Feather stars and sponges are everywhere in Dominica nature's
island

A few years ago he had never heard of it - now he can't get enough of it. An unspoilt Caribbean island with abundant marine life has worked its spell on John Liddiard

Through the window of the Liat turboprop, it is plain to see that Dominica is unlike most Caribbean islands. Steep mountains covered in virgin rainforest ascend into patches of cloud. The only flat land in sight is the small airport runway. It looks more like Papua New Guinea than any island of the West Indies.
Transferring by minibus to the hotel, a narrow winding road traces storming river valleys and rapids high up through the mountains. Dominica has a river for every day of the year, and numerous waterfalls. The highest mountain reaches 1450m. This is the windward Atlantic side of the island, where rainfall is highest. Everything is lush and green. In valleys wide enough for agriculture, small banana and pineapple plantations fill the strips between river and mountainside.
Soufrière Bay rings a submerged crater, with Scott's Head in the background Scorpionfish Filefish hiding in soft corals More examples of the ubiquitous featherstar and sponge population A flying Gurnard porcupine pufferfish gobies often rest on brain corals, but there are at least seven in this picture moulds for making reef balls large shoals of squirrel- fish are a common sight at overhangs like this one at Scott's Head Volcanic vents bubble from the seabed at Champagne and many other sites chocolate-brown sponge with yellow cup corals growing in it squid Trafalgar Falls are worth a trek
Leaving the valley, the road begins a tight zigzag up the side of a mountain and over to the Caribbean side of the island. The descent is even hairier. Nearing the west coast, the forest becomes dryer and less luscious, shadowed from rainfall by the mountains. I am captivated by the scenery and I haven't even been diving yet. It's easy to understand how the name "Nature's Island" arose.
I have travelled a lot and am probably less geographically challenged than most, but I must confess that it was only a few years ago that I realised Dominica existed.
I know that smacks of the explorer who says he has discovered this wonderful new land and plans to call it Australia or whatever. "What do you mean, discovered? We've known it was here all along!" replies the aborigine.
For most divers, however, Dominica is undiscovered. It's not as if diving in Dominica is primitive; a number of fully equipped and well-organised dive centres cater for a moderate flow of tourist-divers. It's just that most of us never really noticed it was there.
A confusion of names with the Dominican Republic is partly to blame, so let's get this straight. Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-ee-ca) is a small mountainous member of the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, and has nothing to do with the Dominican Republic, a much larger Caribbean state that shares an island with Haiti.

Perhaps we can thank this confusion for helping to preserve Dominica from the excesses of exploitation and over-development. Its rainforests have never been cleared for timber or replaced with sugar plantations. Among Dominicans of African and European decent, Carib Indians maintain their own culture. The tourist industry is still in its infancy and, as it grows, it is hoped that it can avoid the sort of mistakes made by more developed tourist destinations.
WET WET WET
A gap in the diving schedule allowed time for a diversion into the rainforest, because just half an hour's drive from the coast, you can be in dense jungle.
Climbing out of the taxi, I was reminded of why it is called rainforest. "Waterproof" clothing is a waste of time - if the rain fails to penetrate, you will be drenched in sweat from the inside. I settled for shorts and T-shirt, my camera bag protected by a bin-liner, and being soaked through by warm rain proved quite refreshing, a bit like hiking under a shower.
Trafalgar Falls are a pair of waterfalls noted as an easy hike from the road. The path wound along the valley side to a wooden observation platform cantilevered out through the trees. Stepping out, I could see the falls at the head of the valley, "father" on the left, "mother" on the right. Very nice, but why did we need a local guide?
The path became steeper as we descended to the valley floor, and soon we were scrambling among jumbled boulders at the side of the streamway. Our guide immediately proved his worth by picking out the easiest route and avoiding unstable rocks.
A short climb, and we were by the pool at the base of the waterfall. My clothes were soaked, but I brought my bathers, along with a mask and camera housing to experiment with some unusual shots, swimming out beneath the waterfall and looking upwards.
Below me, catfish and other river fish darted about the pool. Given an opportunity to return, this could make an interesting underwater photographic project.
Our itinerary worked from north to south on the leeward west coast as each dive centre took its turn to host us. Our first dive to the north was OK but nothing special, just average reef at 27 to 30m. Perhaps my disappointment arose because I went in with a wide-angle lens on my camera and a preconception of vertical walls and clear waters.
The next few dives were on the central area. Visibility was again slightly less than I would have expected for a tropical dive, but when I saw the richness of the marine life, fed by the nutrients washing into the sea from Dominica's many rivers, this was easily forgiven.
There are none of the limestone ridges, grooves and spurs normally associated with coral reefs. The underlying rock structure is volcanic, and there are jumbled piles of giant boulders, craggy buttresses and overhanging ledges. All the usual corals are there in well-known shapes and sizes, but the richness of the water also maintains a gorgeous array of sponges, in colours ranging from grey to orange to bright yellow.

My favourite dive site on this stretch of coast was Coral Gardens, though "boulder gardens with coral and sponges growing all over" would describe it better. Between the corals and sponges, every nook and cranny hosted interesting macro life. Shrimps and arrow crabs were everywhere. Featherstars and bristleworms crawled over the sponges. Again I was reminded of Papua New Guinea.
On a deeper dive at Nose Reef I saw a forest of some of the biggest barrel sponges I have ever seen. The reef might well be called after the huge overhanging nasal projection at one corner in the wall, unless perhaps a local dive instructor lent it his name.
Other dives I made in this area were on sites named Brain Coral and Rena's Hole, both pretty dives from 22m up to 12m or so, with coral and sponge-covered ridges of rock and dark sandy patches between. The hole at Rena's is a short tunnel through an outcrop of reef.
Midweek, we had the chance of a night dive. My usual preference is for diving just before dusk, to catch all the frantic last-minute action before the fish settle down for the night, but that night's dive off Sibouli was completely black.
I started slightly sceptical but the dive turned out to be very rewarding. Within minutes the first octopus was spotted slithering across the dark volcanic seabed, and by the end of the dive I had seen five of them. I spotted a pair of flying gurnards resting on the sand, a small member of the pufferfish family resting half-buried, some violently fluorescent anemones, a pair of mating nudibranchs, crabs, lobsters and I forget what else, because I had already shot an entire film.

On a free afternoon we took a whale-watching and snorkelling trip. Dominica is apparently one of the best places in the Caribbean to see a whole range of whales. With deep waters close inshore, sperm whales can sometimes even be seen from the shoreline. Despite a reported 90 per cent success rate for these trips, however, we fell into the unlucky 10 per cent category.
To cool off, we moved inshore to a popular snorkelling site, called Champagne after the bubbles rising from volcanic vents beneath the sand. Similar vents, and even warmwater springs, could be found on many of the dive sites.

At the south of the island is the Soufrière Marine Reserve, encompassing about three miles of coastline extending from the volcanic crater of Soufrière Bay and along the coast a little way. Here walls extend from the clifftops straight down below the water for hundreds of metres into the flooded crater.
On the outside of the bay, submerged ridges and pinnacles projecting from the sunken part of the crater rim approach the surface. These provide some spectacular dive sites, with imaginative names such as Dangleben's Pinnacles, a series of five peaks ranging in depth from 12 to 25m and covered in corals and sponges.
Visibility here is a little clearer than further north, and the marine life more of the same in the best possible way: denser, bigger, more colourful and more spectacular. Dangleben's Pinnacles is the best reef dive I have yet experienced in the Caribbean. I don't know which local diver originally said: "If you're tired of Dangleben's, you're tired of life" but I agree. If I dived here often enough, I might even get to see the frogfish.
The last day of diving began on the wall at Scott's Head, a volcanic peak marking the south-eastern point of Dominica and presiding over the southern rim of the Soufri¸re bay crater. Making a safety stop below the boat, my attention was drawn to a large shoal of cleaner wrasse.
Thousands of them were milling about in a tight group, but every few seconds a smaller, even tighter and more ordered formation would detach itself and rise into the current, before darting back down to rejoin the shoal.
I watched closely. Each rising group consisted of one or two blue and green males surrounded by 50 or so yellow females. Near the top of their track, faint puffs of spawn were released, a sight virtually impossible to capture on film. I just relaxed and felt privileged to have witnessed it.
North of Soufrière Bay, my final dive was at Point Guignard, a gradually sloping reef with some interesting canyons and caves. The prevalent form of coral was yellow pencil, one of my favourites, and again I found hordes of juvenile fish and interesting macro creatures.

I had already finished my film when I swam into a school of 10 or more squid, and looked down to see our guide pointing out a seahorse. I had to return to the boat for more film.
If you are looking for a diving-plus holiday, there are more than enough activities to keep you busy, including whale-watching, jungle-hiking, climbing, canyoning, mountain- biking or kayaking in the sea or rivers, along with the chance to shoot white water on some of the steeper rapids.
On the diving scoresheet Dominica is up there with the best, but don't go for that alone, because the forest, mountains and everything else on Nature's Island has so much to offer. I could have done with two or three weeks rather than one. And if you go in for underwater photography, take three times as much film as you think you need.

BALL AND CHAIN

Dominica has no exciting wrecks, just a couple of old tugboats, but this could soon change. Along the shoreline a number of ships have been stranded by my friend Lenny and other hurricanes past. The National Development Corporation and the Ministry of Tourism are aware that they are unsightly, and one solution favoured by local dive businesses is to sink them as artificial reefs.

Meanwhile, Castaways Dive Centre on the central west coast has begun its own artificial reef project, using "reef balls". These hollow honeycomb blocks are cast in concrete and laid along the sand off the beach in front of the resort. Earlier this year, two batches of 12 or so balls were cast and sunk, with more to follow.

The objective is to lay a continuous chain across the sand to the reef crest 200m out to sea. Fish and octopus are already said to be setting up home there.

FACTFILE

GETTING THERE: John Liddiard flew BIWI (pronounced Bee-Wee) to Antigua for an overnight, then on to Dominica with Liat. Other flights may avoid the overnight stop. Alternative routes are available through any of the Windward Islands with international airports such as Trinidad or Barbados. An express ferry service between St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica and Guadalupe could be used as an alternative to local flights. UK tour operators include Hayes and Jarvis (0870 89 28 280) and Dive Worldwide (01243 870618). Visas are not required for UK passport-holders.

DIVING: Diving is mostly on the west coast, but in good conditions dive centres will make excursions around the ends of the island to explore the rougher Atlantic coastline. Most dive centres are members of the Dominica Watersports Association (www.dominicawatersports.com). From south to north, they are: Nature Island Dive (www.natureislanddive.dm), Dive Dominica (www.divedominica.com), Anchorage Dive Centre (www.anchoragehotel.dm), Castaways (www.castaways.dm), and Cabrits (www.cabritsdive.com).

WHEN TO GO: Rainfall is high enough to support tropical rainforest to the east and on the central mountains. To the west, the climate is mostly dry with occasional tropical showers. Diving is available year round, with water temperatures 25 to 28°C. Hurricane season is July-September, but Dominica is south of the hurricane belt and the main effect of a hurricane passing to the north is heavy seas.

ACCOMMODATION: Facilities range from luxury waterfront hotels to more basic hotels and guesthouses. If you don't mind driving to the dive centres, there are some atmospheric mountain and forest residences a little way inland.

LANGUAGE: English.

CURRENCY: East Caribbean dollar, with US dollars widely accepted. Cash is readily available with a Switch/Cirrus from autobank machines in the capital, Roseau.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Dominica tourist information for Europe is handled by MKI (0845 130 6980, e-mail: mki@ttg.co.uk, website: www.dominica.dm). An independent site with a lot of good Dominica information and links is www.delphis.dm. For land excursions check Raffoul Tours (www.raffoultours.com). More about reef balls can be found at www.reefball.com and www.reefballcoalition.com. arctic adventure
Appeared in DIVER - October 2000