Falls of the Collonarie River

Halfways up the windward highway you cross the Collonarie River (pronounced  more like "Connary River"), at the village of Collonarie. Before the crossing you turn left, and after a few km reach the village of South Rivers. I once met some hitch-hiking SR school girls at Belmont  and asked them what was "good about South Rivers": They said it was the best place on St. Vincent and that for fun they all went catching crayfish in the river...

You have to ask which turnoff to take to take you to the "pipe" - the wooden water pipe (about 4-6 feet across) collecting river water for power and drinking, and eventually you can drive along the pipe. New construction of a new collecting dam allows one to drive up to the old water intake site. From here it is a very short hike to where you cross the river just below the old intake dam, and on the left side of the river foot trails slpit: One going straight up besides the small side river into a meadow at the end of which one reaches Falls 1. The other to the left, following the main river leading eventually (after some 20-30 min hike)  to where you should cross the wide river bed to follow the south branch to the "Platform" or "Pavement" (see below) and continue on the trail through a short stretch of high trees to reach the north branch where again you have to cross - and can hike on in and along the river to reach the "Will-be-free Falls 1 and 2". These sites on the two branches are reached from the dams in about 1 hour the first part on trails until you cross the river branches, and from there it is in and out of the water....

The first glimpse of waterfalls in the Collonarie River Valley I got when hiking on a ridge above the village of Parkhill:

I actually saw two falls, this one is right below what looks like a hemp plot! Hiking back I met a nice fellow called "Mellow"  and he later took me to those unnamed falls.

Up the south branch of the Collonarie River you walk by or through some nice clear water pools - but eventually  a characteristic widening of the river occurs and the water flows over a flat rock shelf referred to as the Platform or the Pavement:

The shoot!

And now back to those unnamed falls Mellow had led me to:

The bigger of the two can be reached in less than 10 min from the car. The water runs over basaltous rock from high up and the pool at the bottom allows for a refreshing swim:

Finding all these places was easy for me once I had met Skyblue, a young man tending a few cattle and pigs in the lower valley. He now is working on a cruise ship - good for him, but now I have to be on my own.

He told me about falls at the north branch of the river - but when we hiked there I was not prepared for this sight: The entire river plunges down from behind a rock flake into a large, cool pool. Its name? "Will-be-free", Skyblue said. And actually there is another small branch of the river also ending in a - smaller - waterfall: Will-be-free-2 (no picture shown here).

Here is spectacular, and eerie Will-be-free-1:

Except for some locals - not many know about these falls, maybe not even the Dept. of Tourism! Although getting to these sites is prime "eco-touring".

Well, that's the end of this page!