Agole or Hog Hole?

I really enjoy riding,........riding to anywhere and anytime. To date however, the ride to Hog Hole in St. Catherine was my absolute best.

Well it could have been better, if we had only left on time, but as usual, Charles was late, reminding us once again of that age old adage "closer to church, further from God." However, the nine of us (we were joined on the way by Damit) never left as late as we have in the past, so did not have to contend with the blaring hot sun which has always been my major turn off.

All went well for most of the way to Spanish Town except that Tashna who has been away and out of shape for over a month, was not feeling well and had to go into the support vehicle as we approached Spanish Town. To her credit however, from time to time, she came out of the vehicle and back on her bike.

Outside of Spanish Town also, Grace had some problems with her bicycle and had to stop change bikes. What we all missed however was the spectacle of our “cycling icon" Howie fallingoff his bike! He had been riding "shotgun" so it was not until we stopped that someone spotted the telltale blood stains on his foot and he admitted that his attention had been diverted by a young lady, (as usual) and he had a minor spill. No serious injuries however. What was hilarious was the declaration by Fatman (who had been driving the support vehicle at the back and seen the spill) that he had been seriously contemplating riding with us, but on seeing a professional like Howie diving to the ground, he had decided to stick to four wheel vehicles!

Charles, as usual had gone off on his own, claiming that because he is a slow rider he did not want to stop when the rest of us did, but we finally caught up with him as we started to enter the Bog Walk gorge. What an absolutely beautiful ride from there on.

The gorge is breath-taking when you take it all in slowly...... the slow moving Rio Cobre river, the flocks of birds all over the green hills, the coolness of the area, eveything. We also made a discovery just as we exited the gorge. How many of you knew that Jamaica had a cable car? Not many I guess.

When we got to Kent village, (which is that little area where you always see a lot of fruits for sale in stalls along the way) we stopped to buy drinks and Michael spotted the "cable car." This created quite a bit of excitement as Michael, Tashna and Heather were all obliged by a kind gentleman who took them for a ride on the cable car.

This engineering feat had come about as there are a number of farms on the other side of the Rio Cobre river and to get there, higglers and workers used to go bay bamboo raft. This proved to be inconvenient however, as when the river is in spate it would destroy the raft and persons would sometimes be stranded for hours. Then someone came up with the idea of making a metal unit in which people could stand and using cables pulled by hand, to take it across the river. We were told that it has been in operation for quite a few years and has worked well for all concerned.

Here’s to Jamaican innovation. Of course, the speeders like Orrell, David, Howie, and Damit, missed this nice intervention and were quite jealous when were told them about it.

When we got to Bog Walk a few of us were grumbling that we wanted to stop there and have breakfast but when Howie assured us that Hog Hole was "just around the corner" ( ie. another 6 miles!) we grudging agreed to continue. Because the bridge in Bog Walk is under construction and only the bicycles could use that route, Howie had to leave us to show Fatman how to get on the road to Hog Hole.

From Bog Walk to Hog Hole is also a very scenic route with beautifully manicured pastures housing grazing cows and horses and well laid out citrus plantations and it was a very easy ride with just one slight slope to climb.

The real drama started when Betty who was driving one vehicle and being followed by Winston Chin You driving another to take us back, called Charles to find out how to get on the road to Hog Hole. Having given her incorrect directions the night before on their way to a party, he told her to just ask people on the way after getting to Bog Walk. When that advice yielded no good results, she called back and since Howie was the one who knew the route, Charles gave him the phone to give Betty directions. Boy did he ever give her wrong directions as we learnt from a subsequent phone call from her after she had almost reached Linstead (totally out of the way),.

Then Michael took the phone and apparently gave her a different set directionsI! A subsequent phone call and the number of "cloths" that one heard coming from the phone, indicated to us that he too had misdirected her!

We had in the meantime found an excellent picnic area at the entrance of a farm and had camped out there waiting for them to arrive. At that point, Fatman even volunteered to go back to lead Betty and Winston to where we were, but he allowed Michael one last attempt on the phone, to stop confusing her. He eventually succeeded but even when they arrived and found that there was a cold Red Stripe Lite and a cold peeled and cut orange waiting for them (Charles had come up with the idea of having those delicious items ready and waiting for them to cool the temperature) both Michael and Howie got a good tongue lashing while we had a good laugh.

Hog Hole was literally just around the corner from there and after we crossed the bridge that Howie built, (that's how he discovered the place) although the river was quite low, we did find a spot for cool off.

That's when we goat a lesson on the development of the Jamaican parlance. As it turned out, right beside the river was where Lurch, an old schoolmate of Charles lived. He joined us in the river and told us the interesting tale. On the map, Hog Hole is called Agole (with an accent on the e) but according to Lurch, the name of the river we were swimming in is Rio D'Oro and in the olden days people used to point to the river and say "It ha gole in dey". Over the years, that was shortened to become "It Ha gole" and eventually the it was dropped, the ha and gole were combined to become hagole then Hog hole. I think that is such a more interesting explanation of the name than Agole, don't you?

Anyway after cooling off in Rio Oro we drove back to Bog Walk and had breakfast at Juicci for although we arrived after they had stopped serving breakfast, chief organizer Charles had the presence of mind to call them and place an order for us.

Another great day after a 31 mile ride to prepare for the long ride to Negril on October 18th.