On the ferry from Dominica to St. Lucia I met two locals who gave me tips for my stay in St. Lucia. Actually they scared me a bit because they thought that I shouldn't walk around alone and always book a tour and that there are robberies. One of them then accompanied me to my bus, which I had to take to get to the east of the island. There I rented an AirBnB, which was promoted with the phrase "Far away from everything". And it literally is like that. The landlady offered to pick me up from the ferry for half the taxi price, but I decided to take the bus. The bus had to let me off at an intersection and from there I had to walk inland. So I was cheerfully walking inland with all my luggage, when it started to dawn (as the ferry was an hour late). An soon it got dark. When I passed a poultry farm at some point, I thought that I had finally lost my way and that this could not be the right route. I tried to call the landlady but I didn't have any reception. I walked a bit further and finally I could call her. She said I'm all on the right track and that I'm almost there. So I marched on. Then a car with a young family stopped and asked if they should take me, but after I was almost there, I said no. So they drove on and a minute later it started pouring rain. It was OK though as I have raincovers for my backpacks. And then after a few seconds the car came back and said that they wouldn't let me keep going in the dark and in the rain with all my luggage and they would drive me to where I needed to go. So shortly afterwards I reached my destination: The La Tille waterfall with my little hut.
There was not Gerda, from the AirBnB profile as expected, but an old Rasta: John. He owns the whole property and is not into the internet at all :) , so his friend Gerda manages that for him. Since I didn't get to go shopping, I didn't have anything to eat and was already a bit worried, since there was no way to eat or buy anything far and wide. John immediately asked me if I had eaten and asked if fish with rice, vegetables and coconut sauce would be OK for me. – OK? That's about the best thing I could have ever imagined!
And so we sat together in my little willow-weaved hut, ate and talked about all kinds of things. And then the day ended and I fell asleep surrounded by animal noises in the middle of nowhere. The next morning John brought me a mango and asked me if I wanted coconuts, then a worker climbed on the palm tree, brought me 3 coconuts and opened them professionally with the machete.
John's property is a true paradise. There are coconut palms, mango trees, cashew trees, pineapples, bananas, star fruit and other plants and trees. Awesome! Did you know the cashew nut is attached to a fruit that looks like an apple? - I didn't.
Besides the main attraction of the waterfall in the middle of the jungle, there is also a fish spa pond. There you sit at the edge, with your feet in the water and the little fish come and nibble around your feet.
I decided that I didn't have to go hiking at all, as I was living in one of the main attractions of the island anyway. That was also very funny, because international and national day tourists came all the time to visit the waterfalls while I was practicing ukulele in my hammock and watched the hustle and bustle. That day also John's whole family came. There was a big family party with barbecue and drinks and I was right in the middle of it. John used to supply me with food like grilled fish, grilled chicken, coleslaw, rice with beans and salad, as well as pineapple juice from the garden and his homemade spice rum. It's been a great day.
When everyone was gone and the sun slowly set, I went to the waterfalls and took a cold shower, was swimming and enjoyed the loneliness that I learned to appreciate so much on my journey so far.
The next day it went on almost the same way. There was no family party, but it was a holiday and another extended family came for a barbecue. They even had their own DJ with turntable and four huge speakers. Then I took a bit of a break and set off for a hike to the river after having checked with John that it was no problem to walk around here alone. On my way I passed many plantations, talking to the farmers. When it rained I stayed in a barn and then I went to the river. Afterwards I saw on the map that if I had waded through the river I could have walked into the rainforest, but I still didn't feel like I missed anything because the area on the way to the river was just beautiful. Here are some impressions:
The next morning I wanted to film the waterfall with the drone. And in principle, that's what I did. Unfortunately I made a mistake when steering and flew the drone up instead of backwards, it got caught in the tree and fought with leaves and branches and finally lost the fight and fell into the water. Like in Baywatch, I jumped right after it and recovered it from the ground of the swimming pool. I immediately put in the sun to dry and hoped for the best. (Looking back today I can tell that the drone unfortunately did not survive it).
John has arranged a friend to drive me to the south. He was a musician who introduced me to his hits. It's been a very cool ride. On the way to my second place, the Balenbouche Estate, he stopped on a beach, the Labori Bay, which is one of the most beautiful ones on the island. It was lined with coconut palms and small fishing boats. TK Irie (the artist name of my taxi driver / musician) then told me that apartments are also rented to tourists here. I'll have to remember that next time.
