We went on a river hike yesterday to see Sari Sari Falls, a very tall waterfall in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica. This national park is on the World Heritage list and is in the rain forest. The hike to the falls was unbelievable - along the steep side of a mountain, no railings, lots of stones and tree roots in our path, we had to take big steps up and down on the muddy path, and had to cross the river, full of huge slippery rocks three times before we got to the falls. It was a really long way. When we arrived, our legs felt like jelly, and we still had to go all the way back! Wow, it was hard and treacherous. But it was worth it when we got there. We swam in the water under the falls. The water wasn't cold, but the wind generated by the falling water made me really cold, so I only took a fast dip!
Here is Bob on the path in front of me. You can't see where the path goes next because it goes way down and a little to the right. Bob is leaning down to put his hand on the ground so he can ease down. He turned to me at one point and said he felt like we must be in a movie or something, doing this trek. The side of the mountain is on the left, a big drop off on the right! Railings, what railings?
This woman was right behind me, I had just gotten down this huge step ahead of her.
Here is our first view of the falls. You can see the head of our guide, although he was much closer to me than the falls, so the falls are actually larger with respect to his size.
Here is Bob returning from swimming in the falls. You can see the huge rocks we had to climb over!
The look on Bob's face in this photo says it all. I think we can safely say this is one of the hardest things we have ever done! At this spot, we were on our way back and still had some major terrain to cover, but we stopped here next to the river to eat lunch. A local man cooked us the traditional vegetable stew that is served in Dominica, it had carrots, pumpkin, onions, garlic and some other root vegetables we had never heard of, and dumplings (thick noodles). It was delicious and tasted great after the morning marathon. We asked the guide when the helicopter was arriving to pick us up and take us back. Ha ha....
On the way back to the ship, we stopped for a few minutes at a beach, which had black sand. It was very fine, like powder. Many of the beaches on this island have black sand, as it is a volcanic island. It has the tallest peaks of any of the places we have been so far, over 4000 feet high. While standing on the beach taking photos, the guide gave us each a glass of a local liquor, a peanut liquor. It tasted like liquid peanut butter with a kick. I would probably take a pass if it was ever offered to me again. It was pretty weird stuff.
