An Excursion To Trinity Falls

Mainland St. Vincent is an astonishingly beautiful Island, and with a little planning one can discover what it has to offer.  There are waterfalls, rivers, rainforests and mountains to explore, not to mention a volcano to climb, and over the years I have set out on excursions that have blown me clean away!  When the Admiral began running as Bequia’s ferry we were able to take our Isuzu Amigo over to the mainland and that was GREAT, we could navigate around the Island with our own set of wheels.

The Vermont Nature Trail was a treat to explore, we accessed it from the top of Buccament Valley and hiked along trails surrounded by lush tropical vegetation that doesn’t grow on Bequia.  The Owia Salt Ponds, located on the Island’s Northeastern Coast close to the Carib Village of Owia, were well worth the long drive to see. Rawacou was a favorite of mine, the remote hotel perched on a cliff served up tasty meals, and the raw beauty of the rugged coast was breathtaking. The black sand beach was pounded by the Atlantic Ocean, making the small hotel’s swimming pool a welcome feature.  Rawacou is now a Recreational Park with a breakwater for those wishing to swim, when I last went it was still very wild and untamed!

St. Vincent has beautiful waterfalls, and I had been to the Falls of Baleine and Dark View Falls a couple of times.  When Mac suggested a trek to Trinity Falls I was enthusiastic, I had never been there and it would be a fun adventure for the family.  Mac warned that the hike to the falls would be strenuous, and that we wouldn’t be able to carry much in the way of food and drink.  He told me we could catch “river lobsters” to eat, the large and abundant Vincy crayfish would make a tasty lunch.

We left Bequia on the 6:30 ferry along with Bob and Maranne Berlinghof and their two sons.  I had packed some drinks in the car along with a large pot and a bag of salt, how nice that nature would be providing our lunch!  Mac had packed a plastic laundry basket, the kind with holes in the sides, and told us he would be using it to catch the river lobsters.  He would put bait in the basket, weigh it down with rocks, then wedge it between boulders in the river.  This method of fishing was new to me, who would have thought a laundry basket could be so versatile! With the spirit of adventure in the air, we sat on deck and nibbled happily on our breakfast sandwiches as we crossed the Bequia channel.

The drive to Trinity Falls took a while, longer than I had anticipated, and between the ferry ride and the bouncing car I became distinctly queasy. We hugged the road along the Leeward Coast, passing through Layou, Barrouallie and Wallilabou, each village a stepping stone to our destination.  South of Richmond Beach we found the vehicle trail to Trinity Falls, and bumped our way for quite some time until we got to the trailhead.  What a relief!  A hike through the forest would do wonders for both my heaving stomach and my cramped legs.

With Mac wielding a cutlass, we followed a rough path for quite some time, admiring the tropical foliage so unlike Bequia’s.  It was a long, hot walk, and a dip in the cold river water was something we were all looking forward to!  The path ended at the top of a ridge, and we scrambled eagerly down the steep incline to a large gorge. The beauty that unfolded in front of us was amazing, three powerful waterfalls tumbled into a wide river basin, then flowed into yet another basin below.  The water was cold, but slabs of rock warmed us as we basked in the sun.  I could feel the strong pull of the water, and kept a sharp eye on the children as they played.

Mac’s laundry basket method of fishing was a total flop, he sat and waited for the elusive crayfish to swim into his baited trap to no avail.    I had to laugh, all we had brought with us was a large pot and a bag of salt, and that certainly wasn’t going to feed eight hungry mouths!  Mac had started a fire under the pot with high expectations, and I had been looking forward to tasting my first River Lobster!  There was no lunch that day at Trinity Falls; no-one minded too much, the day had been a lot of fun, and we teased Mac as he toted his useless laundry basket and un-used pot back to the car.  We DID spot a street vendor selling hot corn souse in Barrouallie, and ate it gratefully before catching the ferry back to Bequia.

Today the trail leading to Trinity Falls is closed, making the falls difficult to access. Three men from the Czech Republic died in 2010 when they were captured by treacherous under-surges in the fast-flowing river. The area in and around the falls has been declared a danger zone, due partly to landslides that have washed away rainforest and bushes above the falls.  The landslides may have made the path unstable but the deaths of three visitors was the last straw, and the falls have been declared unsafe. What a shame, it’s such a beautiful spot!