We are drawn to Dominica time and time again. There are several reasons this island appeals to us. One is that Prince Rupert Bay is fairly protected and has plenty of room for yachties. When we arrive, we usually take a ball from Eddison and the PAYS guys. They are helpful in assisting with grabbing a mooring ball, providing tours, and information about the island and available services such as laundry. They even will handle checking you into customs and immigration.
Secondly, most of the islanders are very friendly, always asking if you are having a good time on their island. The island is quite rural, but the people are proud, and it’s important to them that visitors enjoy their island.
In addition, over the last 4 years we have made several friends here. One being Whitney from Maford House Café. She always welcomes us back like lost family. We also love going to the market where we are greeted by familiar faces that happily assist us in obtaining fresh produce such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, mangos, pineapples, avocados and more!
Finally, however, the main reason we love Dominica is the beauty of the island. The lushness of the jungles, the crystal-clear water and the sunsets bring us back repeatedly.
Island Exploration
While we have taken a tour in the past, we have found that we prefer to rent a car to visit the many beautiful places around the island. I never seem to tire of driving around with eyes wide as we pass the beauty on both sides of the road. There are 365 rivers in Dominica. So besides verdant vegetation everywhere, there are babbling streams and waterfalls galore. For more information about what to see and do in Dominica, check out these prior blogs.
Dominica, A Bountiful and Luscious Island of Proud Friendly People
Dominica: Eureka! The Motherlode of Beauty and Activity
Touring with Kathy and Tony
When cruiser friends arrive, it’s fun for us to share with them some of our favorite island sights. When Kathy and Tony moored by us on SV Skoolz Out, we were overjoyed to see them as it had been about 2 yrs since we had connected. So we visited while exploring the island together.
Frist stop, Chocolate Factory, and then on to the Red Rocks.
See Dominica Pictorial 2022 for a tour of the Chocolate Factory.
Woodford Hill Beach
Kathy and Tony also appeased my zeal to explore new places on the island. So for the first time we stopped at Woodford Hill Beach. The seas were rough and it was exciting to see the waves crashing on the cliffs that bordered beach. We even saw a childhood picture of another of our favorite people in Dominica, Lennox Honeychurch. He is the island historian, and his family has a long history of living in Dominica. He was instrumental in rebuilding Fort Shirley in Portsmouth.
More New Sights!
On another day, we traveled south through Roseau, but instead of going all the way to Scotts Head we turned east and crossed from the Caribbean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean passing through Bellevue Chopin, a farming community and on to Berekua where many French had migrated from Martinique to live. I don’t have any pictures of this journey because the incredible views, high in the mountains, were too expansive to capture in a photo, but it was well worth the drive. The road was somewhat torn up in places as they were building a new road. I imagine in about a year (maybe two), it will be a breeze to make this trip down a lovely new road with a mountain backdrop views.
Before leaving Roseau, we took a short break at Fort Young Hotel. Ben and I had reservations at this hotel years ago, but Hurricane Maria devastated the island and took the roof off the hotel before we could claim the reservations.
Thus, it was interesting to stop and see the renovated hotel which was built using the restored Fort Young ruins of Roseau. The hotel was charming and I loved the way they incorporated the ruins in the main rooms of the lobby and the bar.
I really appreciated Kathy and Tony going along with us on this road trip to places that Ben and I had not explored. Besides being a scenic drive, it gave us a lot of time to catch up on the last couple of years.
Before they left Dominica to head back to the States, Daggers Down hosted the first ever Dominican Thursday Ladies’ Coffee (And Men Talk) with SV Skoolz Out and SV Nausicaa. This is a tradition of the Sea Sisters throughout the Caribbean.
We also hosted a Happy Hour with some other cruisers in the bay. It was always enjoyable listening to other cruising stories and learning about new places they had discovered.
Saying So Long!
It was bittersweet to say so long to Kathy and Tony, but hopefully we will see them again this summer in Fort Worth. It was not goodbye, only safe travels…
More Sights to See
L ’Escalier Tete Chien
Since we still had our rental car, we decided to check a few more boxes off my Dominica exploration list. I had been very curious about a place called L ’Escalier Tete Chien located in the Kalinago country. In French tete chien means “dog head”. However, when I asked around about this place, no one knew what I was talking about. Finally, I found an article and learned that in creole it means snake head. You can read about the legend of the of this interesting lava flow at Mystical L ’Escalier Tete Chien: Uncommon Dominica.
The drive through Kalinago country was gorgeous along a well-paved road that wound through the mountains and along the coast.
We used Google Maps to locate this attraction, but almost passed it by because we didn’t see any signage and the road to it was very non-descript. Even after we turned and went down the road, we weren’t sure we were in the right place, because the road dead-ended into a field, and we were expecting a place to park. However, when we turned around, a Kalinago man stopped us and indicated we were in the correct place and that he would love to be our guide. I had read that while you didn’t need a guide, you could learn a lot from them. So I was excited we had met him. He assisted us in parking along the road out of the way of other vehicles. We followed him back down the road to the dead-end and strolled down a beautiful path of lush vegetation. Our guide told us the history of the sacred place and pointed out vegetation we were passing, including medicinal plants, fruit and lovely flowers. He said between the trees and the gardens, no one ever needed to go hungry.
The walk was quite easy until you began to see the water. Then, while it was not extremely difficult it became steeper and required traversing some rocks and uneven steps. The view of the cliffs, and then the lava flow “stairs” below were stunning. I was so pleased that we had taken the time to seek out this gorgeous area of the Kalinago country.
However, be warned the climb up is a lot steeper than you would think. Going down to the lava feature seemed very gradual until you began walking back up. Both Ben and I realized we had gotten a little out of shape. However, our guide didn’t breathe heavily at all!
When we returned to the car, an islander had coconuts waiting for us and the coconut water was a welcome delight as we were parched!
On the way back to Portsmouth, we found a garden that I had put on our list of sights to see, Hidden Gem, but by this time it was getting late, and we didn’t see a good place to park. So we decided to save this site for a future excursion.
Living on a Mooring in Portsmouth
After we returned the rental car, we completed boat chores such as cleaning the bottom of the boat. We also went with Whitney to try a few new restaurants for dinner.
We had heard some good things about Almond Deck in Toucari, but our experience there was unremarkable. I think in the future we will continue to go to Keepin’ It Real instead.
However, when we went to the Shawarma King in Picard, we found the pizza to be worth the wait, especially since we had good company and champagne while we waited for the chef to arrive at 5:00. We were celebrating 6 years since Ben and I closed on our boat, and 4 yrs since Whitney had opened Maford House Café. Janine, a new friend who was visiting the island, joined the celebration.
Yes, we love Dominica for its friendly people and the authentic island experiences it provides, but mostly for its beauty which is everywhere you look!
Soon we will be leaving this lovely island and heading south for Martinique. We are just waiting for the wind and 9-foot seas to abate.
Another island along the chain and more adventures to come! Thanks for traveling with us!
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