Driving in Dominica was very challenging – perhaps some of the most challenging driving we’ve ever seen in 50 countries. In fact, later on, our taxi driver in St. Martin said she refused to drive when she visited Dominica. Although there really isn’t very many cars on the road, and the speed limits are very low, the roads are in terrible shape. There is always steep drop offs on either side of the road (rain gutters or cliffs – Dominica is extremely mountainous), which are lethal to cars – even 4WD’s. These drop offs are often covered by debris (vegetation). There are potholes everywhere in the road – big enough to cause problems even for vehicles with high clearance and 4WD. So driving takes a lot of concentration, as you have to dodge potholes, keep the car on the road, and avoid oncoming traffic. The traffic often rushes towards you at breakneck speeds – and although they seem to know the width of their vehicles very well, there was a lot of whiteknuckle stop-the-car and close-your-eyes moments as they rushed past.

An example of one of our worst incidents was driving up the Aerial Tram. The road was under construction, and so there was a narrow strip of cement wide enough for one car, with rebar on either side of the road so you couldn’t drive off the road. We found ourselves sandwiched by two oncoming buses and two buses behind us (all carrying cruise boat passengers). We juggled all the vehicles so we were finally able to drive off the road into the mud on a non-rebarred section of the road, but had to power out of the mud in 4WD. Not fun, but fortunately one of the bus drivers helped us work it out.

The road from Roseau to Portsmouth was very easy, however, as was the road from Portsmouth to Melville Hall.  Getting around is fairly easy – there are signs at the intersections, and the Dominicans are extremely friendly and more than happy to help out.  At one point, we’d stopped out car in the road at a fork, trying to figure out which way to go.  A car rushed by us going the other way, then the driver stopped, backed up to us, and asked us if we needed help.  These are some very kind, generous people!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Dominica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.