But no. I wanted to know the other way to the waterfall and boy did I suffer! I have not for years seen such a long continuous hill. Well that is not quite true as I have seen them but never been crazy enough to try riding up! The only saving grace was that it was overcast so one did not have the pelting sun to contend with. But not since Peters Rock have I pushed my bicycle so much instead of riding!
Every time I thought we had reached the top of the hill, there was another. However I should have been expecting it as when we had turned on to Airy Castle road in Stony Hill and I inquired from a man if the hill was bad he said it was "one rass hill" and it was! And guess who I ran into on the way up just after we crossed over that dilapidated bridge spanning the wag water river. Alvin Mightly, my good friend and the alternate telephone operator and jack of all trades at Power 106. That's his area told me.
The route was strewn with mangoes, lush plants and the beautiful bamboo covered valleys and hillsides were to be enjoyed, but I couldn't because of the suffering to get over that hill.
Anyway, we did reach the tiny village eventually and you know what struck me about Bowden hill district? It only had one church. I have never seen a village in Jamaica with one church before. My conclusion is that those who live there must be nice, decent people. I say this as I usually find most church goers to be the most scheming backbiters under the sun so the less churches there are, the better the people!
But I deviate as I was speaking about our expedition to Bowden hill waterfall on Sunday 18th July.
When we reached the school we discovered that Howie our ride director, had not made arrangements to get the guide to take us to the waterfall which was in the bushes. So we headed off with him as the guide. Actually he would have led us straight there had he not been so easily browbeaten by a woman! For when he reached a fork along the thick overgrown track, I insisted that going left was the correct way.(When will I ever learn that going left is the wrong way?)
Well after that we walked and walked and walked and walked but no waterfall. Some fainthearted hikers wanted to just enjoy sitting in the river but someone suggested that we go back and try Howie's way. In the meantime Michael and Howie decided to follow the river back hoping to find the waterfall along the way.
Well we went Howie's way, found the waterfall and had a wonderful time just in time to get more water from above via a heavy downpour.
I do not know if Howie and Michael have found it yet or even if they found their way back home, for up to when we drove off, there was no sign of them!
All I know however is the next time we are going to that waterfall, there is no way I am going to ride over Bowden hill but instead will take the tried and true route via Hermitage road to the dam.
Well thanks for your concern about us Joan, because we really could have come to treacherous ends. After we found the waterfall from the top, we had a shouting chit-chat with Maurice who was in the water below. We then had to find our way up some treacherous soggy mudhill where there was precious little in the way of handholds.
ReplyDeleteAt various points all three of us slipped and were caught by the grace of God. Mike will wax lyrical to you about how a tree stump was just put under his foot when he started to slide back downhill to kingdom come.
To cut a long story short, we got to the waterfall and thoroughly enjoyed it during the rain. I also welcomed the chance to wash off all the mud.
The next adventure was when Maurice, Alric, Howie, Mike and myself rode back in the heavy downpour. Going down Stony Hill at speed (where I was the slowest) I couldn't see very far in front due to the heavy downpour and those other guys would have had even more rain hitting their faces.
Hats off to my fellow 'Amazon explorers' Howie and Mike. We enjoyed our expedition down the river and up & down the steep mudslip climbs.
Great update Barry. Seems I always miss the excitement.
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