We would have loved to stay in the bay of Roseau a bit longer and do more hiking and exploring, but the swell was uncomfortable and we had enough of rolling around in our beds at night! So, we cast the lines off of our mooring buoy, said goodbye to our awesome guide Mr. Beanz, and set off for Portsmouth, on the northern end of Dominica’s west coast.
Fort Shirley
It turns out that the swell in Portsmouth was even worse in the current weather conditions, oops… But we were there now, so we would make the most of it.
Our first outing here would be to Fort Shirley. The UNESCO website has this about it it:
Fort Shirley is part of the Cabrits National Park in the north of Dominica and can be considered Dominica’s most important historic site and was the scene of the famous revolt of the 8th West India Regiment in 1802 when African slave soldiers took over the garrison for three days in protest over conditions there and the fear of being sent to work in the canefields. Their action resulted in all slave soldiers in the British Empire being made free in 1807.
Nowadays, the fort is not just a place to visit to learn about Dominica’s history, but can also be rented for events. We were impressed with how beautifully the buildings have been restored. The kids had lots of fun climbing on the cannons and doing roly-polies down the grassy hills.
After checking out the buildings and the view, we walked along the tracks to Douglas Bay. Along the way, we saw lots of pieces of crabs. Big claws, pieces of heads and bodies. The kids were fascinated!
Indian River
The next day in the afternoon, our guide for the day Albert came to pick us up in his skiff. Once we were on board, we zoomed over to Mrs. Chippy to pick them up too. Our destination was the Indian River, another location that was used for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. After we paid a fee for the national park, Albert pulled up his boat’s outboard engine, and started rowing us up the river.
The river tour was a relaxed affair. Unfortunately the space was too slow for our kids, who quickly started saying things like I’m bored! Why doesn’t he put the engine on? Why are we even doing this? This was a bit frustrating for us, but we tried to point out cool stuff like big crabs hiding in plain sight along the river bank. They were large, but sat very still and were exactly the same colour as the sand. We also spotted some large iguanas swaying in the treetops.
Unfortunately, the Indian Rover has suffered a lot of damage during the last big hurricanes. The canopy of trees from either bank used to touch above the river, making a sort of green tunnel. Now, the trees are much shorter and we could some tall trees with the tops missing sticking up.
In one of the Pirates… movies, the witch Calypso lived here. Her little hut was left standing after the cast and crew left, as a tourist attraction. Sadly, the hurricanes have destroyed this too. It will probably take a few more years for the vegetation to be as lush again. In the meantime, we still found it a beautiful place.
The tour ended at the Bush Bar, another scene location from Pirates. While the kids enjoyed the piraty vibes and the maze of jungle around the bar, we sampled a couple of different rum punches together with Paul and Jess. We decided that the classic passion fruit flavour was the best.
Our hard work done, we went back to the boat to relax and prepare for the next island: Guadeloupe.
