Sunday 8 April: Easter Day in Romania. Happy Easter everyone. Oana receives lots of photos from family and friends of painted eggs, as is the tradition today. No time for eggs on Cloudy Bay though, we are off on our last day with the car. And we do want to get off, because the yacht has been rolling all over the place all night and we are fed up of it!
Mooring the dinghy on jetty is challenging as the swell is surging 60cm. We put out a stern anchor to hold it off while we are away. Hope that it holds ok, otherwise the dinghy could get crushed under the jetty.
There is a monster cruise liner docked in Roseau. It absolutely dwarfs the small town. No doubt the attractions will be mobbed today. We head into town briefly to use an ATM and find streets closed off, the tourist markets mobbed and white people everywhere. This is the same town where we were the only white people a few days ago. The locals are all out offering tours and trips here and there, almost like a feeding frenzie! Not a sight that we like but it’s also good to see some cruise liners coming back to Dominica after the hurricane, for this is where the real tourist $s come from for the economy.
Today we plan to drive over the top to the east coast. There are several waterfalls to see there and we hear the hurricane damage was far worse on the windward coast. We also hope the cruise liner people won’t venture that far!
Our first stop is at Emerald Pool, a waterfall into a swim pool. But as we arrive there are already tourist buses from the cruise liner, so we get back in the car and drive on. We will return later in the day when they have all been herded back to the mother ship!
As we head over the top and down to the east coast it’s clear this side of the island was hit harder by Maria than the west side. Either that or the trees are slower to recover. On the slopes of the volcano they are just bare white trucks of wood with no branches or leaves. In the valley there are new plantations of bananas that are yet to yield fruit – no wonder there are no bananas in the shops or market. The last banana trees having all been destroyed by the 175mph winds.
In the first coastal village we come to, Rosalie, there is a new bridge being built across the river, and this is repeated for almost all the rivers we cross on the coast. The old bridges taken away by huge boulders and trees coming down from the mountains. Rosalie Bay Resort is also closed, all the buildings in the compound without roofs.
Soon we realize we are driving over power lines that are often strewn across the road. 50% of the power poles are broken or leaning dangerously. Interestingly, there are many tops of poles still hanging with power lines attached, the locals having sawn them off and taken away the pole for timber. A bit odd, because there are huge timbers fallen everywhere free for the taking, but no, they have to steal the electricity poles!
Every now and then we come across huge piles of corregated iron roofing sheets, all broken and twisted from hurricane damage. But we wonder if anyone will actually collect them for scrap before they are grown over by the prolific vegetation. We muse that the island could do with a few gypsies to cleanse things like scrap metal.
As for the waterfalls we wanted to see (Wavin Cirique, Morgan River), there is zero sign of any trails to them so we guess they are impassable at the moment. And we are not equipped to hack through fallen trees to find one!
After Delices, the road ends abruptly at a bridge that is half broken leaving the road across it sagging 30 degrees to one side. So we stop and take a walk to what was once a nice beach, now full of river boulders and dead trees. As we head back to the car we are amazed to see another car drive across the broken bridge! For a moment we are inspired to drive across it ourselves – but we decide that sense should prevail in this case!
On our drive back Oana spots a rotary with several chicken roasting. It’s also a bar and a few locals are chilling on their Sunday afternoon. So we stop and order drinks hoping to chat to some of them. The owner tells us there is still no electricity on this side of the island and water only restored a couple of weeks ago. We also order a chicken meal, but the only place to sit is next to a rather annoying man who clearly doesn’t have all his marbles. There are also lots of men arriving and it’s starting to get a bit roudy. So instead we take the meal to go, drive on a mile and sit and eat it on the steps of a church, in the shade. Enjoy your Easter lunch, says Glen! But it is a great meal: roast chicken, macaroni cheese, potatoes salad, pickled cabbage and beans. And each plastic lunch box is filled so much that even the lid won’t shut. Once eaten we are stuffed full, and the winding pot-holed road doesn’t really help our digestion too much.
Back at Emerald Pool we find there are still a multitude of mini busses in the car park. But we get our things and head down to the pool anyway. We look down and see 20-30 people there. So we wait in the sun for a while until most have left. As we get down to the pool we are the only ones there and we have a very refreshing swim. The water is cool but crystal clear and under the water cascade it’s like a vigorous massage. 20 mins later we feel superbly refreshed. But the steps back up to the car are pretty tough, our legs still suffering badly from yesterday’s 14 mile hike to the Boiling Lake.
From Emerald Pool we “take the scenic route” back to the west coast. Or at least we try to. It winds through very pretty valleys and hill sides on a very rough and pot-holed road. We think we are almost there when we turn a corner towards a nice looking new bridge only to find a massive I-beam across the road barring our way! Why? We wonder. The bridge looks new and never used, why can’t we cross it? But there is nothing we can do other than u-turn and head back up the rough road, all the way round again.
Finally, now dark, we arrive back on the west coast and head back south through a very industrialized coast line. And then through Roseau to where Cloudy Bay is moored. At the dinghy dock the swell is serging more than ever and we find it quite tricky to get in. And getting out and back on board Cloudy Bay is equally tricky as the stern is going up and down about 1m. Oooph we will be glad to be off this mooring tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s more calm in our next destination, Portsmouth in the north of Dominica.