I started my diving life at Cat Island in the Bahamas back in the 70's. As an out island, with no commercialism, the diving there was untouched. I knew that no one had dove the spot that I was diving on since my previous trip a year earlier. As someone that has traveled all over the world to dive since those early days, it is now becoming difficult to find new and exciting places to plan my next dive adventure. In seeing how many times Kamala has returned to Dominica, I knew that it had to be a special place even before I set foot on the island. That was my reason for joining the November 2021 trip. I certainly was not disappointed. The excitement started to build for that trip once I received my covid test email from my doctor. Then it was on to the Dominica web page to fill out the health survey. Unlike other trips, the forms were very smooth and easy, and I received my clearance within an hour. 2 days later, and I am off to the airport. A couple of quick flights, and I was in San Juan boarding the Silver Air flight to Dominica. The approach to the airport in Roseau brought us through a mountainous valley where passengers on both sides of the plane were looking out the windows at the mist-covered peaks above the wings of the plane. It was truly a beautiful sight, and I knew that we were in for a wonderful trip. As with most trips, Kamala was in a day early to get things set up and running smoothly for everyone. The hotel did have a couple of hiccups during the week because of how long they have been closed due to a hurricane and then the travel closures, but we were there to dive, dive, dive, so I was just thankful that the resort has opened back up and is now well on their way to running smoothly again. We were scheduled for 2 boat dives a day, plus unlimited shore diving. Our day would start with a wonderful breakfast around 7:00, and an hour later, we were on the dock getting ready to board the boat. The staff would bring our gear down from the locker and put it all on the boat, so we just hooked up the gear to our tanks and off we went. The diving brought me back 40 plus years to my early days of diving those untouched reefs of Cat Island. The coral reefs here were extremely healthy, and the sponges were huge. Some of the barrel sponges dwarfed a diver, and I have never seen any sponges this large anywhere. Unlike most other Caribbean locations, where the corals are patchy, the healthy reefs here stretched on for the whole dive.
There was a reason that Kamala continues to return to Dominica year after year, and I was finally seeing it. There were a lot of lionfish there, which has impacted the fish life some, but now that the resorts are back open, and divers are returning, the guides are hunting the lionfish. I fully expect the fish population to grow significantly from where it is now. That said, most of the dive sites were still covered with lots of fish life, so no complaints there. We saw frogfish, sea horses, turtles, octopus, and a lot of reef fish life. Next up was the night diving. Back in the 80's and 90's, I enjoyed night diving more than day diving. I have since become less interested in night diving, and usually only do one night dive per trip. The house reef night dive was probably my best night dive ever. The house reef has a lot of sand and grass areas, with small patches of reef and the pilings for the neighboring dock. It is the stuff that I saw that made the dives wonderful. I averaged 2 red lipped batfish per night dive. I have never seen one in my life prior to this trip. I averaged 3 octopus per night dive. Then there were all of the moray eels, lobster, porcupinefish, stonefish, lizardfish, shrimp, etc.... Beyond the diving, the island has so much more to offer. The whale watching trip was wonderful. The two tours to Trafalgar falls and Titou gorge that Kamala had included in the trip were met with great reviews by all that went. Several people did further exploration on their own, and all reports came back the same. It was fabulous. The past is in the past, and they say that you can never go back. Diving Dominica makes me feel like I am diving back into the past with how healthy the corals are. I have put some pictures in the gallery on this site HERE and have posted the first of several picture posts on the SingleDivers,com Facebook page. I will get more pictures posted to Facebook in the next week or so. Although the timing is an issue for me, the diving in Dominica was wonderful, and I hope that I can figure out a way to join the May 28 to June 4 and/or June 4 to June 11, 2022 trips that Kamala has on the schedule. I have only been home for a week, but I already hear the batfish, frogfish sea horses, octopus and so much more calling for my return to Dominica.
