BY CAROLINE POPOVIC 
OMINICA 
Trekking to the Trafalgar Falls was the last 
thing we expected to do. The walk 
requires a certain amount of agility and 
under normal circumstances the hike 
would have been no problem. But on that 
day my walking companion and I also 
happened to be 6 months pregnant. 
How we came to be wallowing in the 
hot springs of the "father" Trafalgar Falls 
came about when Mae, the publisher of 
St. Lucia's Tropical Traveller and myself, 
editor of the same, were asked by the 
Dominica Hotel Association to consider 
compiling a similar magazine for the 
Nature Island. 
It was the first time in Dominica for both 
of us and even though my step-brother 
has operated Dive Dominica for some 
years, I'd never visited him and his family. 
He might as well have lived in Timbuktu. 
Seeing Dominica was quite something. 
I thought St. Lucian scenery was 
breathtaking but here was a place that left 
me speechless. The power of the green 
mountains soaring out of the sea is 
tremendous and attempts by humans to 
tame the place with roads and houses are 
dwarfed by the island's natural magni¬ 
ficence. 
When we landed at Canefield, I felt as 
though I was looking back on St. Lucia 
some 20 years ago when that island was 
quieter and less developed. 
In the pint sized airport terminal, 
Dominica's prime minister was helping 
some friends through immigration and 
customs. No police, no special formality 
attended the event. 
We were to stay at the Papillote Wilder¬ 
ness Retreat in Trafalgar and by the time 
we had battled the traffic on the Gaza 
strip, said our hellos at Dive Dominica, it 
was dark. We saw little of the journey to 
Papillote except that we both anticipated 
imminent labour on the rougher parts of 
the road. 
At Papillote, dinner was waiting and we 
wasted no time in devouring the delicious 
flying fish. We explored a little and 
decided on an early morning dip in the hot, 
sulphur pool that bubbles in Papillote's 
restaurant. We hit the sack, lulled to sleep 
by falling water and the droning turbines of 
the nearby hydro electric plant. 
Early next morning, we relaxed in the 
hot waters of Papillote's pool. There's 
something about the mountain air and all 
those warm minerals (the shower, toilet 
and sink in our bedroom only put out hot 
mineral water) that really works up an 
would be able to handle the terrain without 
any problem. 
Initially he was right. The path was well 
laid out with gentle gradients. Robert 
knew all about the flora growing along the 
pathway. I had expected to see bigger 
trees but our guide explained that most of 
the old ones had been blown down during 
Hurricanes David and Allen some 13 years 
before. 
From the specially constructed lookout 
platform in front of the two falls, the power 
Father Falls at Trafalgar. 
of the falling waters is intense. The air is 
moist with flying water droplets, forced into 
the atmosphere by the sheer intensity of 
the falls. 
The tallest waterfall on the left is 
called the "father" and the shorter one to 
vvQio( __ _ __ the right is the "mother." The father 
appetite and we both sent back to"the originates from the Freshwater Reservoir 
kitchen for a second breakfast. high in the Trois Pitons National Park and 
Then the guilt set in. We had to work off flows through Titou Gorge. At the bottom 
all that food and a walk to Trafalgar Falls of the falls, hot water pours through 
Mother Falls at Trafalgar. 
was recommended. We hired a guide, also 
recommended. His name, Robert and he 
assured us that the walk was not too 
arduous and that even in our condition 
orange, mineral-stained rocks. Flash 
floods sometimes occur during the rainy 
season and it is risky business attempting 
to bathe in this fall (something we 
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