Morant Bay Ride

For some time now, a few ambitious members of "Fun and Thrills" have been toying with the idea of riding to Negril, Westmorland, some 140 miles from Hope Pastures. Now it seems our toying days are over as the date has been set for Sunday October 18th and based on a resolution adopted on top of some hill, we have started to do long endurance rides.

So on Sunday 13th September we had our first endurance ride to Morant Bay, St. Thomas, a distance of 34 miles according to our top sprinter, (the Bolt of Fun and Thrills) Barry. Well departure time from Hope Pastures was set for 5.30 am to beat the sun, but having arrived on time many times and having to wait on the latecomers, I have slowly been becoming a latecomer myself! So I arrived at 6am only to find everyone on board. Winston drove the support vehicle accompanied by his son Zackaria.

Actually, it was a pretty non-exhaustive ride to Yallahs, (Barry tells me that a rasta man told him the real name for Yallahs is Ayallah,but the English colonial masters could not pronounce it and therefore corrupted it to Yallahs). So mi get it so mi give it and since rastas don’t lie, I believe it!)for apart from a small section in the Bull Bay area, it was level riding. I was actually feeling so comfortable that when I saw a number of my colleagues resting at Albion, I didn't feel like stopping. On hearing that Andrew had gone ahead, I decided to try and catch him up.

Now that was probably my gravest error for unbeknownst to me, Andrew stopped in Yallahs. So there I was killing myself to catch him up , long after he had stopped! By then the sun was in full swing and extreme heat was coming up from the asphalt, but I was determined not to stop until I saw him. Then thank God I saw Barry and Darragh (a young Irishman who is so fit that he has competed in the Ironman triathlon although he smokes!) at a shop where thy had stopped to buy a cold beer and Guiness and give Darragh an opportunity to smoke a cigarette. So I got a little rest before they took off like Bolt and I did not see them again until they had reached Morant Bay and turned back to "Washoff" where there is that little waterfall by the road.

So on I plodded by myself and in the hot sun, still determined not to stop until I caught up Andrew. On approaching Whitehorses, there is quite a challenging hill and I heard a bike coming behind me which changed down to first gear as the hill was so steep. That's when I knew I was crazy to be using woman power to get up that hill when no one was paying me to do so!

 The irrationality of the situation was further reinforced when I saw a man ahead of me pushing his bicycle up the hill. Aha I thought, if a man has to pushing his bicycle up this horrible hill the so can I. Then it occurred to me that maybe he had a puncture. As if to tease me, he then jumped on his bicycle at that very moment, then after pedaling for about 30 seconds, he dismounted and started to push again. That was all I needed to dismount too, but my conscience said to me that I ride up Long Mountain every week and he doesn’t so I should not get off. So I obeyed and on I toiled. That's when Howie, who had stopped in Albion to wait on the others, flew past me. That’s about when I finally reached the top and saw the lovely downhill ride and the clear, inviting, blue, sea which seemed to be calling out to me to jump in and cool off. All that seemed to have been sent by God as a reward for my perseverance !

 As the downhill section finished, I had arrived at "Washoff" and there to my delight, sat Howie and Damit at a stall drinking cold coconuts. Boy was I ever happy to join them, especially since my water had been exhausted and I had been becoming quite thirsty. There we stayed in the shade till Andrew who I had stupidly been chasing,, arrived. Then came David, Charles, Michael, Grace and Renee (not necessarily  in that order).

 Next, we saw Darragh and Barry coming back. Well those of us who thought that we could have called it a day, were in for a disappointment as team leader and dictator Michael mandated that we must finish the ride. So after a while it was back in the sun for another five miles to the round about.

We all got there within minutes of each other and started to ride back to find the support vehicle. Luckily Winston came within view very quickly and Renee and I gave up our bicycles immediately for a ride in the van. Then we saw Betty arrive in an air-conditioned vehicle and Winston was immediately rejected! At one point we thought mad Michael followed by naive David were planning to ride back to Kingston but when we got back to "Washoff" they too jumped into the vehicles.

 Then it was on to 'Survival" for a delicious breakfast of ackee, mackerel and callalloo with wonderful food and fried jonnie cakes. That was around 11am and only after that did I begin to feel normal.

Well as we of "Fun and thrills” like to finish a day’s expedition with a swim, we headed for Grants Pen beach (in St. Thomas). But bearing in mind the frequent reports about crime in that area and seeing how narrow the road was, making it difficulty to make a quick getaway if necessary, we decided to go to Cable Hut beach in Bull Bay instead. That was a wise decision as the sea was unusually calm. Barry, Renee and Darragh who left us after breakfast, missed the best part of that ride!