LEAP OF FAITH
28 September 2010 | Grenada
Michele
The painting, sanding, filling and dinghy glueing continues here with no end in sight. Today we started removing some of our window frames where there is rust appearing under the edges.
Sunday we had a great day off. We joined a group of over 30 people and went to the Seven Sisters Falls, a series of stunning waterfalls up in the rainforest. The drive there was fabulous through verdant green rainforest, along ridges with spectacular views to the coast on either side. We had a local guide, called "Butterfly", who was dressed very colourfully in the Grenada national colours of yellow, green and red including his "jelly" shoes. The hike to the series of 7 falls was very muddy after torrential rains the night before. We had a massive thunder and lightning storm which got us out of bed a 3am to deal with the rain coming in the still-open holes in the deck despite them being taped. The power of nature really is impressive; once again a boat was hit and its electronics blown out in a neighbouring bay. Fortunately as a steel boat we're supposed to be immune as we are a Faraday cage (remember those physics lessons?!) but I would rather not find out if that is true.
Once at the falls we had a welcome swim and then the bravest of the group followed Butterfly on a hike to "jump" the falls. Needless to say, I stayed at the bottom while Nic headed off. There were a couple of easy jumps and then they had to slide down a narrow chute to the top of the big waterfall and the culminating leap of around 10 metres. I was nervous just watching from below as Nic positioned himself in the fast running water with his knees knocking! He made it (picture attached) and was followed by Butterfly doing a very impressive backward flip clearly living up to his name.
Following all the activity we had an "oildown", the national dish of Grenada which is a sort of stew with vegetables, salt fish, chicken and saffron. It had been arranged by the locals who carried the big pot up to the falls and built a fire to cook it. It was quite tasty but not something one needs to have a second time. It was the setting that made it so special.