Submitted by Emma Richmond-Boudewyns on the 2016 winter session program in Dominica sponsored by the Department of Geography…
This Friday, we climbed up the tallest mountain on Dominica – Morne Diablotin. The peak of this mountain is 1,447 meters or 4,746 feet. Before actually going up the mountain, a lot of us were slightly apprehensive. Every time someone would mention to a local that we were going to climb to the peak of Morne Diablotin, they would give us a look like we had just descended from outer space and say “good luck”. Most of the people we have talked to said they have never hiked to the peak of the mountain. We started climbing at about 1,900 feet. The beginning of the hike was steep steps made out of wood. After about 5 minutes, you could really feel the burn in your legs. After our third water break, only about 25 minutes had gone by. Eventually, we reached a calm in the steps. The ground became slightly flatter, but very muddy. Soon, we found ourselves back into the steep climbing, but now instead of steps it was tree limbs and rocks. You very quickly could no longer just “hike” up the mountain – it was now a climb. You found yourself grabbing on to roots of trees and vines hoisting yourself up onto large rocks taller then yourself. It was very interesting to see the vegetation change as you got to higher altitudes. The trees changed from tall trees to these low almost bush-like trees where you couldn’t tell, what was root, branch or trunk. There were many times when you were just climbing on, over and through the branches of these trees. I finally understand why and how jungle gyms got their names. It felt like I was a kid again playing on a playground, except for instead of mulch cushioning your fall, it was now a foot of mud, sharp rocks and sticks. After this entire experience, there was the most anticlimactic peak, I have ever experienced. I don’t really know what more I expected considering we knew that the tops of the mountains were always raining and cloudy, but we came to an opening, and looking out any more than 3 or 4 feet, all you could see was white fog, all around you. The only good thing about getting to the top of the mountain was being able to eat my sandwich of two pieces of bread and one piece of cheese.