ONE ISLAND AND THREE HUNDRED RIVERS .....

DOMINICA .............. The true rainforest island of the Caribbean ........ Over 3000ft high in places and with a sheer drop into the ocean it manages to catch an amazing amount of rainfall with the results of incredible plant growth ............ It is the 'Garden Island of the Caribbean' and what a joy to finally see so much fresh fruit and vegies ............ Early one Saturday morning we drove to the Capital ROSEAU to be there when they have their weekly market ....... Varieties of every kind, and many we had not seen before ..... And all mouth-wateringly fresh and straight out of the hills .............



What looks like Whoopi Goldberg's brother is weighing out batches of cinnamon and every variety of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, celery, parsley, turnips, taro, sweet potato, yam, plantain and staples like cucumber and carrots were all there, even Chinese cabbage, and every seller has his or her own little space .......



And wherever their house might be, or their garden in the hills, none of it needs watering ............. It's a shame to see so much beautiful water drain into the sea when islands further down are struggling with obtaining even a minimal water supply ............



We saw a sign that said "WATERFALL" so we ventured into the hills to find it ...... There might have been a path to it a week ago, but not any more ........ Spectacular overwhelming growth, and fruit growing everywhere .......... Anyway, we found it, by slipping and sliding and following the river course ......



With a steep coastline, the keeping of fishing boats is really difficult ..... They pull these skiffs out of the water on log rollers onto a gravel beach virtually the length of the skiff ............. They are mostly made of plywood but fairly sturdy and about the same length as this little sailboat (below), that somebody has sailed all the way from SWEDEN ......... Not too much room for vegies on that boat ......

Now, one of the trees you find in abundance in the forests is the 'Silky Cottonwood' tree, also know as the 'Kapok' tree ....... That produces that white fluffy stuffing often used in cushions and 'Titanic-era' lifejackets ........ Beautiful trees except for one thing ........... Don't climb them .............. The perfect tree to plant as a good hedge or fence if you want to keep others out ............ Speaking of which, we went to look at "FORT SHIRLEY" in the now preserved Cabrits National Park ........ Huge battlements of hand-cut stone and arrays of cannons facing the sea ...... A good many buildings spread over many acres on the peninsula .......... The sheer labour of the construction is mind-boggling and much of it now in ruins and overgrown in the hills .... (Check out the video below)



Just reading the plague took us back to former colonial times ....... And the Commandant's huge residence was a good mile away from the Fort ....... This residence was soon abandoned after it was built, due to the 'presence of mosquitoes' and a new residence of the same size was constructed 'nearer fresh breezes'........ Little wonder that somebody revolted .....



In the forest we found the remains of the Commandant's residence ........... If only those walls could talk .............. But all around were seedlings of teak trees sprouting up, and nearer the fort were rows of teak trees obviously planted by later persons .............. Good boat-building teak if we can only come back in twenty-five years ...............



A vehicle passed us just as we took a photograph of this road sign ....... He was doing about twice the normal speed limit, so this kind of suggestion may need a little tweaking ............. Hopefully they will not put up a road sign for 'Hermit Crab Crossing' because they move really, really slowly ........... We think that paint could actually dry faster .........

TWO WORLDS JUST EIGHTEEN MILES APART ............

We stayed an extra day in ILES DES SAINTES, a group of small islands that's part of GUADELOUPE, before heading across the 18-mile boisterous passage to DOMINICA, where that wonderful movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed ............ And what a contrast we found before we even went ashore to clear in with Customs and Immigration .... But before leaving the SAINTES we saw this magnificent wooden vessel "ASTOR", with incredible varnish and brightwork on anchor very near to that volcanic outcrop known as 'Pain le Sucre' (Sweet bread) ...... This is a fine-grained basalt core that cooled and crystallised in this well preserved block-formation ........ "ASTOR" was built in 1923 and is just as well preserved, way better than most 88-yr olds ............ That wasn't the only Classic yacht in the anchorage at the SAINTES, for there were also the "Harvey Gamage", with a whole bunch of high school students on board doing a full study semester, and the cruise ship "Sea Clipper" ...........



The "HARVEY GAMAGE" will sail down to TRINIDAD and then back up again to MAINE in the US for the summer .............And Captain Chris told us that they are half-way done, and that the students so love their life on board that many of them don't want to leave when the semester comes to an end ..............Oh, no .........Signs of the ENDLESS SUMMER .....



Certainly not hard to see where the Caribbean colours come from, and in a little boutique on Terre-de-Haut they carry a whole range of West-Indian plaid fabrics that are used for clothing, table cloths, head scarves and curtains ....... We even had some that was wrapped around the neck of our rum bottles to hide the cap ........... Never fooled us, though ....... We found the screw cap ........



We watched a class of school kids get their basic training in 'the gym' ....... Only the 'Gym' was the water, and the equipment was the kayak ............ Somewhere along the line they will no doubt get their training to ride a scooter also ...........



We even took a long walk over the hills and saw new things, like some good looking cows, and an iguana and some sheep all sharing the same piece of grass ...... And then a rooster walked right between them, without the slightest care in the World ....

Now this is a very poor photo and next time, when we are wide awake, we'll take a better one, but at 1 AM in the morning we had ourselves some 'visitors' ............... The smaller catamaran dragged its anchor and the whole lot was only metres away from us .......... The radio was on inside the little catamaran, as was the computer, the dinghy was tied to the stern, but there was simply no-one on board ................ Anyway, the owner together with a young lady showed up about 2AM and we 'convinced' him to abort his other planned adventures and helped him to secure to a free mooring ............ Don't you just love being awoken like that ................ The good thing was that the Swiss-Australian-Italian people on the other catamaran were able to quickly secure the errant cat to theirs, or it could have been much worse, with the winds about 20 knots and coming in sharp gusts ............... That little episode became the finale to our stay in LES SAINTES, and mid-morning we took off for the island of DOMINICA ....... Nothing could have been a bigger contrast .... From 'French' to 'English speaking' from 'Euros' to 'EC Dollars' from 'Abundance' to 'Scarcity' ....... And from 'rustic' to 'rusting' ......

The 'boat-boys' met us while we still several miles out at sea to tell us that they would be there to take care of us when we had anchored in Prince Rupert Bay at PORTSMOUTH .............. They have these 20 foot wooden skiffs, with large outboards and work as a 'co-operative' to make sure that no 'outsiders' get the yacht business ......... Highly competitive stuff ....... They have even put in 30 moorings and sort of provide 'security' to the anchorage .......... Which means they will 'sort out' whoever needs sorting out ....... One of their main tourist features is to give you an eco-tour of the Indian River that flows into the bay at PORTSMOUTH ..... Beyond this bridge (above) they can only row their skiffs, but each of the guides is fully conversant with all the fauna and flora to be seen ............... The vessel on the right may well have tried to enter the Indian River, and missed .............

We used "MONTY" the driver of this skiff, which belongs to the owner "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA" .......... Monty took us to the Customs dock, notwithstanding that he was busy texting while driving ....... You know all about that, don't you ..............

The weather for the next few days is "FOUL" so we will rent a car and go to see the rainforest, the last of the Carib Indians, the largest fresh-fruit market in the Caribbean and the National Park sites, for which this Island Nation is famous ........ Looking forward to all of that ............. And a bit more sunshine would also be great .........