses had stopped. However we found a bus-driver prepared to become a taxi driver for a few extra EC and got back to Petit Paradis in time for a shower and snooze before dinner and bed!

shop just below our lodge

Trekking Day 2 Sunday – we were told that there are no buses on Sundays so our walking plans had to change. We decided to do a shorter round trip, especially as we both felt stiff after yesterdays trek, and take in one of the spectacular waterfalls. The walk towards Trafalgar, the next village, is an amazing stretch of road … we saw many birds, sulphur pools and the most spectacular views . We got chatting to a young man gardening – Natty – who it turns out had built, single handed, a bar, restaurant and visitors lodge on his land (inherited from his Grandmother) which he also farms to provide the restaurant with organic produce. Everything was made from wood and was very temporary looking but quaint. He also had started a small zoo of local animals – two boas, two iguanas, an opossums (manicou), an agouti, rabbit and guinea-pig – not to my taste as most had been caught in the wild. After discussion about the health of one of his iguanas he later told us that he had let it go. Anyway, while talking to him, Stanley the Rasta came by. Natty gave Stanley some of the local staple – dasheen (a starchy cross between yam and potato) and then Stanley turned his attention to us.

Tropical Valley - Nattys place (and yes it is raining!)

Rasta-man Stanley

So we now had a guide! We decided to go with the flow and see where it took us, so we followed a barefooted Rasta who was carrying 3 dasheen and a machete! Stanley said he would take us on a 20 minute walk to Clearwater Lake but the 20 minutes turned into a three hour full-on trek along the first part of Section 4 of the trail. We did not mind, he was full of information, extremely fit man (though from his teeth obviously a crack user) - 47 year old, Karate brown belt, with three daughters and a welder by trade. The walk was hard but he kept us going with a constant supply of wild raspberries and grapefruit. Eventually, after a walk along the amazing wooden pipe that fed the hydro-electric power plant from Clearwater Lake, we arrived at the cloud enveloped lake visitor’s centre.

Walking the hydro electric wooden pipe

It was cold up there but the discussion with the warden, as we shared our packed lunch, was interesting. He was telling us how the island needed to take care of its natural resources and went into a detailed description of the islands economic woes. In particular he blamed the mono-culture mentality of the farmers – instead of diversifying after the banana trade collapsed (EC trading rules in the late 70’s) they rushed from one cash crop into the next. Now the island depends too heavily on tourism and not enough on its wonderful growing power.

Riding home with Stanley!

We were very happy to accept a ride in the back of a pick-up truck back to our lodge.

Sulphur vent

Trekking Day three saw us trekking Section 4 with a side (supposedly 20 mins) walk to our first waterfall – The Middleham Falls. Amazing, amazing. The jungle here is really virgin and the steepness of the valleys awe inspiring.  The incredible volcanic terrain is the reason that Dominica is so underdeveloped – it is very difficult to maintain a trekking trail, never mind build a road or a house.  Everywhere there is evidence of volcanic  activity – a boiling pool, a steaming vent, the smell of sulphur. It is a place that is so fertile that a stick will grow into a tree.

jungle!! and water falls

A photo cannot capture the size of this waterfall

Natty outside the lodge he had just finished building

At the end of day 3, another six hours of hard walking, we caught buses back to the village of Trafalgar and  walked the last few kilometres back to the lodge, after a quick drink at Nattys, tired but happy.

Emerald Falls (again much bigger than it looks here!)

Our nasty airport "hotel"

Our trip home was another adventure – involving a cancelled flight, a sleepless hotel in a nasty hotel and lack of good food but we also swam in the Emerald falls and visited the Kalinago / Carib Indian territory so it was not all bad! Now home and in our own bed Andy is straight back into work and I am starting to prepare for my next Superyacht Services Guide season in the Med.

Lining up to finish off our breakfast!

Mating habits in Barbuda

Tania and I went to Barbuda for a day trip yesterday. It was a long way to go for a day – 30nm each way at 10-15knots – but it was a truly Caribbean experience!

The trip had been organised by the Environmental Awareness Group and it was to be a magical mystery tour! T and I caught an early morning bus to a bustling St Johns. Saturday morning is farmers market day and I have never seen the place so lively. T had never experienced St Johns before so I guided her to the fisherman's wharf via the destitute slums of St Johns where we were to join the small catamaran ferry. One sign was to be found to guide us to this tourist ferry and this sign was in sight of the ferry itself!

The ferry was very homemade looking but seemed to have a competent crew. An elderly Rasta man called Won Lovv gave the safety brief which was hilarious. He did the whole air-steward bit with the lifejacket and then proceeded to tell us how to move with the rhythm of the boat, "in the ocean, feel the motion..  move your body like this, and this” breaking into dance as he demonstrated.

Won Lovv

I got to chat with him later, asking if he ever saw whales or dolphins en-route, lamenting that I had never seen a whale in real life. He told me that April was the time for the whales – it was too early to see one just now. With that I excused myself and went to the very crude toilet only to hear shouting of joy through the thin wall … on exit to find that a whale had just then breached clear in front of the ferry. I of course had missed it! The whale did not reappear and I was gutted while Won Lovv was very sympathetic!

Nearly 3 hours after embarking we arrived. Barbuda is so low that you have to be within spitting distance before you can see the island. There is one outcrop of 120 feet otherwise the island is flat and low. It is a coral reef that has pushed above water and the sea is very shallow on the approach. The sea is that beautiful turquoise and the sands are golden. Off the ferry and into one of three small buses and off we go. Barbuda is large – half the size of Antigua with just 1500 people living on it. They all live in one town on the West coast though it seems that a few have aspirations to live outside the town as there were half built homes spread over a large area in the South West of the island. It was a mess caused, it appears, with the rule that no one owns land but you can stake a claim by starting to build a house, at which point you are granted a 99 year lease on the land.

Japanese built fishery

The Japanese have also been busy – they have built a community centre large enough to accommodate the entire population (surely a white elephant) and even more worrying, a HUGE fisheries big enough to process the entire fish population of Barbuda. Now Barbuda is a Nature Reserve and fishing is not allowed according to the tourist brochures … this does not compute to my way of thinking…. So why have the Japanese been so kind to the Barbadians? It is all to do with Whaling rights, now there is a surprise. I also learnt that the Japanese decided what they would build and where with no reference to the appropriate Minister. It was to do with a long standing agreement with an ex-minister who is long gone but apparently is now some world advisor on fishing policy.

First stop the 120 foot high outcrop, actually worth a visit. We scrambled up through a cave, where rain water had created colours and interesting shapes out of the coral, to the top where there were fantastic views of the East coast and the Atlantic sea. Our bus driver pointed to a, thankfully, unseen bay below us, apparently named Garbage Bay due to the amount of rubbish that ends up there! “Oh” I say “Do you guys clean it up”? “Well we always go and check for valuables. Sometimes someone buries or burns the rest”.

Nature Reserve, National Park… remember.

Now the highlight, the Frigate Bird colony. We were on another boat and whisked up the West coast to an amazing and extensive mangrove. This mangrove literally is covered with 20,000 Frigate Birds lying in the treetops, an amazing creature of the sky that has the largest weight to wingspan of any bird and is unable to take off from the ground or water. It therefore feeds from flying fish and any fish it can persuade another bird to give up. It is obviously successful at this! 

Our entertaining guide

It is mating season and everywhere we can see bright red balloons – an inflatable pouch under the chin of the males – and hear a drumming as the males, prone on their chosen nesting site, try to attract the attention of the females wheeling overhead. The female of course wants the best nest site and once she has picked her man she makes lots of promises – causing the balloon to deflate – before sending her male to collect building material for the nest while she stays to reserve the space. She does not mate until the male has brought at least 5 good sticks. After the egg has been laid the male is left to incubate the egg while the female goes out shopping for fish. She feeds the male until the single chick hatches and then feeds the chick too. The male stays around until the chick is big enough to not require protection, though not yet big enough to fish itself, then buggers off to Galapagos to find another female at the colony there. The juveniles go with him. Juveniles are last years’ chicks and do not mate until they are two years old. They are very visible with their white heads, watching the whole process.

We had a good view of the comings and goings of the birds – not really close enough for good photos but plenty close enough to observe the inflating and deflating of the balloons, the spreading of the wings to reserve as big a space as possible and hear the drumming and cries of the birds. Fantastic.

I hoped that on our way back we would see the whale again but sadly this was not to be. However, St Johns was even more loud and lively now that it had got dark. I have to say that T and myself felt a little uncomfortable though I am sure there was NO reason. It was the un-known. People were calling at us, trying to get us to come over to chat but we decided to head straight for the bus station. Luckily I know my buses and very quickly I found the correct and very packed bus which got us – slightly faster than I would have liked – back to English Harbour and home where we had to contend with equally loud but more familiar mis-behaviour from the yachties!

Next weekend Andy and I are going to the rain forest covered island of Donomica for a three day trek. We are very excited as we have heard only good things about this amazing island.

Race Crew - Antigua January 2012

Sailing is a passion … and here in Antigua I have race crewed on a variety of yachts. Single-hander dinghy Laser, 34 foot racer / cruiser Seal, 34 foot racing yacht High Tension and 141 foot Spirit of Tradition Superyacht “This is Us”. A good cross-section of yachts then.  A cross-section of crew and skippers too!

Two weekends ago was the Round-the-Island race. Last year I sailed a very eventful race on Seal with William Allen. Unfortunately we only got a ¼ way round due to having to help a yacht in distress. This year it was eventful for a different reason.

Seal wasn’t racing so I needed to find another boat to sail on.  At the briefing Chinese Bernie (a dentist on the island) needed a crew for High Tension and, as I was the only volunteer,  I was on.  I am ashamed to say I have no idea of her make, except she is a racing 34foot yacht with a  CSA rating of 0.934. She was last years winner so we were defending her place. We were a very international crew. Rasta man from Antigua,  Michael from Trinidad, Joe Canadian, Matthew French, Colin white American father and black Antiguan mother … just see the picture.

It was a very exciting race at times. Two ripped sails (so two sail changes),  the main pulley lost its nuts and pulled out of the deck and lost us 20 minutes, squalls with cold rain, burning sunshine, high seas with water breaking over us all, Frenchman Matthew and I took over foredeck (no one else seemed to be up for it ..and to be honest I am too old for foredeck) while Bernie would not relinquish most of the other jobs – including fishing with two catches en-route. At one point he was steering, doing mainsheet AND sorting his fishline at the same time and would not accept help!! On the rail we chatted and argued about race, colour, religion, fishing, food  …. One day I will try to write it all down but it was a fun day! We came 9^th – which, given the conditions and events on board, wasn’t bad!

This weekend Andy and I have been race crew on “This is Us” for the Superyacht Challenge in Antigua. We are very privileged to be invited back as race crew by the owner every regatta but this time I really felt I earned my race stripes. They are black and blue and they are all over my body!

We raced over four days – day 1 practice with the new big BIG spinnaker and new big main stay sail. Over the next 3 days we raced four races. The 13 yachts (the smallest 80 feet – up to Adele coming in at 180 feet) start in pursuit fashion with the aim of a spectacular finish with all crossing the line at more or less the same time. They achieved this result and we had some photo finishes!

Andy and I do Port and Starboard front runner winch and release of back runner preventer. The forces on all halyards and sheets are enormous on these Superyachts and “This Is Us” (http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=sailing-schooner-skylge-1060) coming in at 141 feet is no exception.  

Saturday – race 2 (1^st race on Saturday) we were short-handed on the foredeck so I found myself on staysail halyard and big-spinnaker bucket-line as well. Andy was on foredeck helping with the grunt stuff. Big spinnaker up – bloody fast broad reach 15 knots or so - buoy close – Bucket down.  I was told to feed the line from the winch (being worked by T) back to the bucket. Not hard. Shout from foredeck, need help with last bit of spinnaker not going in bucket. T leaves station taking bucket line off winch… bucket starts to scream up the spinnaker… line whips around me and takes me along the deck with it – I bump into every winch and cleat on way towards the mast . …. S….t I am going to go up the mast “HELP ME!!!”. Many hands untangle me, I scrabble out of the way and lick my wounds. Feeling sick, faint … no time, “TACKING”,  “RUNNERS!!”

As I say .. I earned my stripes. Apparently a photographer has it all on camera and she was surprised I did not end up in hospital. I was very very lucky. Dan lost the tip of his finger and two guys broke their legs. Bruises are expected but mine are spectacular and extensive – see the pictures.

Despite my bruises and subsequent stiffness it was a brilliant weekend and the crew on This is Us are fantastic. I have learnt my lesson and will ensure that I could not possibly get myself in that position again – I was sitting in the wrong place. The owner is always concerned about our safety as number 1 priority, boat number 2 and he is always noticing me do stuff and forever asking me if I am safe.  Fortunately he did not see this incident!

I have had another exciting adventure which I cannot say too much about but involves Pete “Who??” Townshend, a phone call (from him - he has my number!),  a 2 hour meeting and a kiss!!

So our rock and roll life continues!!

Crete with Richard and Pippa, Tilos and back to Turkey

 Warning - the following picture may be distressing!

Still the Summer meltemi wind trapped us. Shocking though it seems, B’s practical solution to preserving hair and makeup for the wavey trip ashore for our full moon party night at Ak Zakros still at the eastern extremity of Crete – at last the wind died enough to sail the next day!...

... after one night in Sitia to replenish our now almost empty water tanks, we arrived at Agios Nikolaos, still in the east of Crete. ‘Ag Nik’ is mainly renowned for its ‘bottomless’, but picturesque small lake in the middle of town – actually a volcanic crater 67m deep. The town is OK but quite full of tourists.

A Banksie lookalike graffiti artist appears on the walls of Ag Nik.

We parked Deep Blue for 6 nights in Ag Nik marina and took a bus to the capital, Heraklion (to be avoided mostly) where we were met by our dear cruising friends, Pippy and Richard from NZ.

We did the obligatory visit to the largest Minoan settlement of Knossos. The 19^th Century archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans rather over restored (with liberal use of concrete) the excavated remains of this grand palace surrounded by a town of maybe 12,000. Purported to be the home of King Minos, keeper of the legendary Minatour in the labyrinthan palace.

Sir Arthur thus gave the name ‘Minoan’ to this most ancient of Mediterranean, highly developed people. We’ll never know what they knew themselves as!

It was great to be guests on P&R’s 42’ Beneteau Matelot in the marina at Rethymno – Richard has a good singing voice, is known to break into song and turns out to be OK at the Ukele too – is there no end to this man’s talent?!

Day 2 touring together we visited the lovely town of Hania, the capital before modern Heraklion.

The mix of Venetian (‘Venice of the East’) ...

...and Turkish influences are preserved most attractively in the narrow streets around the old port and Venetian fortifications.

We then headed to the extreme west to Falassarna – a fabulous beach with crystal clear water where you can see the whole island has been tipped up about 6.6m from the old tide line.

Even more interestingly is the site at the top of the bay where a large, fortified, Minoan settlement is being excavated; at its peak between 4^th and 1^st centuries BC it was “...destroyed by the Romans, most probably because it turned to piracy and its harbour went out of use. Destroyed finally by the earthquake of 365AD, which raised the land, simultaneously sinking (we suppose) the ancient port at Ak. Zakros in the East where we had first landed.

A 3500 year old mooring? Amazing to stand of the ancient quay and see the mooring holes cut from stone... imagining the ancient mariners lined up in port.

Next day we drove to the south and took a ferry to the start of the huge Samaria Gorge to hike up it. 

The ‘Iron Gates’ are only 3m wide, but the gorge towers 300m overhead.

The scale (and the heat) were awesome! We saw the unqiue, indigiinous ‘Kri Kri’ goat in the gorge.

Back in Rethymno with R&P for a simple dinner out together, we found a vast migratory flock of swallows resting for the night overhead.

Sad to say goodby to Pippa and Richard, back on Deep Blue we left Ag Nik for the short motor up to Spinalonga Island and lagoon.

The vastly strong Venetian fort was modified over the centuries as warfare evolved...

...from bow and arrow, to cannon

From 1903 the island was turned into a leper colony where lepers, who are also people lived, fell in love, got married, had lives and of course died (this is the cemetery), though we learnt the treatment of this horrific disease improved greatly over the decades.

This chap (note the hands, in 1961) Epaminondas Remoundakis was only 21 when banished to the colony, where he fought passionately for better living conditions for lepers until the colony closed in 1957. The Island remains uninhabited. 

Man! It is windy here though!! So I had planned to go windsurfing  for several days – sadly my mast snapped in two within minutes of this shot; osmosis from lying on the deck and in the sun too long!

The light on these magnificent mountains viewed down the lagoon to a narrow entrance was superb every evening. We understand why this place has become a favourite for the stars these days.

Dieter, the 67 year old inflatable canoeist – “Crazy, but not stupid!” he proudly proclaimed. Such a lovely man and so interesting! Not a Luddite, but just "homo sapiens, not homo digitalis!" (no e-mail address).

Time to leave Crete. After an overnight passage NE and 115nm, we arrived at small Greek Island of Tilos; Livadhia, the main port...

... is incredibly busy!

The birdlife of the island is protected and we saw a good amount – here is a Mediterranean Shag.

Our 3 hours walk in the heat took us to the town of Mikro Chorio, abandoned just after WW2 – several of these olive presses remain among the ruins. Would you want to live in a house here?...

...or run a night club here? Bit of a 'horror movie set'

Sooo, we just had to take a look!

At the port earlier, we had witnessed a ‘cultural event’ which largely comprised some quite nice costumes and the slowest dancing I think I have ever seen.

However, the whole town seemed to be enjoying the event, of all ages and sizes. A real thriving community with recently established schools on the island. Great!

Next day, Sunday, we took the vertiginous bus trip up to the splendid monastery of St.Pandeleimon on the west coast; actually what we had come to Tilos for! (Nisiros at distant left) Some debate about when first established, but probably 15^th century (by Jonas?).

Though clearly well built and well tended with a dozen monks cells...

... only the abbot remains here – the small church is full of artwork and fine murals from the centuries.

The abbot was very friendly and welcoming, asking for no money; though we paid for and lit a candle each for friends who have lost children.

The best water on the island is up here 

– the monastery could not have ever been viable without this sweet water.

Back to the megayacht Deep Blue, with a smaller, Russian one just behind (joke!). We prepare to leave to return to ‘home’ in Turkey...

 And here we are - our last morning at anchor, in Gerbekse Cove near Marmaris, for how long? Not sure!

A small shoal of cuttlefish were intrigued by our anchor... 

As we weighed for the last time, their large eyes observed me curiously - "when are you coming back?"

Watch this space!