We were lucky to be so close to the famous Indian River which is among the most picturesque and widest of Dominica’s 365 rivers. Yes, it’s correct 365 rivers! I almost couldn’t believe it. It flows to the Caribbean Sea between Portsmouth and the village of Glanvilla, which meant right into Prince Rupert Bay, where we were anchored. Daniel, one of the PAYS guys offered a tour and guided us through this amazing part of earth. It felt like getting a warm embrace of nature while Daniel oared his boat silently past many types of wild life and plant life along the swampy river bank. He was an expert of flora and fauna and knew all about it. Just a pity we couldn’t remember all of it. He explained that the River got its name because Kalinago (Carib Indian) lived along its banks and used it as an access route to the Caribbean Sea. The river was important to their livelihood as they used it to transport goods for trade with sailors and along the island chain. With its coastal wetland dominated by the spectacular “buttressed Bwa Mang trees”, it was easy to imagine why scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed in the river…
just at the beginning I did try to make them look…, not very successfula green heron, it eats small fishes but mainly crabs, with its long and strong bill he breaks through the crabs backit was so relaxing and quiet I don’t know if the pics can deliver the atmospherea moorihen, they mainly live in the Indian Riverwe passed another group there were a lot of quite big fish in the river- who can name them?crabs Bwa Mang treesfrom the distance the trees often looked like spooky creatures this looked like a person hiding in the tree crocodiles in the Caribbean? Tony, Norbert, Solvey, Daniel, Achim and Rosemarya river bar, best river rum punch ever…those trees do have creepy rootsDaniel was explaining about the trees or …Tony and Rosemary, we happened to meet them again on this tour- what a nice surpriseI was so fascinated and amused from this clock that I forgot to take a pic of the actual bush barthe atmosphere changed often and always presented a different feeling; here a little spookyhere very calma heron and moorihens fishing for foodthe estuary of the Indian River
Some random pics of our last days at Portsmouth
On our last evening Kish made a crab supper for us. I always wanted to try the land crabs, the locals liked to eat. Though we never saw them on a menu. Now we got the opportunity to try them. It was a fun and yammi experience.
Daniel gave us the flowers on the tour through the river- I loved that the music started after finishing eating the bbq; a young sailor boy sung his own songswe were heading to the south part of the bay to get some fuel for the dinghyand heading back…Solvey, Anita and Fred , when we were walking to Kish’s “snackette” to eat crabsKish prepared all that for us; Anita, Fred, Solvey, Achim and El Capitanothe main tool to open the shell of the crabsit’s kind of a challenge to eat but we loved the taste of the crabs
In Deshaies/Guadeloupe we had a rapid test stop before heading to Nevis
the bay of Deshaies when we arrived just before sunsetit looked very prettythe north end of the baya beautiful chain of lights made of artistically worked coconut shellaren’t they pretty those little chicks?who can find Altimate? – I can, I can after checking in we found a nice walk up a small stream to stretch our legsdown streamup streamI love those trees with their long air rootsthe slightly broken dinghy docksomewhere in Deshaiesthe churchthe beach of Deshaiesand another sunset impression
SY Altimate 