Ahh - the rain forest! It sound so erotic. NO. I mean exotic. OK take a household item, stair rod and then use it as a modifier Stair Rod Rain Forest! Not so attractive now eh? We’re not just wet, we’re wet everywhere, and it’s the tone of the day - we dry a bit, then it rains again!
Starting at the very beginning, we arrive into Rousseau Dominica and run the modest gauntlet of taxi drivers at the port gate. We head up 128m to the monument at Morne Bruce, half killing ourselves with the speed of ascent through the lovely botanical gardens! There’s a cross, and then the lookout at an old garrison dating back to 1700s when we were fighting the French, with the most amazing views over the city and back to our Odyssey.
There’s no option but to come back down this incredible rocky outcrop the way we ascended so it’s almost back to sea-level before we start our ascent again. This planned walk is to the Middleham Estate, an amazing rain forest park high in the mountains. We walk on the side of the road, it’s the only option, and for six and a half miles we climb, and climb, it’s over 560m. I keep the sums going and convince myself this 678m is less than climbing Table Mountain (800m) or exiting from the Grand Canyon (925m when we did it from Indian Garden) so all must be OK. They both had their challenges but neither was done in almost 100% humidity though, or indeed the torrential downpours that came out of nowhere! One of the beauties of GPS is the ability of apps to work as altimeters.
Just when we think it’s all over and we’re there, we take a left turn where the road fell off the cliff and the road workers are all sleeping, and the path now take an horrendously steep drop back down the next valley, we drop over 100m before starting to climb yet again, up over 200m, and then drop down to a ford, and oh no it’s climb again, this time up another 150m. All this done on the most basic paths - roots and cut branches proving the grip we needed to get over the mud. It’s hard going, by the time we’re finished it’s been well over 1200m of climbing!
Our final descent is over 100m into a valley where there’s a waterfall we could only see the top of, but it promises to be spectacular, and all along the forest is so lush it’s just incredible. We could have descended further the pool below, but basic time calculations told us we’d done enough and had to head back. Of course, all those earlier descents are now ascents - we make way out of the estate, passing a cute little forest crab on the way!
Once we hit the road it’s a quick descent back to town and then a welcome return to the ship. We’re done just over 18 miles and banked our 3500 calories for Formal Night’s dinner later. Having missed lunch we head to Seabourn Square and get some club sandwiches, cake, fruit and a lovely glass of Chardonnay to tide us over until it’s cocktail time in the jacuzzi.
I’ve had a service issue on one of the system PCs over the weekend, so spent ages dealing with that - have to admit it’s my software, so my fault, but it’s fixed now. We jump into the jacuzzi and while away the time watching the ship prepare for the leave Rousseau, the colour of the sun is amazing as we leave.
Caviar is deemed necessary tonight whilst we’re getting ready, and then it’s aperitif time at the Patio Bar before descending (ow that calf hurts!) down four decks to dinner in the MDR.
Goat’s cheese soufflé, lobster bisque, salmon panna cotta are our first and second courses, before rack of lamb and beef Wellington and finally chocolate ganache cake and berry mille-feuille to finish, all lovely!
Showtime was a new Rat Pack type production with standard after standard performed excellently by the ship’s singers and dancers.
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