We took a rental car (negotiated by Ralph with a private friend of the garage owner) to the National Park which is located around Soufriere in the south of Basse Terre island.  Starting from the Bains Jaunes, we followed what was described as a path of medium difficulty towards the Galion waterfall, only to find that after an hour of walking and scrambling through the forest on generally well marked paths, we crossed a river to find a sign telling us that the last 10 minutes walking were graded “difficult”.  In the late afternoon light, it seemed more prudent to retrace our steps as we had already had some difficulty with inappropriate footwear on the wet and slippery path (hazards of a rain forest!) and didn’t want to risk either injury or being caught in the forest at sunset.

 

As is often the case, the return path seemed easier and shorter than the outward path, and we arrived back at the Baines Jaunes just in time for Ralph, Lucy and Jane to try the natural pool with its notice of amoeba and warning not to duck below the surface!

 

Despite the truncated route, the dense and varied vegetation gave a good indication of the natural conditions and we were grateful to have a path to follow.