Morne Diablotin

12/12/2015

So after being here a month I decided last weekend, that I needed to concur the island by climbing Morne Diablotin, the highest mountain in Dominica. It is 4000ft tall, which is pretty mediocre but 75% of the walk is straight up and through elfin forest which is like a very damp and slippery obstacle course. About 3 hours in to the 7 hour round trip, I was starting to loose my rag with the constant clambering through the mud and branches. But after reaching the top I was rewarded with great views which made it worth it... so after a very quick lunch back down I went!

It was also time for me to see more of the island for the purpose of frog surveys, so me and the rest of the mountain chicken team jumped into the frog mobile and went for several tours of the island. To see all the previous survey sites used to find frogs, some of which were on the east side of the island where I was able to see the true scale of the damage inflicted upon the island by Hurricane Erika. Landslides covered the area and we met several people who had lost their homes and land. Even one gentleman who lost his entire family in one landslide. One of our transects at a place called Bagatel was completely gone, wiped off the mountain due to a very large landslide.

However in good news, over the last two weeks we found several brand new frogs! Including one juvenile which is evidence that the frogs have been successfully breeding over the last two years. Two of our new volunteers introduced me to the national sport of Dominica... Street Dominoes! A very lively version of the traditional game.