Natural sites on Dominica: Art & Culture
Vous êtes ici : West Indies> Dominica> Art & Culture : Natural Sites Art & Culture on Dominica: Natural Sites Natural Sites
Dominica is unique. It is THE island for adventure lovers and lovers of green leisure activities. A large choice of escapades is waiting just for you: waterfalls, rivers, lakes, fauna and flora that will take your breath away.
For the most adventurous escapades, just ask the tourist bureau to provide you with the list of authorised guides. There is now a special school where guides are trained just for this
Roseau and the surrounding area
BOTANICAL GARDENS.
It was created back in 1889. The royal government wanted to encourage cultural diversification and distributed plants and seedlings to the farmers. The site covers 40 acres, one part that was planted with sugarcane was sold to the government by William Davies, owner of the Bath Estate. The keeper of the garden, Henri Green, began the plantation shell. In 1892, Joseph Jones took over the garden, which became his sole interest and a vocation for an entire lifetime. The botanical garden's function was primarily economic and experimental. Exotic plants were collected from all around the world when it depended on the royal British garden of Kew. In 1930, it was one of the most beautiful botanical parks in all of the English islands. In 1979, Hurricane David destroyed the oldest and most impressive trees, such as this baobab, which fell over on a bus that you can still see today.
The island's most official cricket field is located here. The park has been visited several times by the English royal family.
The EAST of the island
Morne Trois-Pitons National Park
This 6800-hectare park, which was primarily made up of tropical forest, has a few of the most beautiful places on Dominica: Boeri Lake, Fresh Water Lake and Boiling Lake. It gets its name from a mountain made up of three rocky pinnacles. The highest one reaches 1356 m in altitude. But it is not the islands highest point. This honour goes to Morne Diablotin with its 1447 m, located more to the north, in the heart of the Northern Forest Reserve.
Valley of Desolation and Boiling Lake
The "boiling lake " is the most beautiful and strangest site in Dominica, and without a doubt in the entire Lesser Antilles. It is considered to be the largest lake of its type in the world. Departing from Laudat, you can reach it on foot (relatively tiring) in three hours. Departing from Titou Gorge, the trail goes slowly up the jungle to the windy mountain crests, where you can get an excellent view onto the Valley of Laudat and the surrounding summits. You now start to small the odour of sulphur, which is a characteristic feature of volcanic sites, and you can see tree trunks that have been reddened by the gases. Then you go down into the "Valley of Desolation"", where plant life disappears, leaving bare the abrupt slopes of the red earth of Morne Watt.
There are many geothermal phenomena here: emanations of smoke, hot springs, boiling ponds, melting pots of grey mud, sulphur deposits. Hot rivers flow from here, with their grey, blue and sometimes ink-black water, passing through the rapids and down waterfalls. It looks as if their riverbeds and sides were painted with an infinite variety of colour: yellow, ochre, red, green, blue, grey, black. These are minerals inherited from the former volcanic activity.
You can have a swim in some of these ponds and rivers, where the water is of ideal temperature. Then we go upstream, along another beautiful river. An imposing mass of whitish smoke announces Boiling Lake. We reach the edge of a vast deep crater, at the bottom of which stretches a lake of grey water, boiling in the centre with monstrous puffs of smoke.
A guide is mandatory! The best is to get one in the village of Laudat (from 40 EC$ to 50 EC$ per person). Be careful: you cannot put your foot down just anywhere in geothermal sites. The water and mud are boiling in some areas, and the ground is fragile.
Forecast
Dominica
30 °C
Vent : 23 km/h ENE
Humidité : 86 %
|
|
