KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The hoot­ing of the red howler mon­keys had my adren­a­line pump­ing while walk­ing through their ter­ri­to­ry in the Covi­gne Riv­er Gorge.

This hid­den trea­sure in the for­est in Tuck­er Val­ley, Ch­aguara­mas, has many fea­tures that arouse the sens­es in a way that thrills and calms si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

It could be the shad­ed hue caused by the morn­ing sun peer­ing through the arch­ing bam­boo along the road­way pass­ing the Ar­bore­tum or the World War II bunkers, a re­minder of the is­land’s part in glob­al his­to­ry. Or it might be the soli­tary blue but­ter­fly ac­com­pa­ny­ing you on your trip through the rocky riv­er, flanked by na­ture’s im­pres­sive rock wall for­ma­tions.

For me, the thrill was grasp­ing those ropes, pulling my­self up the in­clin­ing parts of the gorges and re­lax­ing in the clear wa­ters of a deep plunge pool af­ter work­ing up a sweat.

Last week­end, el­der­ly and young na­ture lovers set forth on an ad­ven­ture to the Covi­gne Riv­er Gorge for a morn­ing of ex­cite­ment. Start­ing at Samaan Park along Tuck­er Val­ley Road, the crew trekked across part of an old co­coa and nut­meg es­tate be­fore veer­ing off the road to meet the riv­er, which forged its way out of the moun­tain by a branch of the Cue­sa Riv­er. Rocks of vary­ing shapes and sizes lit­ter this riv­er, with very few ar­eas of sig­nif­i­cant depth.

Rope climbing adds to the fun.

The des­ti­na­tion of this ad­ven­ture is a deep plunge pool shaped like a tub and filled with a nar­row sec­tion of the gorge. A swim across the pool and climb up us­ing an­oth­er rope takes you to a small­er pool ahead.

This hike took the crew about an hour to get to the plunge pool. It is one hike that you must be sure to wear hik­ing or wa­ter shoes to get a good grip on the rocks.

A help­ful tip: when­ev­er you have to climb us­ing ropes, al­ways plant your feet in the wa­ter. You should wear long cloth­ing or spray in­sect re­pel­lent as the bugs will try to feast on your skin. Most of all, walk with any med­ica­tion you need and snacks and be sure you leave no mess be­hind, as we need to pre­serve the en­vi­ron­ment for our­selves and oth­ers.

Covi­gne Riv­er Gorge is just one of sev­er­al trea­sures in Ch­aguara­mas. There is Mac­queripe Bay, Bam­boo Cathe­dral, the old World War II Track­ing Sta­tion, Edith Wa­ter­fall and the plane wreck, to name a few. The penin­su­la is full of nat­ur­al gifts that ad­ven­tur­ers have vis­it­ed for years. While na­ture should be free to all, the Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty (CDA) now re­stricts open ac­cess to some sites. In a pub­lic no­tice, the CDA said that while peo­ple are free to walk, cy­cle and run on the penin­su­la, they must get per­mis­sion to vis­it Edith Wa­ter­fall, Covi­gne Riv­er trail, Nut­meg Vale trail, the Golf Course to Mac­queripe Bay trail, plane wreck and Land of Palms. Vis­it­ing off­shore lo­ca­tions such as Gas­pa­ree Caves and Cha­cachacare Is­land re­quires you to book with the CDA and use their ves­sel.

It’s so relaxing in that plunge pool.

Khelice Rennie

Rocks of varying shapes and size litter this river.

Khelice Rennie

It’s always a fun time when you’ve made it.

Khelice Rennie