Rio Sambre

Yes, we are definitely going to change the name of our riding club from "Fun and Thrills" to "Fun and Spills", for whereas we may have fun, spills are a definite certainty! Saturday 23rd May was no different. It was on that day that we set off from the parking lot of Juici Patty in Bog Walk to undertake a rigorous ride from St. Catherine to St. Mary, a ride estimated to take some seven hours.

The ride started out quite run of the mill as we headed north on the highway for an about two miles. We then made a right turn, heading in an easterly direction passing through pleasant residential areas such as Sunnyside and Rosemont. All along we saw orderly orange groves and green pastures. Then we got to Devil’s Race Course, so named I suspect, to describe how drivers perform on the fairly smooth road. However, it is an absolutely beautiful passage overgrown with bamboos which offer excellent covering from the morning sun. Ferns and wild flowers aalso proliferate on the sides of the road.

Then I got the shock of my life, for it was the first time in my life that I had ever been racially profiled as Chinese. As usual, I was lagging at the back while my colleagues raced ahead. I guess the of sight of some ten strangers passing through sleepy rural hamlets did create quite a stir, for as some kids saw me panting to try and keep up, one declared triumphantly to her friend "Si annada chiney ya". Well blow me down.

It was a pleasant and scenic ride I thought to myself and much easier than I had anticipated. Then the hills arrived. At first the hill seemed quite easy to conquer despite the boiling sun. But that was before I discovered that the darn hill went on forever! Well not being one who is into masochism, I decided that dishonor is better than death and started pushing my bike up the hill until, thank God our support vehicle caught up with me. Well who could resist the lure of air condition as opposed to struggling up a hill that had no end and pushing a 20 lb bicycle to boot? Well certainly not me. So in I jumped offering to drive and Michael was only too anxious to oblige for he had given up the opportunity to ride in order to drive the vehicle for us.

It was not long before we came upon Johnny (aka big John) who had given up struggling up the hill and was resting in the shade. He too could not resist the lure of the air condition. Our new recruit Kevin also discovered that the hill was too much for him and joined us happy troupers. Several miles up the hill we found the "fit ones" all crashed out on the floor of a small country shop gasping for any liquid that they could find. They were Barry, Heather, Damit, Howie, Michael and Gervais. Gervais is a young Trinidadian medical student who was riding with us for the first time but everyone was in awe at how he took off at full speed and did not seem a bit perturbed by the hilly terrain. I learnt the next day from my godson Jerome who is his batchmate at the University of the West Indies that his bicycle is pasted on to him as he rides everywhere, in and outside of campus.

When we got to the top of the huge hill we were in the town called Guy's Hill. Guy's Hill is a typical rural town but its distinction is that it spans two parishes, St. Catherine to the west and St. Mary to the east.
At Guy’s hill, most of us less fit ones remounted our cycles as we were promised by our scout Howie, that it would be downhill all the way. Well if that’s what downhill looks like, I must just have been born yesterday because for every respite we got which allowed the breeze to cool us down, we found another mini hill. But it was not that bad....certainly no way close to the long hill that we had to climb to get to Guy's Hill.

At Windsor Castle we made a sharp left turn and thank God, it was really downhill all the way from there. As I enjoyed the scenery, the cool breeze, the soothing sounds of the birds in their natural habitat and the occasional gushing of the otherwise lazy river running beside the road, I came upon a small crowd including not only our riders but also persons from around the area. The excitement had been caused by Barry whose front rim had exploded with a loud bang sounding like a gunshot, I am told. Since only superman could have survived a broken rim and Barry is no superman, he landed on his stomach and skated on his chest for quite a few yards.

In a village where nothing exciting happens, the sound and sight of a white Chineyman skating on his belly, created quite a stir but it left him with a number of bruises. As he recovered, a Jamaican Lizard Bird (aka Qua Qua) shrieked loudly in the trees as if reprimanding us for having invaded his tranquil abode with such noise and fury. Of course Barry to his merit, did not allow a small blow to his pride and a number of superficial scratches to deter him, so packing his broken bicycle into the vehicle, he jumped on another and finished the journey to Wood Park in fine style.

After we crossed an ancient bridge we found the lovely swimming hole in Rio Sambre (called Tiger River by local residents) that Howie had been telling us about. Despite its strong current we had a great time cooling off in the surprisingly warm waters in the most tranquil and scenic surroundings. Apparently that river is not always as harmless as it appeared that day however, for we were told by a local resident to keep looking upstream for at any moment the river could come barreling down in huge sheets caused by rain falling somewhere upstream. We had no such excitement however and after a great session in the river it was time for the long ride back to Bog Walk which meant riding uphill from Rio Sambre to Windsor Castle. Well as they say in Ja, mi not into dat, so I hastily took my seat once again in the support vehicle.

Those who made it back to Guy’s Hill on bicycles where we had excellent food at a local restaurant, were Heather, Howard, Damit, Gervais and Michael. They also finished the entire journey back to Bog Walk on bicycle, with Gervais reaching at least half an hour before his older counterparts, I am told!

It was another great day of riding, camaraderie, exercise and frolicking in the water, the type of outing thatI always look forward to .

TO SEE MORE PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE RIDE, GO TO ;http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111694&id=763366822&saved