Please note – Dennery Falls is also known as Errard Falls and Sault Falls, and it comes up on Google Maps as ‘Errard’.
The reason I wanted to go to this waterfall specifically was because I’d seen some pictures on Instagram (I searched through #visitstlucia on my first day to look at the options) and it looked like one of the more remote and big ones.
I’d read a post somewhere that said it’s located on the same road as the High Ropes / Zipline Centre on the outskirts of Dennery (a fishing village), so that can be used as a landmark to find it. This was enough information for me, so I packed a bag with my towel, bikini and waterproof phone case and made my way into Castries, as this is one of the main places to make your way onto a different bus route.
In Castries, the Dennery bus stand is (annoyingly) at the other end of town compared to the market area, so if you (like me) are coming from the Gros Islet direction on the bus, you’ll have to do the walk across town in the hot sun. It’s too hard to explain in this article how to get from the market to the Dennery bus stand, so I suggest you just do what I did and ask someone how to get there and they will probably walk you there.
When you get on the bus, tell the driver you want to get off by the zipline place. The journey is about 45 minutes (depending on lots of things such as traffic), but it’s quite nice to just look out of the window, as St. Lucia is pretty scenic overall.
When the driver lets you off on the main road, you’ll be next to a smaller road which is the one you have to walk down (you can’t really go wrong because there’s only one road there). Once you get on it, the first part of the walk looks like this:
You’ll pass a lot of farmland and a few houses. I would definitely advise carrying water with you because you’ll obviously be doing this walk in the daytime so it’ll be quite hot (if only I had considered this myself!)
If you (like me) don’t remember to bring water or food, you’re in luck because there’s a little bar/shop thing on your left after you’ve been walking for about 20 minutes. I decided to stop there and buy a massive bottle of water and wait there in the shade to see if I could stop a passing car to give me a ride for at least some of the remaining journey, as I’d looked on Google Maps and it seemed as if the walk was at least another hour, which seemed a bit daunting in the hot sun.
Cars don’t seem to go down that road often, so I was attempting to hitchhike for quite a while (also because some cars decided not to stop for me), but eventually two guys picked me up:
A man who was also chilling at the bar/shop had actually offered me a ride, but I didn’t like his vibes (he kept coming way too close to me when he was talking to me, and I found his mannerisms a bit aggressive so I decided it wasn’t my best option).
These two guys worked at the zipline place, so they stopped there and told me I had about another quarter or half an hour to walk, and said I should just keep walking until I reach a hut, and then go down the path by the hut. I pretty much knew I wouldn’t get a ride any further up, as there isn’t really much up there past the zipline place, so I started walking.
After the zipline place, as you would imagine, the road looks like less of a road and more of a path, and you definitely get a feeling of being in the jungle, thanks to all the trees, bird/insect noises and lack of humans/cars:
Thankfully there was a lot more shade in this part because of all the trees.
I kept walking and after about 20 minutes (during which time I didn’t pass anyone or any cars), I reached the hut:
One of the good things about this adventure is that you really can’t go wrong in terms of directions. To get to the hut, you literally just keep walking after the zipline place, and once you reach the hut, you go through the only available gap in the fence, as seen in the picture, to the right of the hut.
I could already hear the water at this point, so I was getting excited. After walking down the little trail for less than five minutes, I reached a few pools of water:
I then realised that to get to the actual falls, you have to cross the rockpools (personally I found it was easiest to do this with no shoes on). You go across to where the kind of stairs are in the middle-back of this photo:
The fact that there was no other option than to wade through a rockpool definitely added something to the adventure.
Once you get across, you’ll reach the falls, which are pretty loud and honestly quite amazing:
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be in the middle of the jungle with this giant waterfall in front of me, all by myself. I just sat on a rock and admired it for about 15 minutes, and then I saw the faces of two men appearing on the trail from up by the hut. I’m not going to lie, I definitely panicked a bit for a second, as I had already concluded that if anyone wanted to do anything illegal to me down there, I would have absolutely no escape.
Anyway, I figured it would probably be fine, and I said hi to them when they came down and we chatted for a bit. They were on their break from working at the zipline and were just asking me where I’m from etc. I was hoping they would leave soon, because I wanted to put on my bikini and go under the waterfall, but I definitely felt too awkward to get changed (just using my towel) while they were there.
After about half an hour, they left and I used that opportunity to get changed whilst hoping no one would appear from up by the hut (they didn’t – I feel like the travel angels always protect me).
The water isn’t too deep so you can wander around in the pool below the falls quite easily, but you have to climb on the rocks to actually stand under the falls. I wandered around and chilled sitting on rocks in the pool for a pretty long time (I have no idea how long – at least an hour), just enjoying being in the middle of the jungle really.
I was sitting on the rock in the middle of the pool when a Lucian guide and three Irish tourists arrived. They were obviously extremely shocked to see me just perching there on the rock (they probably thought no one was there), and the first thing they said was “are you a mermaid?” which was pretty funny.
After chatting with them for a while (and being told by the Lucian guide that I’m really stupid for going there alone and he would never do it etc.), I had a little photoshoot (shout out to the Irish guy who was a great photographer!)
I hope these photos give you more of an idea of the height of the falls (I find the last photo does this very well). The tourists ended up giving me a lift back to the main road so I could catch the bus back home.
This meant I had to spend the journey debating with the Lucian man about solo travel and its dangers (and whether you should try to assume the best or assume the worst about strangers), but at least I didn’t have to walk for an hour. The reason he was annoying me is because I told him I respect his decision not to travel alone, but he wouldn’t do the same for my decision to travel alone.
Anyway, this was definitely one of my favourite waterfall adventures of all time, and if you really want to feel like you’re in the middle of unspoilt nature, I would really encourage you to visit Dennery Falls if you’re in St. Lucia.
Obviously if you have a hire car (or want to pay a taxi) then you could avoid the eventful journey, if that’s not for you. Also, if you go, remember to bring snacks and water but PLEASE remember you’re lucky to be able to visit it and for it to be so pretty, so remember to take your rubbish away with you, otherwise it won’t be so pretty in the future.
P.S. If you want to see more pictures of my trip, you can go to my Instagram – @Zoe_93
Travel With Zoe 