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!