havecarryonwilltravel

It’s a travel day and we are not diving. This is the ‘Nature Island’ so it is our plan to visit the forest and see what’s what.

Fort Shirley, Cabrits National Park

First stop Cabrits National Park. The peninsula is stategic from a military point of view and that is where the Brits built a huge fort in the 19th Century. The wisdom of the time was to deforest the entire area for the visablity it offered. The restoration for the main part of the fort is quite good. The buildings are completely reconstucted and you can walk about viewing things as it might have been. The out buildings are in ruins and a little more imagination is required.

Officer’s Quarters, Fort Shirley

We then head to Syndicate/Milton Falls. The Syndicate Nature Walk is one of the National Park high lights. On the other hand if you wish to see the Milton Falls you must cross private land and you must pay the piper to gain access. This seems to be quasi legal but it is being done. The falls are still on the tourist trail and guides take people there. The money goes to maintaining the trail and access road but either they don’t collect enough funds or trail maintaince is not high on the budget because it does not look maintained at all to me. The falls are nice but maybe I am jaded, to me they are falls and not worth the cash or the walk. The single lane asphalt road was much more of an adventure.

Milton Falls

Onward to our next destination. Salibury. We thought we should dive a few days mid island and Salisbury seemed to be the hub. East Carib Divers is one of the places we are looking for and the first one we find. We pull off the highway and into a  three car parking lot. The gate to the beach is closed so we dismount and walk down a very steep incline to the water’s edge and through an enclave of buildings to see if we can find anyone so we can store our gear for tomorrow. Beatrice appears out of nowhere and shows us where the gear is kept. 8.15 tomorrow morning she says and we are on the road again.

This time in search of the Tamerind Tree Hotel. Only a couple of hundred meters down the road really but this time it is up a steep hill. Everything seems to be steep here. Our room is plain but more than adequate. There are two chairs and a table on our front deck that have million dollar view.

View from the Tamarind Tree Hotel

Only short comings of this place is the lack of eating establishments. It is Monday and we are told a good number of the places are closed on Mondays but we find exactly 3 places to eat other than our hotel restaurant. With pickings slim, we choose Carib Bay Beach Bar and share a burger with fried potatoes and salad.

Time to relax from our day topside. Tomorrow we submerge again into the Carribean.

We heard about a gathering to be held on the football pitch a few days ago and have asked around to see what it is all about. Yesterday, red flags started appearing on the telephone poles. Food stalls and a stage were being set up on the pitch. We were told there would be music and speeches. All are welcome.

Last night we saw a truck or two blaring music and their red shirted riders waving red flags.

Today, as we drive back from diving, there are red shirts folks everywhere. On the corners, on the beach, walking towards downtown, in cars. Murray muses that he thinks it looks like the folks are waiting for a parade.

A few minutes later, and a few kilometres down the road, as we are parked on the main street near the university at the ATM machine, a parade of vehicles goes by. How did Murray know? Honking horns, pounding speakers, waving red flags and a bazillion red shirts riding in the vehicles. It is about 10 minutes before we dare move.

As we sit in the beach bar at our hotel, we can hear the music playing at the rally and the speaker exciting the red mass to dance and cheer. I can visualize the movement of thousands of bodies gyrating to the beat.

By tomorrow morning the sea of red will have disbursed into the multitude of Carribean hues.

It is only the 3rd day on the island and already we have met more folks than the entire 2 weeks on Kona last November.

Our first ‘official’ meeting was our hosts at Marigot. The folks run the Coffee River Cottages. S is from Canada and S is from New Zealand. They moved here 27 years ago and jumped right into being citizens of Dominica, cutting all ties with their birth nations. Great company and interesting stories. There was a friend from Barabados visiting. He started life in Britain and has lived in the Caribbean most of his adult life. Once a chef he turned his attention to the sale of exotic cooking ingredients and says he makes a very good living.

Easier to meet are the people on the dive boat. J is from Santa Barbara. His wife rides horses and he gets to dive. There is only the three of us on the boat so we talk a lot, nice fellow who came to the Caribbean for a holiday not necessily to dive. He and his wife C, show up again on Saturday and join the boat to snorkel.

The dive guys F and N come with the boat. They are friendly types born on the island. F is particularly attentive and helps everyone of us don our gear and get in the water. The toughest part of getting to know these two is their accent. It is thick and we have to listen very attentively to decern what dive site we are at and the nature of the impending dive.

Last night we met a couple from Switzerland. They have always traveled but have recently retired and intend to up the ante and travel more. Tomorrow they are hitching a ride with us and going to board the boat to do a little snorkelling.

We did have more company diving today. A young guy, J, who is attending med school here and learned to dive thinking, ‘when in Rome’. He doesn’t have too many dives but he is off on his own spear fishing the dreaded lionfish.

K and N are from Arizona and have been diving a long time but like us are land locked and have to travel to get in the water. They will be on the boat for a few days so we will cross paths again tomorrow.

It is amazing how many Americans we meet and not one of them voted for the new president. Had a short conversation about American politics, nomally a tabu subject when talking to newly met folks but everyone more or less agreed and we all parted with body parts entact.

The stories we get are great and the people are very amenible. Hopefully we continue meeting new friends at the same rate we have up to now. We are about to step into the local scene downtown Portsmouth and see if there are a few stories we can pick up there.

We have time so we didn’t book through flights this time. Fly 4 hours stop in Toronto, sleep, fly 5 hours, rest for 3 hours in Barbados, fly an hour and Voila we are in Dominica. Well we aren’t there yet but I am counting my chickens. We are sitting in the airport in Barbados with the connecting flight an hour out.

There are still a few hurdles to leap, like meeting up with the car guy, Kemmany, and finding our way to the Coffee River Cottages but basically have all night so we should be able to make it work.

Found a plug to charge the iPad in the middle of the floor in the Barbados airport. Met a nice couple from Montreal that just finished their journey to Dominica. They were quite excited and were sure we were going to have a good time. There are not many travelers on the island and the above water sites are terrific.

Destination bound. Excited!