Dominica
Dominica is the small Caribbean English speaking island nation, not to be confused with the Spanish speaking half of the much bigger island of Hispaniola (which is the Domincan Republic - that page will be available shortly). It is relatively undeveloped in terms of tourism and beach holiday resorts compared to many of the Caribbean islands but therein lies it`s attraction. It has large swathes of undisturbed rainforest together with wildlife and lush tropical plantlife. They even have their own unique parrot - native just to Dominca and nowhere else. It is represented on the national flag. Oh and of course, as with much of the Caribbean islands, volcanic activity readily available to experience and sample. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, and in fact it is still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, called Boiling Lake. We were able to see at first hand sulphur hot springs bubbling away sending up a vile stink and yet strangely hypnotic! You will see a number of our photographs below illustrating these. Travelling further inland and you meet wonderful colourful blooms, epiphytes and mosses - oh and waterfalls.
Waterskiing, jet skiing, kayaking or other water sports are well catered for and snorkelling and scuba is particularly good at Scott's Head and Champagne, south of the capital. Also ATV tours, biking, zip lining or even hiking are popular in forest areas. Roseau has dolphin and whale watching boat tours. The island is home to three species of marine turtles which come ashore to breed during the summer months. Their nesting beachs are protected envirnoments but each location has a viewing site where you can watch without disturbing them.
Although the capital is Roseau the second city up in the north is Portsmouth, named after the UK naval port near where we live and in deference to the connection I wore my Pompey T-shirt whilst visiting the Trafalgar Falls (another Portsmouth connection) as you will observe in the photos. Because the island has not been overdeveloped as a series of beach resorts it is more popular with the wildlife fans and the main outlets are in particular diving and water safaria. There is even a volcano crater submerged offshore and fantastic coral and tropical fish sights to see. And then add in the hiking trails - more than 300 miles of hiking trails exist on this tropical paradise. Sadly Hurricane Maria (a category 5 super-storm) which devastated many of the Caribbean islands did huge amounts damage to Dominica, claiming about 60 lives but much more importantly causing massive damage to homes and livelihoods . This is a relatively poor country in the first place so the impact was relatively horrendous as the residents had very little to fall back on. They are starting to try to rebuild so if you have the opportunity to visit the island and spend some dollars/pounds it will make a significant contribution to their task. Particularly as that was the second devastating hurricane to hit the island in just over 2 years after hurricane Erika had devastated them in September 2015.
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.