BLENDING OLD AND NEW ............

Travelling through DOMINICA is like being in a chocolate swirl of old and new ........... Magnificent individual agricultural endeavours mixed in with aspiring community developments and in the middle of all of that is some major Chinese investments in road construction ........ Bananas, pineapples and even cocoa can be found in most places ............



So take a look at this 'OLD and NEW' thing ............... They have built a channel about one kilometer upstream to run water to a water wheel, which in turn powers a series of cogs and gear-wheels to turn the cane-crushing rollers, which in turn squeeze the juice out of the sugar-cane while at the same time pumping the juice to another building to make rum............ The whole operation with its tons of machinery is all powered by running WATER ........



We really wanted to see the rum-making part of the deal, but no-go ......... The security man on Sunday then said to us ........... "Let me turn on the water flow to show you" ...... Well, who is going to say no to that ....... (Check out the video below) Travelling further round the island we found the remains of yet another water-wheel driven crushing plant no longer in operation ...........



That big wheel is the water-wheel with many buckets missing and the rest is gearing to drive the rollers ............ Two days of driving and walking have shown us a cross-section of life in DOMINICA ....... Two nights on board have shown us the 'power of speakers' as the blasting music from shore normally only dies about 5.30 AM ........ Just as the sun rises and 4000 roosters take over ...... Had a great time with Serge and Martine from the French catamaran "FROMISLANDTOISLAND" who shared the car journey with us ......... Their actual boat name is in French ....... And we sure hear some funny boat names like " NEVER AGAIN III" ........



The contrasts in DOMINICA are enormous ............. Just double-click on each of the photos below ............



That's Kevin, the local shoe repair man, doing a quick-fix on my torn sandal with hammer, punch, home-made needle and 50lb fishing line ...... And can you believe the colour of this flower ............ We needed sunglasses just to look at it ............



So who knew that you could sail 18 miles from GUADELOUPE (Fr) to DOMINICA and find an island so full and rich in life and colour ........... Our Florida sailing buddy John KING grew up here, as did our former neighbour Allan Walker ........... So that's at least two people we know who have wonderful memories of an island life ......... Wonderful memories that we ourselves now also carry away with us ........ As we sail across another passage to the French island of MARTINIQUE ......... Now just double-click on the 'cannon' photo and give it a caption like " The War no-one remembers" ... .....