Jungle Weekend in la Plaine

“The bridge is broken, we have to cross the river by foot” my friend tells me, for I don’t know what time in order. We are going to her place in la Plaine for the weekend and are checking the last little things. We’ve got sheets packed? Yes. And quiche ready-made for dinner, something for breakfast, wine, beer, rum, mosquito repellant, swimsuits, cameras, sunglasses… Yes, everything is there and we are off.

We leave Roseau, turn toward Pont Casse in Canefield. Half an hour later we pass the entrance to the Emerald Pool and head south east, toward the Atlantic coast. The one and a half hour drive – I really dont think it is possible to get any farther, the island may be mountainous, but it is still small – is pleasant, as always. Up on the cool plain after Pont Casse it is raining, as always, the Morne Trois Piton looks down at us, somewhat gloomy. We stop at the usual spring water tap, fill up a couple of bottles with some of the best water on the island, straight from the spring, and continue. Music is on and it is a perfect day for a jungle adventure.

When we reach the coast we pass the Rosalie Bay Beach and I wonder if some little turtle hatchlings may be on their way down to the sea right now. La Plaine then, is a nice and slow village on Dominica’s southeast coast. It sits on a wide slope of hardened lava once emitted from the volcanoes in the Grand Soufrière Hills behind the plain, and has ha population of a little less than 1500. Today we are going to turn before we reach the village.




We stop at the Bout Sable Bay and its little beach and do some redistribution. Girls and kids and all stuff get squeezed into one car, the one with four wheel drive, and the boys get the other. Two different dirt roads will take us to the house, one somewhat less bumpy but ending farther away, with a short hike through the bush following the car ride. Machete stays in boys car, we get the bumpy road.

I turn on the four wheel drive and we head inland, uphill, and the scenery is completely wonderful. Straight ahead we have Trois Piton and all around us hills and valleys, all green, green, green. Here and there a cow, some banana plantations, and when the curves are sharp we see the Atlantic ocean, far down the valley now, but still there. We drive up one hill, then serpentine back down into the valley, cross a river – this one has a bridge – and make our way back up next hill, we are almost there. Just one more steep downhill drive, breaks work fine, and we reach the next river, park the car under a small lime tree.

Out of the car comes bags and boxes, food and drinks, a huge mattress and several kids. We take everything down to the river and soon after the boys appear from the other side.

The bridge is broken. We have to cross the river by foot.

I still have no idea where the house is, but it is just there my friend assures, on the other side of the river, just behind those huge mango trees, making it impossible to get even the tiniest glimpse of it. But there it is, just there. Carrying all kind of stuff, kids, the mattress we reach the house. It is a small gingerbread house, built from wood from the land, with a huge veranda. As so often, no glass in windows, just hurricane shields, in case of. The sound of the river, a lot of birds, the breeze are the only sounds. We are deep into the forest.

So, then, what to do in a small one-room gingerbread house without electricity, running water, close by bars, internet connection?

We relax. My friend is working on the garden, that is, what is supposed to be a garden, keeping up with fast growing jungle plants is not the easiest thing in the world, but it is beautiful in all of its wildness, flowers are everywhere, wild banana – or heliconia, red ginger, different types of hibiscus, oleander, jasmine, pink frangipani and lots of others I don’t know the name of or don’t even recognize. The boys are off crayfish hunting in the river, funny walking in the shallow water with special equipment, the little ones jumping up and down on the river rocks, throwing pebbles into the water, they are all in flow. Later we all have a swim, meanwhile I lay down in the hammock on the veranda. And so we eat, and eat again, drink wine and at seven it gets dark. About an hour later everyone is asleep. One family downstairs, the other in the small loft. Someone in the hammock.

The best thing, I think, with escaping to the jungle for the weekend is waking up. Waking up by dawn, just when it starts to get bright, when every bird in the entire forest is up and singing, when everything is still fresh, cool from the nights rainfall. And while everyone else is still asleep. The river keeps flowing down from the mountain, the garden as beautiful as yesterday, and I am far, far, far away from any visual contamination and information overload of every day life. I want to stay.

But we can’t, after breakfast we have to leave, we have commitments, have to have lunch in Bagatelle, attend a meeting in Grand Bay. We have to leave, we cross the river, walking. We will be back soon.

How to get there & how to do this: Well, to get to la Plaine is not really that complicated. It is the second largest village in the Saint Patrick Parish (that is the southeastern part of Dominica), after Grand Bay, and can be found on every descent map. Then, to do this you need someone who agrees to rent or lend you a little house deep in the forest, ask around the village, or maybe my friend could rent you hers…