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This morning we rented a big Toyota van and the seven of us (4 from Katzenellenbogen, 2 from Rocking B and myself) went off for a day of exploration and shopping. The drive from Portsmouth in the northern part of the island to Roseau on the southern end was somewhat over 30KM but took a while because the coastline road is not only winding up and down the steep hills but the road conditions are not always perfect. It remained a pretty ride but once in Roseau the traffic got heavier – it seems that a big inter-school sports event was going on today plus there was a cruise ship at the dock in Roseau which exacerbated the problem. We did get the correct road out of town towards the Trafalgar Falls (after a couple of false attempts) and soon were winding up the steep road which got progressively more and more narrow and grades of 25% and more made going uphill arduous. Our trusty van had no problem and once at the end of the road we paid our national park fees and walked towards the falls. When we arrived there was little going on, but by the time we’d started walking the newly refurbished path we were stalked by consecutive groups of cruise ship guests. Luckily they weren’t permitted to go beyond the end of the path and soon we were almost alone in the boulders underneath the two sets of falls and then we got a treat – a hot bath in the stream heated through volcanic action. There were a series of small to medium sized pools which we soaked in for a long time, the water was jacuzzi temperature and even a little bubbly in spots, giving us a true spa experience. While the rocks in the stream were covered what looked like iron oxide deposits, the water itself had none of the sulphuric odour usually accompanied by natural hot springs. The only downside to the whole thing was that after leaving the pool and drying off I continued to perspire for a long time and I should have taken a cooling bath in the waters coming down from the waterfalls.
After snacking at the little snack place at the end of the trail we heading into Roseau and, after several wrong turns, we found the parking lot next to the local big store, Astaphan’s, and provisioned. I was finished quickly and wandered around the city streets, finding a pharmacy and replenishing my supplies of Flamazine. Unfortunately my camera was at the bottom of the pile and I didn’t get any pictures of Roseau but I’ll do that some other time. After the big provisioning stop we did a much shorter stop at store whose name we weren’t sure of on the way in, some thought it was “Cost U More” while others opined “Save U Less” but we found something called “Cost U Less” which indeed seemed to bear out it’s name. Once fully stocked we headed back towards Portsmouth and were unpacking our acquisitions at 17:00, just in time for happy hour libations and preparing dinner aboard.
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