My new favorite hobby

So most of you know that back in the States, I was into rock climbing. Unfortunately Dominica (being a volcanic island and all) isn't conducive to rock climbing. Believe me, I've tried. Most of the "rock" here is like sandstone (as soon as you try to put any weight on it, you fall right off). However, it is apparently a good island for canyoning (canyoneering to some). You may be wondering, what this is exactly. Well, it's rappelling (abseiling) essentially. Though here, it just isn't off cliffs, but down waterfalls! Awesome, I know!! So the canyoning trip I went on this past weekend was to the Titou Gorge, which is a little west of Roseau. We went with Extreme Dominica (check out their website) which is in affiliation with Cocoa Cottages (you REALLY need to stay there if you just want to get away from it all and experience living in the jungle in luxury). Anyway... we get there and changed into our "gear." "Gear" being full-on wetsuit (long sleeves and legs- HOT in Dominica), helmet, climbing harness, shoes, and life jacket. (I admit I was thinking that it was REALLY overkill at this point.) After a brief training session, we then drove to the middle section of the gorge and started our adventure. (I've got pics posted on Facebook so you should check them out!) Luckily for me, it came quite naturally (I guess with my climbing experience, though I'd never really been a fan of rappelling) so I was pretty efficient and fast. We rappelled down around 7 waterfalls ranging from 15-30 ft. high. There were places we jumped (if it was deep enough) and they were 5-15 ft. high. There were also a few place (2) that we were just lowered down (didn't really know why). In between waterfalls we trekked through the gorge (for my Australia peeps, think Northwest trip through the gorges up there, but green instead of red!). The gorge was about 60 ft. deep (from what I remember, maybe more) with a river running through it. It was pretty shallow in some places, and in other, you definitely had to swim! (At this point, I was glad I was decked out in all that gear!) We were probably in the gorge for 3 or 4 hrs and I wish it were longer! The hardest part of the whole thing was the hike back out! Since we were going down the gorge the whole time, we had to climb back out, so it was 20 min. of scrambling!!

So now I'm hooked on canyoning. I found out that they divide the gorge into three sections. The middle is the easiest (DONE!), the first part is the intermediate one (on my to do list, hopefully before Christmas or just after), and the last part is the Advanced one, this one includes a 260 ft. rappel down Trafalger Falls (REALLY want to do this!). So, if you're planning on coming to Dominica and you have a sense of adventure, you HAVE to put this on your "To Do List!"