
To get to many of the beaches that we worked on, we had to hike through the jungle. On one such hike out to Rosalie Beach we learned more than our fair share about the temperament of the livestock in the area. Or, as we referred to them, the Jungle Cows.
Dominica itself has very little flat land and even less land for pasture. Most of the island is covered in rain forest greenery and tropical fruit plantations (bananas, mangoes, starfruit, papayas), so it was common to see cattle tied up in cricket fields along the side of the road or along trails.


This particular Jungle Cow was less than happy with our need to access the beach and decided to stand his ground. He head butted my friend a couple of times, though luckily his horns were not filly developed or sharp. It was disconcerting, however, to be essentially attacked by a cow in the middle of the jungle.
Lesson learned: don't mess with the cows.
Interestingly, Rosalie Beach is also home to an endangered green sea turtle nesting area. There are two conservancy interns that live within 0.5 km of the nesting site and take twelve-hour shifts. Sea turtle is a delicacy in the Antilles and the concern is that the eggs will be stolen, hatched, and eaten. One of the interns who helped us out while we were working in the area told us that the hatchlings would be heading oceanward and invited us back on the full moon to witness the crossing.


The majority of our group returned to Rosalie on the night of the full moon and were not disappointed. Hundreds of little greens made it to the water and, hopefully, well out to sea undisturbed.
On another note, the full moon reflecting on the black sand beach (above, left) is one of the more breathtaking sites I've seen. Right up there with the full moon night hike at White Sands National Monument on July 4th. The gypsum dunes were glowing and reflected the fireworks from Las Cruces, NM.
5 comments:
Such an interesting journey!
Nice blog...
that sounds AWESOME (: the beach and sea turtles bit, that is. although i would like to meet a jungle cow, too.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy real birthday!
Safe travels!
OK, you got us hooked and now.....
Hope your traveling has gone well. We anxiously awake the next entry.
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