It was tour day! We’d been told that we would be visiting five sites. That turned out not to be true. But we thoroughly enjoyed what we saw, smelled, tasted, and did!

So, we took the dinghy to the little dock near Seahike and waited for the other tour members – as well as the driver/guide – to arrive. Upon meeting the other tour members (three of them), we learned that they are all Norwegians. This was super exciting to us as my ancestry is 100% Norwegian and Michael is half Norwegian. They were all super nice and friendly and spoke English, which was nice since we don’t speak Norwegian!

We’d read really good things about this guide and they proved to be true. He was super knowledgeable, kind and very funny and outgoing! I swear he knows just about everyone on the island!

Big picture first: We hiked to Middleham Falls, jumped into and swam in Titou Gorge, had a great lunch, then climbed up Trafalgar Falls. In between, our guide stopped the car numerous times to pick up various flora for us to taste or smell. Sometimes we just admired the item and he told us how they used it in Dominica. Other times, he asked us to identify the flora by smell. Boy, was that much tougher than I thought it would be. The Norwegians were much better at identifying the product than Michael and I were.

Now a tad more detail and photos.

Middleham Falls
This is the description of the trail to the falls from All Trails:

Middleham Falls is Dominica’s tallest waterfall, with a beautiful swimming hole at the bottom. The approximately 1.1 mile route to Middleham Falls begins at the small parking area with pavilion and bathrooms. The entire trail is through tropical rainforest, with several intermediate climbs and descents. The trail is generally well-maintained, with numerous stair-steps and hand-rails. Some sections have lots of roots to contend with.

Here’s how I would describe the trail: wet and muddy.

It was great! I loved this hike! The waterfall was pretty and all, but the hike was the actual adventure. It was beautiful, wet, muddy, “rain-foresty,” and lovely. We had lots of fun chatting and getting to know each other better along the path.

At one point it really started pouring rain. Luckily, there just happened to be a gazebo, so we sat for a bit until the hard rain passed us by.

I kept trying to keep my shoes dry, but it was a losing battle. Finally, as we passed our final little stream on the return trip, I just stepped right in to try to cleanse my shoes of the mud that was pretty much covering them. The others saw what I was doing and followed suit.

Look at the picture below. The tree is actually growing around the handrail! (I should note that there were only a couple of stairs on the trail.)

This “resort” was in the process of being constructed. I thought the buildings were very cool. They were located very near the trailhead.

Before we continue the sightseeing, here are a few of the things our guide grabbed for us to see, drink, eat, smell . . .

The red thing with the green center below is sorrel fruit. The guide told us that they make a yummy drink out of this, particularly at Christmas time.

This “berry” (I don’t know if it is a berry) is red on the outside. Our guide asked us to guess what the inside was. At first I thought it was a nut or seed, but then I turned it sideways and recognized it right away: a coffee bean!

Our guide shared three of these (below) with us. This is a leaf with cocoa on it. He gave us one with straight cocoa beans (but mashed up like this), one with sugar (that was my fav) and the other maybe had cinnamon. I don’t recall for sure, but they were all good.

If I recall correctly, our guide stopped here so we could view the highest point of the island across the way.

Titou Gorge

It was time to go for a swim! Here’s some info about Titou Gorge from a couple of websites:

The hike through Titou Gorge is actually a short swim from the base of a waterfall through a series of natural “rooms and ponds” formed by high cliff walls canopied by interlaced trees. The undulating sides of this deep, narrow gorge were formed as molten lava cooled and split apart.

The swim is short, only about five minutes, and the canopied light filtering down the mountainside within the gorge is spectacular. A hot spring tumbles down a short wall just outside the entrance of the gorge, which feels wonderful after the cool waters of the falls!

What is Titou Gorge? 

Dominica is a volcanic island, covered in tropical rainforest and abundant with fruit and spices. Waterfalls cascade over the mountains across the entire landscape, but one of the most well-known of them all is the waterfall at the end of Titou Gorge. The stunning gorge was formed when molten lava flowed down from the mountain top, before cooling and eventually cracking apart. Fresh water cascaded over the rocks and through the gorge, creating one of the most beautiful natural wonders in the Caribbean islands. 

Titou Gorge and the Pirates of the Caribbean 

It’s actually thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies that the gorge is now so accessible; only a few years ago the Titou Gorge was only reachable via a long hike through humid forest, following the path of a large pipeline made of oak which runs overground like a giant python. So when Disney decided that Titou Gorge was the perfect location to film at, they ran into a problem. Transporting film equipment and crew halfway up a rainforest enshrouded mountain was almost impossible: so, they built a road. 

If you’re curious about where in Pirates of the Caribbean you can find Titou Gorge scenes, watch the second movie in the franchise- Dead Man’s Chest. Captain Jack Sparrow himself tumbles down the gorge in a cage made of vines.

I was happy to have someone take my phone and put it into a waterproof pocket so I could take pictures in the gorge. They aren’t super great, but at least you can get an idea of what it is like.

You can walk into the water or jump into the water. Three of the five of us decided to jump. The initial impact with the water is a tad jarring as it is a bit cool. Michael mentioned that hitting the water was harder than he had anticipated. We swam to the waterfall, got our picture taken, then swam back. By the time we were done. I had goosebumps. I should confess, however, that I am a freeze baby. It felt good to put my body under this small stream of warm water prior to exiting the gorge.

This is the jumping off point. I am not sure how high it is – maybe 20 feet?

The waterfall and the water at the turnaround point was really rushing!! We had to hold on tight.

On the return trip.

Pictured below is what our guide calls “jungle M&Ms.” I call it “icky.” So, you take off one little section (you can kind of see how there are small M&M-size sections) and suck on it, then chew the bean in the center. I thought the outside was slimy and tasteless and the bean was bitter. Not my thing. But I am glad I tried it! I don’t remember its real name.

It was lunch time and we were hungry! Our guide took us to a cute little outdoor restaurant with nice views and excellent food!

Michael had chicken. I had fish. We ate all of it!

Trafalgar Falls

The next stop was to Trafalgar Falls, where we would climb up as far as one can. Some info about the falls:

The jaw-dropping Trafalgar Falls are two of the most-visited sights on the island. The upper waterfall, colloquially referred to as “Papa,” cascades dramatically from the Trois Pitons River, across the Titou Gorge and empties into hot sulfur springs, while the lower waterfall, “Mama,” flows gently from the river into a natural swimming pool.

It’s a short 10 to 15 minute walk along a well-maintained path to the viewing platform, where you can photograph both falls. The more daring can continue on to swim in the refreshing waters of the smaller waterfall or find the hot springs of the tallest fall.

We climbed Papa. At one point, my shoes were slipping so much that I took them off and finished the rest of the scramble barefooted. That felt much safer. It was a super fun climb!

The guide took us to a viewpoint of Roseau before we headed home.

He then stopped at a grocery store so we could all stock up a bit, then drove us through town back to our dinghies.

I called this an aromatic tour, so let me tell you some of the other things he presented us with and asked us to identify them by smell. I don’t remember all of them but three I remember are tangerine leaves, lemon leaves, and eucalyptus. He also shared some passion fruit and mangos with us.

We said goodbye to our new friends, agreed that we hoped we would see each other again, got in our dinghies and headed back to our respective boats.

It was a glorious day!