THE BEAUTIFUL RAIN FOREST

“The best things in life are free”. The words of the ancient British proverb kept popping into my head as I rode through the gentle rainfall in the John Crow Mountains, where the silence was only occasionally broken by whistling toads( or probably the tree frog which is endemic to the area) frolicking I guess, somewhere out of sight.

The fauna too was absolutely beautiful as hosts of red and pink ginger lilies as well as other species of multi coloured lilies and a host of different varieties of ferns and a wide variety of fruit trees, flourished on the embankment and on plantations running adjoining the road. The view of the valleys below and the distant Blue Mountain range was absolutely to die for too.

The John Crow Mountains are divided by the Buff Bay and Rio Grande Valleys on the north side of the range and according to our guide and colleague Johnny, (John Allen)
Portland owes its constant rainfall to the fact that the warm moisture laden northeast trade winds which are blowing towards the southwest, are unable to rise above the Blue and John Crow Mountain range, thus constantly dumping the moisture in Portland while St. Thomas suffers from drought as all the moisture has evaporated by the time the winds get to that parish.

Well riding in the gentle drizzle in the heavily overcast rain forest was certainly a great pleasure as despite the amount of heat I generated struggling up the steep hills we encountered as we rode through Non Such, Fairy Hill and Sherwood Forest, the rain quickly cooled me down. After we descended the hill we made a right turn and rode into Boston where delicious jerk pork and turtle soup (with a teeny weeny bit of turtle) awaited us.

This last lap of the over 40 mile ride which we undertook (breaking my previous riding record of 37 miles which was the distance from Hope Pastures to Salt River in Clarendon.) from Agualta Vale in St. Mary to Boston Beach and Jerk centre on Sunday 14th June 2009.

Maybe I considered it the best part of the ride because I had finally gotten some food after leaving my home at about 6am in the hope of getting a great country breakfast of mackerel and bananas, yam and dumpling along the way. Unfortunately we had made no arrangements for food and discovered to our despair that not one restaurant in Annotto Bay, Long Bay, Orange Bay etc was open on the Sunday morning. It was only on returning to Kingston that my savvy church going friends reminded me that country people were not as secular as I am, so they go to church on Sunday mornings and only open their establishments in the afternoon. Thank God for the ungodly KFC for it was not until we got to Port Antonio and saw the fast food restaurant open that I got a reprieve.

This is not to say the first part of the ride was not interesting , enjoyable and scenic, for when I was unable to ignore the hunger, I certainly enjoyed the camaraderie of my fellow 10 and a half riders (Stefan rode with his 3 year old daughter “Zorie in a carrier on the back of his bicycle, hence the half!) though grumbling loudly every time I had to ride up a steep or not too steep hill.

We started to get wet from Long Bay but each time the rain stopped we dried quickly.. The most challenging section of the first lap was riding up Black hill to Rodney Hall. That was one hell of a hill but thank heavens we found a wily entrepreneur who had installed himself right on the crest, selling water coconuts. At the intersection of Rodney Hall there was a sign describing the district as an historic area. We were told that a mile in from the main road going west, there is an extinct /dormant volcano.

 According to the local people, the side of the mountain still bears the signs of the lava from the last eruption which one young man volunteered had happened about 50 years ago. When I advised him that at my age, had it happened fifty years ago, I would have heard about it, he agreed that it must have happened long before that. My subsequent research into volcanoes in Jamaica however show no eruptions for a couple billions of years, but what the hack, an historic area is an historic area, despite the length of time involved.

After Black Hill is was a great downhill ride until we got to the Agricultural College and the new highway is absolutely wonderful to ride on and scenic Port Antonio as breath taking as usual.

The plan for the day had been to swim at Boston beach after we had completed the ride to Boston beach, but the trip took longer than we had anticipated so I took advantage of Johnny’s sister’s hospitality and changed into some dry clothes a for the return trip, after buying my precious jerk pork and gobbling down the soup.

Charles had actually taken the easy way out once we reached Port Antonia and had headed to the beautiful San San beach, which is just about a mile out of Port Antonio, leaving us to struggle over the John Crow Mountain. When we left Boston, we met him there where some persons joined him in the sea. Howie’s group, in which I am a permanent resident, however headed back to Kingston after and absolutely wonderful day.

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS, GO TO;
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/album.php?aid=117089&id=763366822&ref=nf