No goats there!

I think that Charles Williams, aka Ayatollah, is just about the best organizer in Jamaica. No if's, no buts about it, for to have carried out the feat of organizing a walk/ride from Kingston to Old Harbour bay for around over 80 people with great and more than enough food and then the boat trip to Goat island without a hitch, took more than ordinary organizing skills.

The great Ayatollah himself

Take a bow Charles and I even forgive you for crashing into me and giving me my first riding scars for 2013!

 It wasn't his fault entirely though. In fact, it probably happened because I was ungrateful for didn't the good book say ingratitude is worse than witchcraft?

I am of course talking about the memorable visit to Little Goat Island by the F&T posse and friends who "walk the hill” on Sunday October 6^th 2013.

I was actually the last rider to leave Kingston as the Ayatollah had asked Winnie to bring in his panel van to help transport back bikes and riders. Winnie, who lives in Linstead, does not know his way around town too well, so I had to wait till he came to my house then take him to Sean's to get Gary to drive the vehicle. By the time we got ready to ride out, it was almost 6.30 am. 

By then, we saw no one from F&T until we got to Dunrobin Avenue where Orrel, Johann, Nicole Brown, Alrick and Maurice were waiting on us. In no time however I couldn't even see their tail lights, but Sean stayed with me and I discovered why quite soon, as he was not feeling well and had to go into the support vehicle. So I continued riding alone, happy anyway since I was going at my own pace with great Sunday music coming from my earphones.  

When I got into Jose Marti, I saw Ayatollah, Barry, Fatman and a couple other riders and support drivers but didn’t want to break my momentum so did not stop. It was not until Ayatollah crashed into me further on that I heard they had been waiting on me on his insistence, hence my comment about ingratitude!

Actually, I was partially to blame for the crash for riding along the highway between Jose Marti and the train line, I thought I heard my keys fall and not realizing anyone was close behind me, stopped and dismounted. It was only then that I saw the Ayatollah barreling towards me at about 90 mp and with no escape, I had to accept my fate. 

When I did manage to overcome the pain in my knee and get up, I went searching for my keys but recalled that I might have put them in the bag in the support vehicle and there I found them. That crash had therefore been totally unnecessary but having once lost those same keys on a ride along the Junction Road and not realizing it till Michael found them, I was not taking any chances. 

All is well that ends well for I did manage to ride into Old Harbour under the watchful eyes of Winnie Charles and Fatman at various legs of the journey.

At Old Harbour I decided to join the walkers who were all gathered there and loaned my bike and gear to Lisa (Larry's sister) however, after plodding for about a mile in the sun and seeing support drivers driving by and enjoying great air condition, I could not resist, so joined Bobo in Betty's vehicle. We saw Betty White further on and she too opted for A/c over the pelting sun as did Daniel Morrison. 

The long, winding breakfast line

By the time we got to old Harbour Bay, just about everyone had arrived, the grace had been said, a long line for breakfast was in place and some people were even playing dominoes already.

Luckily , I had met the owner of the place on Tuesday when we had gone down to make final arrangements. so I was able to bandoolo him into getting me some breakfast without having to join the long line,to the chagrin of many of my friends who though starving too, had to wait patiently!

The food was great though and well worth the wait I would think.

The trip over to the island was well organized with three boats adequately equipped with life jackets and carrying between 8-12 passengers, pulling out like clockwork to take the eager passengers quickly and safely over.

Little Goat island is no Lime Cay.

It has very little white sand which is quite coarse anyway and while the water is pleasant, it tends to be cloudy (read polluted) and the bottom is mucky and clayey, not sandy as at good beaches. 

It seems the trip I made to goat island many years ago was to Big Goat island as I recall a nice beach with a reef where we had gone spear fishing. 

So this time I opted to return on the 2nd boat going back to try and get in some dominoes on the mainland before the impatient one returned to say "we have to leave now."

As we headed out, we saw Stefan, Penny and family going over in a boat and it was wonderful to see them as it proves that they have not abandoned us although they have migrated to Mobay! In fact, Stefan told me later that he is organizing ride in the west for us and I am sure he will be held to it.

Dominic the great domino player

You know, although Alrick insists that he is not a domino player, we certainly held our own against Stanford and Chris (support drivers) and in fact, the closest we came to getting 6 love was when Dominic nagged me into giving him a game and he and Chris took us to 5 love. I had to remind him that his birthday was coming up soon and he would not get a present if he gave me 6 love, to save the day. lol

Anyway it was a very nice day although I think the beach by Old Harbour bay is one of the worse kept fishing beaches in Jamaica. It so bad that on entering the boat, some people did not even want the water to touch them.

According to Grace, one person at the market,

The water is really dirty there!

on seeing a Chinese couple among our group, entreated them to quickly take over the place as the black people were keeping it so nasty that even maggots were running wild on the beach. 

That is a profound statement and although I don’t know how widely held that sentiment is in the area since the Tuesday before, the people who I spoke to all claimed they were against the Chinese takeover, but I am now having second thoughts after seeing how we have polluted the area!

By the way, Maurice and Johann lived up to the MTR label by riding off in the blazing sun. They seemed to have had some luck though, for when we got to Kingston at 2.30 pm, it was very overcast and Maurice had already reached Kings House gate and was riding alone as by then Johann had turned off to go home. Incidentally, Johann says he is training to ride for the first time in the Jamaica Cycling Association's annual Kingston to Negril ride this year and I have no doubt that if he does not win, he will at least come in the top 5.

Go deh Johann.

And no, there are no goats on Little Goat Island, just this one about to take the boat over!

Some photos purloined from David's collection.