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Dominica - Portsmouth
We anchored in Portsmouth on 12th January and cleared customs which was not too bureaucratic but we did have to pay overtime for arriving on Saturday. We were met on the way in by a small boat offering yacht services (boat boy). It is customary to hire a boat boy in Dominica. The man we met went by the name of 'Laurence of Arabia' and was one of the ones recommended in our yachting guide. Laurence took us to clear customs and we booked a trip up the Indian river with him for Monday. There are a number of men on surfboards who come paddling out to your boat selling fruit and offering to clean the boat etc, most are genuine but a few are not so it pays to be careful. Paul and Alex made friends with one such young man who they met at a local bar and he was very nice. Alex tried paddling around on his surfboard and found it much more difficult than it looked. Security in the harbour has been improved a lot by the local yacht services patrolling the harbour in their boats.
We found a very good restaurant on the beach, called 'Big Papa's'. The food is good and security is provided at the dingy dock. The local beer Kubuli, named after the original name for Dominica (Waitu Kubuli) is very good and cheep. The restaurant is run by Big Papa and his wife. Big Papa lives up to his name, on meeting Paul he made a joke about their difference in size, to which Paul replied 'for you I'll try and grow a bit'. Big Papa was amused and gave Paul a free drink, a house special containing amongst other things rum.
On Monday we went for a boat trip up the Indian river. The river is in the national park and boats have to be rowed. Our guide went by the name of Bogart (everyone here goes by their nickname). The Indian river is so named because the original inhabitants of Dominica, the Carib Indians used to live on it's banks. They have since moved to an area in the east. Scenes from the film 'Pirates of the Caribbean, Deadman's Chest' were filmed in the Indian river, which was the setting for the witch's house. At the end of the navigable part of the river is of course a bar, which sells rum punch known as dynamite! Bogart as well as being a tour guide is a chef. He cooked a meal for us at his house, including breadfruit baked in a fire and chicken or fish marinaded in local herbs and spices. It was very good and far more interesting than eating in a restaurant.
We hired a four wheel drive vehicle on Thursday and toured the island. William drove, the roads are a bit tricky, very steep, winding and full of pot holes, hence most vehicles are 4x4s. The horn is used much more than we do in England, as a greeting and to warn of your approach on blind bends. After a bad start, the car broke down at the top of a huge hill about 3 miles out of town and had to be replaced. We had our mobile phone with us but couldn't get a signal, so William set off down and ended up walking most of the way back before he got a signal. During the tour we stopped to visit some cold, bubbling sulphur springs which smelled of rotten eggs. The Emerald Pool, a very pretty green pool at the bottom of a waterfall. Trafalgar falls, a spectacular waterfall in the rainforest, where there were hot springs and Alex took the opportunity to relax in one of them (I would have joined him if I had my swimming costume with me).
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