A Wonderful Start to the Weekend.

":Fun and Thrills" had planned to conquer the rugged Cockpit country by cycling from Duncans in Trelawny on Saturday 20th November, to Flagstaff, a forgotten maroon community tucked away ruin the hills of St. James. Here, according to recent news coming out of the tourism industry, are heritage trails which take you to the artifacts which are preserved to remind us of the courageous struggle the maroons put up to ward off the British invaders. Well Duncans was out as the cottage was booked, but thanks to Kenton, we got alternative accommodations and guess what, when we arrived on Friday night he had a lovely glass of vodka in his hand which was just made for me! I knew from then that it was going to be a wonderful weekend!

But I digress.

We too were warded off as we were told beforehand that the road to Maroon Town was virtually impassible. Undaunted, Howie decided to expose us to rural Trelawny with a planned ride from Falmouth to Wakefield, Friendship, Sherwood Content (the birthplace of world champion Usain Bolt) Duanvaile, Clarks Town and back to Duncans, a journey of 32 miles.

So off we set at about 7 am Saturday morning. All went well as we rode easily through the picturesque countryside where sugar is king, to Wakefield, then guises, what, Charles the undisciplined one took off by himself towards Deeside instead of turning off to Friendship. As a result we had to wait a very long time as the support vehicle had to go to get him. Impatient, Michael also rode off to catch him and got a puncture in the rush, so we had a double delay at Wakefield. But I would like to give you some good news about Wakefield. It has the best kept public bathroom I have ever seen in a rural area. This is on the market compound in a wooden building but it has ceramic tiles a flush toilet and is equipped even with tissue and it was as clean as a whistle. Why can’t the other parish councils maintain public facilities like that?

After we left Wakefield it was an easy and scenic ride to Friendship. All along the way, we were surrounded by lush groves, endless blooms of wild orchids and magnificent trees, some of which were obviously hundreds of years old.

The big challenge came on the road to Sherwood Content for the road was unpaved, and hilly most of the way. I am not ashamed to admit that on two occasions I pushed my bicycle uphill for a while and by the time I had reached Sherwood Content, I was totally exhausted. So after a threatened mutiny, Howie agreed to let us off the hook, that being carrying on to Duanvale and Clarks Town. He said the ride back from Sherwood Content would be downhill, but as usual, what is downhill when one is driving turns out to be uphill when we cycle.

After much struggle we got to the point where the peaceful, inviting, Martha Brae River with its lush flora ran lazily beside the road and the atmosphere immediately converted to one of tranquility and absolute pleasure for me. As we roide, we saw young men from the area fishing for mullet and Cray fish in the river. they were equipoped with long bamboo poles and basket trraps.

We returned to Bodmint just minutes before 1pm and happily Charles the organizer had arranged for a chef and we had a delicious brunch waiting.

After that we decided to get a water massage under a waterfall that Charles had heard about when her he wandered off earlier. This was at as place called Liberty and boy did that water massage rejuvenate us!

Having been deterred from trying to get to the maroon village on bicycle, we decided to check if it was feasible by SUV. The road was certainly as bad as we had heard once you exited Trelawny and entered into the hills of deep rural St. James, their section of the cockpit country. After driving for what seemed to be hours (but probably was only about half hour) we finally saw signs of life. That sole life was an actual hermit by the name of Mr. Leslie. He seems to have been in his late 60's or early 70's but looked like he was as strong as an ox. The point is however, he had been living by himself deep in the bush since 1987 without human company, and horror of horrors, without electricity although we did hear a radio. He seemed quite happy though and even gave us some ripe bananas and plants. To each his own. However, when he told us that it was another 5 miles (of the same type of road) to the maroon village, we made an about turn.

That evening, Donna who now lives in Falmouth, joined us for dinner and the again the food and the camaraderie was really great. I certainly enjoyed the entire day and turned in shortly after for a wonderful nights sleep and another exciting ride the nrxt day.