DOMINICA BOUND!

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diverbri

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Leaving for dominica next week, any advice from those who have already been there? Best diving,photography, other activities,where to eat,visit, what to look out for,etc.
Thanks. diverbri
 
Aren't you fortunate, diverbri?

Here's a little piece I whipped together for my "Rodale's Scuba Diving" column:

"Set in the eastern Caribbean with a 4,750' mountain, boiling lake, and numerous waterfalls and crater lakes set in lush rain forest foliage, Dominica is quite striking. Although faced with worrisome resource exploitation & development over the recent past, and now firmly on the cruise ship itinerary, it remains in contention for most Edenic places on Earth. With English as the official language & a friendly population of about 75,000, this is a good venue for the nature-oriented.

Look for daytime highs averaging 75 degrees in winter & 90 degrees in summer. Temps drop at elevation, so take along a sweater or wind breaker in the cooler months if going into the mountains, especially at night. Look for water temps of around 78 degrees in winter & 83 degrees in summer, with viz ranging from 60 to 125 feet depending on season & site. The rainy season is July to October, but rarely precludes diving.

What Dominica does lack are attractive tropical beaches, especially around the capital city of Roseau where many of the hotels & dive ops are located. There is some decent beach NW up the coast, but it never reaches the quality of those on islands such as St. Maarten or St. Lucia. Diving, hiking, kayaking, bird watching, nature tours are the order of the day. Whale & dolphin watching trips run regularly along the west coast. Nightlife & commercial activity like shopping are limited, although hotels have some party nights (either hotel or patron initiated), there are some fun shops, and a variety of cuisine is available.

Airfare tends to be expensive as there are no landing facilities for large commercial craft. Most tourists take American Airlines to San Juan, PR and then American Eagle into Melville Hall Airport. It’s about an hour and a half, mostly white knuckle drive to Roseau where you likely will be staying if you are diving.

Upscale accommodations with reasonable access to diving include Petit Coulibri, currently closed for renovations, which is about a 15-minute drive to the marina. Evergreen, Castle Comfort & Anchorage are next to each other, midrange in price & generally comfortable, although the Evergreen is larger & has a pool. None is luxurious. At the Castle Comfort, ask for one of the newer rooms. The Fort Young is an older hotel whose in town locations makes it a bit noisier and less convenient than those closer to the marina. Whatever your choice, be sure to get a room away from the street.

Castle Comfort & Evergreen use Dive Dominica, the island’s largest operator. Anchorage uses Anchorage Divers. I recommend Nature Island Dive, a small, flexible, very friendly shop that can accommodate more advanced divers. Whomever you dive with, you will see all the usual sites. Most diving is on very healthy reefs only 10-20 minutes from shore, with some great marco photo opportunities. Boats come back to the marina between dives.

A variety of diving is available around the Scott's Head Bay/Soufriere area in the south, a protected marine reserve, ranging from nearby calm reefs to more distant pinnacles with sometimes healthy currents. Soufriere Pinnacles & L'Abym both offer opportunities to see a variety of frogfish & sea horses, with the latter site plunging precipitously into the depths. Amongst my favorites sites is Danglebens Pinnacles, 5 pinnacles in the 25'-100' range with healthy sponges & corals. Famous is Champagne Reef, a shallow diving and snorkeling site that releases hot water and bubbles.

Up the west coast about 40 minutes from Roseau is the Castaway's Beach Hotel, which has a real beach. The on-site op, Dive Castaways, frequents over a dozen sites, most within a l0" boat ride. These include Rodney's Rock (look for batfish, frogfish & sea horses, Coral Gardens/Batali Pinnacle (with a variety of frogfish) & Whaleshark Reef with its very healthy corals & sponges. Most sites have lots of tropicals, but as with much of Dominica diving little of any size.

In the far NW is the Portsmouth area & Cabrit's National Park, with over 10 sites including Pointe Ronde (like Champagne down south & Pinard Pinnacle with a long, fish-filled swim through. Farther north, in the Guadeloupe Channel, are more wrecks to be explored. Cabrit's Dive Centre is highly recommended.

For the diver who wants healthy reef & some interesting u/w topography, as well as a variety of nature-oriented topside activities in a laid back atmosphere, it's hard to beat Dominica."

Hope this gets you started.

DocVikingo
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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