The beauty of hiking in September is that you often have the trail all to yourself and – in between hurricanes and tropical storms – the weather is often gorgeous. This was the case yesterday when I walked to the Middleham Falls from the Laudat side.
The trail is in pretty good shape. There are a couple of stretches where heavy rain has made slopes a little rubble strewn, but it’s nothing major. The main problem at present is the condition of the steep wooden steps that descend to the falls (about ten minutes after the main trail junction and a couple of minutes before you reach the viewing platform). For some time now the railings have been broken and now they have either gone completely or are in seriously bad shape. The wooden steps themselves are still sturdy enough but have a layer of mildew and are often covered with leaves (as you’d expect in a rainforest during the rainy season) making them a little treacherous. The railings really need fixing up asap so there is some sort of support during descent and ascent – especially before the cruise ship tours begin again. So if you are hiking the trail soon, please take care when you reach this section.
It was a really beautiful walk and I was lucky enough to see an agouti (just a little fella, perhaps a juvenile), two jaco parrots and a sisserou, which surprised me as you don’t often see sisserou this far south. The waterfall pool, as ever, was freezing !!
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