Middleham Falls

Yesterday I caught an early bus to meet with other Peace Corps volunteers at the office in the capital of Roseau. With school starting on Monday, September 5 (and staff reporting tomorrow, September 1), we wanted to get together for one more adventure. These activities provide a good bonding experience between the existing volunteers and the new volunteers who were recently sworn in.

This time, the destination was Middleham Falls. So the ten of us who were able to go got a bus to take us up in the mountains to the trailhead. From there, it took nearly an hour to hike through the lush forest (with pleasant conversations along the way) before reaching the falls. One of the interesting parts of the hike was a section where the ground was covered with a network of exposed roots, causing one to carefully pick their path across this portion.

Dominica has lots of waterfalls (see my previous stories about Bwa Neff and Trafalgar Falls), and this one was just as beautiful as the others. The water drops nearly 300 feet to a gorgeous pool of cold water at the bottom. Below, I tried to take a vertical panoramic shot to get the entire length of the waterfall into one picture.

The picture below shows some of our group who chose to swim in the pool, gathered near a large hole in the wall.

I enjoyed gazing upward and watching individual spurts of water as they went free-falling down to the bottom. Although some of the girls got a bit cold, I enjoyed the cool spray from the falls, compared to the usual heat I endure regularly down here. I don't think I can say that I've been cold since I arrived. There were maybe two nights during the “winter” that I pulled the sheet over me while I slept, but even that wasn't dreadfully cold.

The picture below shows the view from the observation deck of the stream continuing down the canyon from the waterfall pool. If you look close, you can see a few other small waterfalls on the far side joining the main stream.

On the hike back, we enjoyed a nice conversation with an interesting American. Brian Saupe is a retired law enforcement officer who purchased a 41 foot catamaran yacht. He does charters out of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands during tourist season, but is now island-hopping during his off season, and is currently exploring Dominica for a few days. After having lived for many years high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and now living at sea level, he named his boat “Altitude Adjustment” (http://www.altitudeadjustmentcruises.com/). It was interesting to discuss our mutual observations on life in the Caribbean.

It seems that all of us are having a good time down here! Bring on the new school year!