The land of rustic land, one roundabout, sparsely populated land, water, jungle and bad roads (even if there was some tarmac). It was a beautiful
country and I think our favourite from this trip. Unlike other Caribbean countries it just had so much more to offer in the way of lakes to swim in, waterfalls to hike to
and swim in, several hot springs you can get in, rustic old fort outcrops, geo-thermal areas and at least a couple of stunning of beaches. Yes it may not be the main reason
that people go to the Caribbean but for us it had a good mix of all the sort of things we enjoy. Better still most of the tourist only visit a couple of main sights and
thus most of the country is quiet and peaceful and you won't have any trouble visiting it or parking up.
The two takeaways to be had though is that is pretty much always rains in Dominica. Mostly over the central jungle areas more than the coast but every day we saw heavy rain
at least once. While in such a hot country this is less bothering it is something to be aware off. Most of the time we caught the rain while driving which makes the already
poor conditions worse. It can be very hard to judge quantity, depth and location of pot holes under flooded roads and on certain roads there were literal craters. The second
point would be the roads, while some were much better than those in Antigua almost every road is a windy mountain pass and even the coastal roads aren't much straighter. If
you suffer from any form of travel sickness you will be car sick. Our driver also got car sick from the roads they were that bad and journeys here take a lot longer as well
due in part to the roads and part due to the larger size of Dominica compared to neighbouring islands. Individual sights are also more spread out and some roads closed
completely due to landslides. Our group mostly had to take strong anti-sickness medicine several times a day to be able to handle the roads. On the roads while some were ok
others were littered with fixed pot holes making them more like a rumble strip which doesn't help when everyone's already travel sick. In sections roads have collapsed away
and there are lots of blind bends and obstacles like parked cars. Driving here is tiring in the arms (from all the bends) and mentally from having to be hyper aware of your
surroundings. We also used a lot more fuel here again from the longer drives and having to push the car harder over the high passes.
We had planned to do the boiling lake hike on our first day to get it over and done with and to have more chilled time to recover. However we had been
advised to wait for better weather and therefore we booked the hike in for our second day instead. For our first day we decided to visit the eastern coast beaches where we were
staying. These were extremely rustic and rough black sand beaches which we had all to ourselves despite the proximity to the Rosalie Bay eco resort. Apparently Turtles also come
up to nest here although we didn't see any during our time here. The hotel will offer to call you if any come up at night. The hotel also had a nice pool which we could chill in,
great food and reasonably priced drinks.
Next we stopped by the Emerald Lake which is a key location for some movies. It's a short 10 minute walk down to it on well-maintained paths, there is a viewing platform and an area
you can get in to swim in it. It is however a very small area and the rocks around the pool are home to crabs which you have to be careful don't nip at your toes as you enter / leave
the water. Especially tough as you have to climb on and over the rocks they inhabit. We got lucky with our timing here and we managed to swim in the water here. It is cold and gets
quite deep near the bottom of the waterfall that feeds it. It is a nice stop, but not one for spending too long at (unless you are an instagram model).
The next stop we made was across the island and back up to the Trafalgar falls. This is a busy area with cruise passengers, but somehow we managed to time it as they were all leaving
and thus it wasn't too overly busy. The roads up and down however where very treacherous and full of overpacked mini vans racing up and down. I would strongly advise against any but
the most experienced drivers from driving here. You can climb down and swim in the falls but we choose not to having already swam at the pool and it being so hot out. The best pools
to swim in also require a good amount of scrambling to get to. From here we drove to the nearby hot spring area, at one point we thought we were lost as the road got very bad and we
had to take an unexpected detour around a collapsed road section which did require four wheel drive. Our chosen spring was Ti Kwen Glo Cho which we had heard was the best kept. We had
a very pleasant and fun time here and few tourists seemed to come this far. The hottest pool here was hotter than any we'd ever been in before at up to 45°C. So hot in fact we struggled
to even get in it. The springs here are directly fed from the volcanic and geo-thermal activity. As with most springs the further the pool from the source the cooler it gets. This resort
also had cold water showers for you to return to a bearable temperature before the next hot spring dip. We did try out the mud bath here but found it to be quite poor. There is however
a hot spring fed bath tub which made for some cool photos. It's just a shame that we weren't visiting this place the day after our long hike.
To finish off our afternoon we took another long windy drive to the most southern point on Dominica, Scotts Head. This is the location of an old British fort and you can climb up for good
views over the bay. There are placards all the way up describing the history of the place and with no entrance fee it's a cool place for a stop. The beach here while stoney is also supposed
to be good for snorkelling as it's all part of the Soufrière Scotts Head Marine Reserve. We didn't have the time to snorkel while we were here as we had a long drive back to our hotel
across the island again.
For video showing typical driving in the rain in Dominica, see below:
The boiling lake hike, a tough an arduous hike in hot, humid and most likely rainy circumstances. This may be the to-do thing in Dominica to say that you
have properly visited it, but this is a very tough hike in conditions you wouldn't even consider bothering with in the UK. Expect mud up to the knees in sections, balancing
on logs, broken unmaintained paths, steep descents, scalding hot river crossings balancing on small placed rocks, scrambling up and down waterfalls and almost a guarantee you'll
fall over at some point. In my opinion though the 8 hour hike (round trip) is worth it. The views along the path are stunning and you really are in nature, the middle section of
bubbling hot springs and sulphur is really lost world type stuff and the bubbling mud lake at the finale is a nice place to recharge with lunch. The only downside to this hike
is that you have to cross the entire trek in reverse to make it back to your car. By this stage you are getting tired and have many long climbs back which wore us all down to nothing
by the end.
We'd researched this hike a lot in advance and found mixed information about whether or not a guide was needed. In my opinion a guide is needed for the
middle section when crossing a wide open section with no clear path or direction. A guide would also be helpful if you need assistance crossing the many rivers, avoiding bad
sections of path, climbing up and down the roped sections or are generally a less sure scrambler. I'm also certain our group would have been convinced that the track we took
pretty much the whole time couldn't have been the actual path and that we must've missed a turn somewhere. Having a guide helps to avoid this questioning and doubt.
On our last day in Dominica we wanted to re-coup after our hike and although Dominica isn't famed for its beaches we
had heard that it still had a few secrets up its sleeve. Due to a late start after another breakfast that had taken literal hours to be served
we decided to skip a visit to Champagne Beach mostly due to the extra 2 hours of time we'd have needed to reach it, we'd also heard that the bubbles
on the reef weren't all that great and in terms of fishes there were very little most of the time. This also meant that on this day we'd take a new
road across the island and we were all hopeful that we'd be less car sick on this one.
We started our day with a visit and some time spent on Mero Beach. Mero beach is a black beach and supposedly one of the most popular with tourists
due to its location to the capital and port. However we found it large enough to be quite deserted, with most the tourists at one far end on sun beds
this left about 85% of the beach accessible to everyone else and we easily found a spot to lay our beach towels out and enjoy a swim in the calmer
waters here. There were also a few shaded umbrellas not occupied with beds that no one seemed to mind if you used.
From here we headed north up the Caribbean coastline to Coconut Beach. I really would not recommend this beach, the public access point is right next
to a construction site, a river/drain runs off into the sea here and there's really not much beach. We took a quick break for a photo to get over the
travel sickness from Dominica's famed windy roads. Our next stop was the Cabrits National Park. We had been hoping to have a quick stop up at the gun
battery here, but you needed to buy a permit to enter and everything was a hike rather than something we could drive up to. As such we decided to give
this a miss, but for people who haven't just done an 8 hour hike it might be worth a nice visit. We then grabbed some crisps and stopped at the nearby
Douglas Bay Beach Park. There's a lot of public parking here, in fact the first large parking area we'd seen in Dominica. This was likely due to the
proximity to the Intercontinental Hotel which I believe is the only upscale accommodation on the island even if it has no beach. This was a nice place to stop
and we had plenty of shade sitting under trees enjoying our food.
In the afternoon we crisscrossed the north of the island back to the Atlantic side. Based on time we made a b-line for Batibou Bay which our hike guide
had said was his favourite in Dominica. It was a long and windy drive over very steep climbs which our little Jimny struggled with to reach the bay. Upon
arrival you could either park at the top and walk 20 minutes down or if you have a capable 4x4 you can drive all the way down the rocky, muddy and sandy
path. We choose to drive down to save time and our legs. Upon arriving at the bottom you have to be careful not to park under coconut trees. There is a small
entrance fee for visiting here (whether you arrive by car or foot it's the same per person) you also have the option to buy fresh coconuts which we did. They
were very large and even sharing these between two we struggled to finish them, as always though they are very refreshing. We also met some Ukrainians who'd
chosen to live here now also in a Jimny. The beach here is amazing and it also had some of the best snorkelling I'd seen in the Caribbean though that doesn't
mean it was amazing and I've seen much better in Cuba and San Andres. The waters here are quite rough and the beach is very rustic with no proper toilet
facilities, shop, bar or restaurant. Swimming is only recommended in a small area more protected by the natural cove and reef. This area also is where you
can snorkel around and over the reef. The long curling smooth sand beach lined with palm trees which for the most part was deserted made up for it though.
We spent as much time here as we could before we embarked on the hour long windy drive back to the hotel.
Next country on our exploration of the Caribbean was to be party paradise of Barbados.
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