Jack Sparrow was here
Fans of Pirates of the Caribbean would enjoy visiting Hampstead Beach, the real black sand beach where Jack Sparrow narrowly escaped from a horde of enraged islanders.
Graphic artists took liberties with the background but, yes, this is it.
Hampstead Beach: Dominica’s best black sand beach
Unlike the Dominican Republic, the Commonwealth of Dominica has no high-end resorts. Rightly nicknamed “The Nature Island,” it has often been said that Dominica is the only Caribbean island that Columbus would still recognize.
Bordered on one side by warm, calm Caribbean Sea and by the cold, choppy Atlantic Ocean on the other, Dominica has regularly been shunned by resort developers. Her Caribbean coastline is too rocky for tourists, and although there are some very nice beaches on her Atlantic side, the weather there is too changeable and the waves can become rough.
Hampstead Beach is one of those nice beaches with the iffy weather. Worse for developers, its rough waves and chilly waters are not what tourists and beach-goers fancy jumping into. Even now, those who don’t mind a cold water dip rarely visit Hampstead Beach because it is a bit difficult to find. You see, there are no signs along the road to mark the way there.
So much the better for anyone who does manage to find it. After a treacherous, muddy and bumpy drive down through tropical jungle that only a 4-by-4 should make, those who persevere will be rewarded with a lonely stretch of beautiful, black sand fringed by groves of coconut palms and jungle.
Dramatic and picturesque cliffs of rock climb skyward on both ends of the beach. At one end is a wonderful archway, constantly pounded by waves and begging for a photo or two. We happily obliged before we hiked to the other end to see what we could see.
There we sighted one of Dominica’s 365 pristine rivers and discovered a playground. The local children were laughing and splashing in the river’s delightfully warm waters. As we watched, some of the more adventurous clambered onto a nearby rock outcropping and jumped, dousing the others with even more water and grinning as they surfaced. Look out below!
Obviously we weren’t the only ones who thought this is an ideal recreation spot!
