Dominica Hiking – We needed cleats for this one…
It was a beautiful sunny day in the Caribbean and we were excited to be Dominica hiking again. Our guide picked us up at the cruise terminal and after a short sightseeing drive through Roseau and along the coast, we arrived in the village of Giraudel.
Today’s quest was Morne Anglais, one of the tallest mountain peaks in Dominica. We started our hike at an abandoned water storage facility at the top of an extremely steep secondary road. It’s amazing that cars can climb this type of hill. Speaking off steep, the hike immediately started on a slope, on a narrow path along-side the water facility property line. We then crossed a clearing next to an agriculture site of some sort with a weird igloo-like structure being made of sand and cement – Looks like it will be used for crop storage. The trail eventually transitions into a nice natural path that pretty much just disappears into the rain-forested. Our guide explained that we would be hiking through elfin forest as well as rain-forest.
Without any level ground to walk on for the initial half-hour or so of the hike, we were already out of breath – We hadn’t even warmed up yet. Oh well, there’s no turning back now. Once we were in the forest, we encountered a few flatter areas and we started to find our Dominica hiking legs. This was good, for we would need them. Our guide told us that we had picked a good day to hike Morne Anglais, as there had been torrential rain for several days prior to our arrival, making the trail impossible to traverse. Hhmnnn…
Well… It turns out that the trail was really water-logged and hadn’t had time to sufficiently dry up after all that rain. We were about to find out that most of the trail, especially all of the somewhat level areas, was a muddy mess. In some places, the mud was 3-5 inches (12 cm) deep and consisted of that heavy/thick muck that you can’t seem to (easily) pull your foot out of. Oh, Joy! Seriously – Always one for new experiences, this trail / hike gave us that, as we walked the majority of the trail with what felt like mini cement blocks of mud on our feet.
Seriously – a couple of times we had to stop and wait for our guide to find his sandal in the mud and strap it back on again. The mud had literally sucked the sandal right off of his foot.
These muddy conditions really slowed our progress, as it was difficult to find traction while we ascended the mountain. We repeatedly had to use our hands, grabbing nearby tree branches or plants so that we could pull ourselves up and climb. Somewhat typical Dominica hiking, although this was pretty extreme!
I love ridge trails, and this was no exception. It was very steep, and there was nowhere to go but on the trail as the sides were almost cliff-like in sections. It gets the adrenaline pumping to know that stepping off the trail could mean tumbling hundreds of feet, although the thick dense forest growth would break your fall rather quickly 🙂
About halfway up the mountain, we came to a sign nailed to a tree, announcing our entry into the “National Parks”. I thought we were already in the Trois Pitons National Park, however we were just entering it. No-one knew this better than our guide, a Dominica Forest Ranger, as he was the one who nailed up the sign the week before.
All along the hike, our guide amazed us with his knowledge of the different plant and tree species. He could also identify over half a dozen different bird types and insects, just from hearing their whistling/buzzing sounds.
Although it was tough going on this extremely muddy trail, we were really enjoying ourselves. We did not encounter any other hikers on this trail, and our guide told us that it is only hiked a few times a month. We had to be careful – both taking shorter than usual steps in order to keep our balance. It would have been easy for a foot to slip out from under me, risking a groin pull etc…
A few places along the trail we took advantage of small openings, breaks in the dense tropical jungle to take some pictures. We had great views of the nearby towns, coastline, surrounding mountains, as well as the top of Morne Anglais itself (see photo below).
We could easily see Dominica’s capital Roseau with what appeared to be tiny cruise-ships in its port. Wow, we must be high! We also had excellent vantage points of the south-west portion of the island, including the towns of Castle Comfort and Bellevue.
As we climbed even higher, we had sensational views to the north and east, where we could see the other tall peaks on Dominica, specifically Watt Mountain, Morne Trois Piton, as well as Morne Diablotin in the cloud covered distance in the north. We also had a clear view of Freshwater Lake next to Morne Macaque. Just spectacular – The rewards of hiking a mountain are plentiful! Now, this is Dominica hiking…
According to my Trail Map App, our hike was a fairly constant steep incline all the way to the top, although the steepness did decrease slightly once we passed the half-way mark. Well, our “on the ground” hiking experience was that the trail consisted of a mixed bag of exciting short sections – Mostly steady steep areas, a few fairly flat areas, along with a few crazy near-vertical sections where we literally climbed with our hands (and feet) up cliff-like tree roots.
It’s the same trail down, however the descent posed a new challenge… How to go down the really steep sections, with all of this mud while staying in control – Well, OK without slipping and falling too often. Again we took it slow and easy, although there were a few times when I felt myself losing balance and bending uncomfortably backwards – It’s probably not too good for the back when your body bends backwards into the shape of the letter C. In some areas we resigned to the fact that the best way to stop from falling is to get on the ground and crawl down backwards on all fours like a crab. Going so slow allowed us to really observe our environment, and I noticed that small 2″ lizards were darting quickly across the trail in front of us. Although we were really muddy, and a little cut-up by some razor grass, we made it back in one piece. What an awesome experience!
ACT Staff
* Please note that this review was done prior to Hurricane Maria in 2017 – The trail conditions/characteristics may have changed as the island recovered *
For trail details and local hiking guides to get you on the mountain, as well as much more information on travelling to Dominica, please click on the following links (to pages on our website):
Hiking Dominica’s Morne Anglais
For an overview of what the Caribbean has to offer intrepid travelers, check out our Active Caribbean Travel home page
