Part two of "To blog or not to blog"
We decided to go and see the Diamond Botanical Garden, everyone talked about the famous waterfall, and we really wanted tosee it. We were ready to go, all eleven of us. The backpacks were packed with water, food and cameras. We started the long hike to the Garden from the city centre - and we arrived 10 min. later. It was a bit of an antiklimaks to see these pavedroads and nice roadsigns, but we decided to pay the intrance and see the wild waterfall; and especially so we could bathunder the watefall as the guidebook recommended (a guidebook from 1993). We walked on the paved roads through colourfullflowers, small un-known animals and a japanese garden. It was totally wierd to walk in all these green, after havingseen blue for such a long time. It seems like my travels are rememberd in colours. My artic trip was white as all the ice,my Sahara trip was terracotta as the houses and the sand, the sailing was blue in the beginning, and now it is green. Themiddle-east was extremely colourfull (and so was the college of course when i visited it).We finally arrived at the waterfall, and was met by the big "It is not permitted to bath" sign, damn. However, we realizedthat this was the waterfall from where Superman picked a flower in the movie Superman II; beat that one...We walked out of the park on the "natural path", which was a bit more exotic. I suddenly realized that it was possible to get almost every single spice to your food from this park. We saw nugmet, cacao, coffee, bananas, avacado, giant bamboos,plus many more.I decided to go for a bit longer walk afterwards with the other two "young once" on the boat. We headed up mountain and passedby a beautiful area full of palm trees, mountains and sun-shine. I was ready to surrender. I could move to St. Lucia in thismoment, perfect diving, perfect hiking, nice people and a good area for sailing. We walked for 30 min. until we saw a signsaiyng: "Caribbean's only drive-in Volcano", wauw, I had seen a lot of volcanos on Iceland and Cape Verde, but never a drive-in one, so we walked in there. We decided not to walk around the volcano, but instead we took a nice bath. The waterwe went down in smelled like rotten eggs, and it looked like something from a sewagesystem; nevertheless, we were told thatthese sulphur bathes should be healty - and it defiantly felt healthy, it was more than 35 degrees warm, and Life was Good,sitting there taking mud on your own body knowing that there is no stress....damn, I am going to miss these moments of totally freedom. We walked back home, and went early to bed. For the next day was SNORKELING DAY. There was a little nice resort, just behind the bay we were laying in, so we went there with all our equimptment. The divingarea was marked with four boyes which is not particular "nature like", nonetheless, it was a fantastic view that met us.It looked like Love Parade in Berlin (an annualy techno festival), all these wierd and strange lightning colours moving allaround me. I was INSIDE the big watertanks you normally see at museums. I saw Nemo from "Finding Nemo", I saw a group oflightning blue fish (how do they hide from preditators?), I saw the most beautiful corals (only beaten by my dive in the RedSea), there were big and small fish, long and fat, only me....and the 3-4 Honeymoon couples.
We sailed from this paradise island just when the sun went down. We normally sail all night, so we can arrive at the next island in the early morning. It is so practical made in the Caribbean that every island is no more than 40 nautical milesaway from each other. The night sailing this time was fantastic. Full moon, quite a lot of stars and then the wind was blowing10 and 11. That means that we were sailng more than 8.50 (which is a lot for a boat our size). We got the wind from the side,so you had to stand with all your weight on one leg, while the salty water was splashing into your face. You can't help feeling a bit of "mightyness" when you stand and controll a big, two mast ketch. It is only you and the sea. Man againstnature as it has been for so many years. My ancestors (the Vikings) sailed to America long time before Columbus "re-discovered"America in 1492. I was just keeping an old tradition that night.
The native "Caribs" who settked our next island in the 14th century, called the island, Waitikubuli, which means "Tall is herbody." Columbus named it after the day of the week that he saw it, so today we know the island as Dominica. It is very mountainous, but still very similar to the islands that we had seen before. All green, a lot of mountains, and small bays. The main difference for me was that I had the morning watch this time. I had to sail from 05.00 to 07.00. I was met this time with themost beautiful rainbows that I have ever seen. I saw double rainbows, full rainbows, halfrainbows, and we sailed through a couple. They were so close to us that I could almost touch it. It was simply beautifull, the highway to Heaven.The town was very relaxed, and everyone was friendly. Actually it seems that it is only in the Nordic region that we dont liketourists. I am met with big smiles and helping hand, everywhere I go in the world. It is rarely that I meet the same "warm-ness"in Denmark...actually in other European countries.Max and I decided to leave the town early, so we could go diving. We took the dinghy (the little boat we have) and sailed a bit outside the bay. We dived at a okay snorkeling area and saw some few new species, but it was first really nice when we sailed around the corner and found our own little Robison Crusoe place (marked with two boyes). We dived around here and sawa sand diver, trumpetfish, harlequin bass, shy hamlet, jackknife fish (the first one we have seen on the trip), the beautifulQueen Angelfish, my favourite, the Foureye butterflyfish, and of course the hundreds of Sergeant Major.The corals were the finger coral, brain coral, pillar coral, fire coral etc. etc.... You can google all this if you want toget an idea of what we saw. We swam into the coast to relax a bit and take down some coconuts...or actually, we tried to geta coconut down, but it was soooo persistent. We spent 45 min. trying throwing stones and using a stick, but it just didntwanted to leave is safe palmtree.
I don't know how well your Caribbean geography is, but the next islands we went to were just south of Guadeloupe. They arecalled Les Saintes, as the name says, it is an old french colony. The special about these (very) small islands is that therehas never been slaves on them (they were not too good for sugar crops), so most of the population is blueeyed today. What wesaw was a "Little France", but it was actually quite nice to see a new style of housing and people. I took a long walk around,the town which was full of scooters and french tourists, so I decided to walk up in the hills around the town. The island is solittle that I saw 4 hills in one hour. And reached the end of the island after 15 min. I walked to the other side of the island,which took 10 min., but I turned around when I saw a read flag and a sign saying: "DANGER -bla bla bla somethinginfrench".I walked back again, and pased by a cross with Jesus on. It reminded me of Brazil and my next many travels...Max and I decided later that the Red Flag probably meant that it was REALLY good waves for body-surfing, so we jumped out inthe big blue sea, and was thrown all around in the ocean.
I am sitting on Antigua in the north now. A new island, a new currency. It is my birthday, and I was greeted at 01.00 this nightby dolphins jumping up and down next to the boat. I have never tried to celebrate my birthday this way. First of all, not withthe family, second of all in 35 degrees. It is also really special to take a walk around this area that we are in now. EnglishHarbour is very english, full of MOTHER F***** BIG ships. I didn't think that some people had soooo much money to use/waste,on boats....wauw, it is simply amazing to stand next to one of these British, blue Swan boats.........there are soooooo many big boats here....damn!
We sailed from this paradise island just when the sun went down. We normally sail all night, so we can arrive at the next island in the early morning. It is so practical made in the Caribbean that every island is no more than 40 nautical milesaway from each other. The night sailing this time was fantastic. Full moon, quite a lot of stars and then the wind was blowing10 and 11. That means that we were sailng more than 8.50 (which is a lot for a boat our size). We got the wind from the side,so you had to stand with all your weight on one leg, while the salty water was splashing into your face. You can't help feeling a bit of "mightyness" when you stand and controll a big, two mast ketch. It is only you and the sea. Man againstnature as it has been for so many years. My ancestors (the Vikings) sailed to America long time before Columbus "re-discovered"America in 1492. I was just keeping an old tradition that night.
The native "Caribs" who settked our next island in the 14th century, called the island, Waitikubuli, which means "Tall is herbody." Columbus named it after the day of the week that he saw it, so today we know the island as Dominica. It is very mountainous, but still very similar to the islands that we had seen before. All green, a lot of mountains, and small bays. The main difference for me was that I had the morning watch this time. I had to sail from 05.00 to 07.00. I was met this time with themost beautiful rainbows that I have ever seen. I saw double rainbows, full rainbows, halfrainbows, and we sailed through a couple. They were so close to us that I could almost touch it. It was simply beautifull, the highway to Heaven.The town was very relaxed, and everyone was friendly. Actually it seems that it is only in the Nordic region that we dont liketourists. I am met with big smiles and helping hand, everywhere I go in the world. It is rarely that I meet the same "warm-ness"in Denmark...actually in other European countries.Max and I decided to leave the town early, so we could go diving. We took the dinghy (the little boat we have) and sailed a bit outside the bay. We dived at a okay snorkeling area and saw some few new species, but it was first really nice when we sailed around the corner and found our own little Robison Crusoe place (marked with two boyes). We dived around here and sawa sand diver, trumpetfish, harlequin bass, shy hamlet, jackknife fish (the first one we have seen on the trip), the beautifulQueen Angelfish, my favourite, the Foureye butterflyfish, and of course the hundreds of Sergeant Major.The corals were the finger coral, brain coral, pillar coral, fire coral etc. etc.... You can google all this if you want toget an idea of what we saw. We swam into the coast to relax a bit and take down some coconuts...or actually, we tried to geta coconut down, but it was soooo persistent. We spent 45 min. trying throwing stones and using a stick, but it just didntwanted to leave is safe palmtree.
I don't know how well your Caribbean geography is, but the next islands we went to were just south of Guadeloupe. They arecalled Les Saintes, as the name says, it is an old french colony. The special about these (very) small islands is that therehas never been slaves on them (they were not too good for sugar crops), so most of the population is blueeyed today. What wesaw was a "Little France", but it was actually quite nice to see a new style of housing and people. I took a long walk around,the town which was full of scooters and french tourists, so I decided to walk up in the hills around the town. The island is solittle that I saw 4 hills in one hour. And reached the end of the island after 15 min. I walked to the other side of the island,which took 10 min., but I turned around when I saw a read flag and a sign saying: "DANGER -bla bla bla somethinginfrench".I walked back again, and pased by a cross with Jesus on. It reminded me of Brazil and my next many travels...Max and I decided later that the Red Flag probably meant that it was REALLY good waves for body-surfing, so we jumped out inthe big blue sea, and was thrown all around in the ocean.
I am sitting on Antigua in the north now. A new island, a new currency. It is my birthday, and I was greeted at 01.00 this nightby dolphins jumping up and down next to the boat. I have never tried to celebrate my birthday this way. First of all, not withthe family, second of all in 35 degrees. It is also really special to take a walk around this area that we are in now. EnglishHarbour is very english, full of MOTHER F***** BIG ships. I didn't think that some people had soooo much money to use/waste,on boats....wauw, it is simply amazing to stand next to one of these British, blue Swan boats.........there are soooooo many big boats here....damn!
posted by ...The eyes of the world | 12:27 PM
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