CAROLING IN LAURISTAN, ST. CATHERINE

I have heard about people going around caroling at Christmas from I was a child but the first time I have ever seen it done or participated was in 2010 when the president of the Lauristan citizens association, Audley Nain J.P invited me to join them. I had such a wonderful time then that when the invitation was again extended this year, I had no difficulty setting out from Kingston at 5.30 am with friends Richard and Sharon to derive over to join up with them.

Yes, I know, when some people hear of Lauristan, that area off the Sligoville road in St. Catherine, the farthest thing from their mind is carol singing. This is because this community was the scene of a widely reported and  most horrific murder on July 20, 2011 which shocked the nation. For it was there while Charmaine Cover-Rattray and her daughter were asleep at their home   that men kicked off their door, entered murdered them, then cut off their heads and dumped them some distance away.

Off they went caroling in the early morning

Reality though, like so many communities in Jamaica, there are two sections. In the case of Lauristan there is the residential community where returning residents and professionals have made their homes and there they maintain a strong, active citizens' association.

Then then there is a section nearby which borders the Rio Cobre river where squatters have made their home and you do not have to guess who have given the community a bad name! Anyway I have never been fearful of visiting Lauristan even when that bloody news was being reported.

Whereas only a few of us set out in the dark on Christmas morning 2014, having a whale of a time belting out carols and waking up the neighborhood, by the time we got to the community centre the number had grown significantly.

At the community centre, the pots were already boiling preparing the green, bananas and dumplins and hot chocolate while the breadfruits were roasted nearby. How this annual Christmas breakfast is organised is that those who are good cooks bring their specialty while others prefer to donate funds towards having the breakfast prepared on site.

Some of the delicious breakfast being prepared on site

So all during the morning too, people were pouring in with pots and other containers filled with delicious ackee and codfish, curried chicken, roti, turned cornmeal, friend johnnycakes and even hominy porridge. So there was food galore and delicious to boot.

This community centre is located on land that they leased and using a 40 foot container, converted it into  a real utility centre, fully furnished with benches and tables made by residents themselves.

While we waited for the rest of the community to gather and the food to be prepared, president Nain who is in his own right one of Jamaica’s most outstanding tenors and a former member of Jamaica Folk singers, led everyone in more caroling  while real country hot chocolate was served to stave off the creeping hunger.

                                                                         

                                                                                                                             

  A sumptuous breakfast indeed

Then the Rev Simmonds who had journeyed from old Harbour, delivered  a sermon based on the story of the good Samaritan…..love thy neighbor as you love yourself.

By breakfast time just before 9am, the crowd had swelled significantly and it was interesting to see it was the young people who came filing in last as despite our efforts to wake them up with our loud caroling, they had obviously had difficulty getting out of bed after at night out at grand market and other Christmas eve events.

                                                                                                                        

Rev. Simmonds (left) waits his turn while president Audley welcomes the citizens 

But it was a great get together culminating with an absolutely wonderful breakfast and every single person getting a Christmas present from under the tree. And guess what? The grounds were as clean as a whistle when it was all over!

I swear if more communities adopted the spirit of the residents of Lauristan in 2015, this would indeed be one of the cleanest and greatest places on the face of the earth to live for indeed Lauristan is nothing like the picture painted by the bad publicity some years ago but indeed a model Jamaican community.

                                               Citizens wait patiently to be served     

https://youtu.be/L3sgIci5ffs

Give More to Political Parties? Absolutely Not!

I am absolutely amazed, for despite several senators grandstanding and  claiming they object to  the taxpayers funding political parties, guess what? They approved the amendments to the Representation of People's Act  without removing that offensive requirement! 

So soon it will be legal for taxpayers to be pressured further to  come up with more money  to  finance political activity. And I deliberately said "more money" since  as Tom Tavares Finson reminded us, we already provide a high degree of funding. He gave as an example the last general elections where the money paid to party workers exceeded $50 million. And I am sure he did not take into consideration what goes into parish Councillors' salaries  for they are more beneficial to the PNP And JLP to carry out their party's activities at the grassroots than they are to us in their divisions! 

Further, does anyone ever know how much of the current million dollar and near million dollar telephone bills  that some minister run up annually go into their working in the interest of the country versus for private political campaigning?

As far as I am concerned, for the politicians to have passed this amendment is totally unconscionable and for the public to just ignore the implications is absolutely remarkable. For don't the Jamaican taxpayer recognise that in excess of 20% of the population lives in poverty and the constant cry is that government has no money to help them ease the pain in their bellies?

And if every other deserving organisation including the Salvation Army which looks after the interest of the poorest among us has to do their own fund raising, why shouldn't the political parties who history has shown have done so much to damage our economy since independence without anyone being held responsible for anything. So now, they are being given free passage to enjoy the privileges of power without any accountability and without them even doing their own fund raising.

According to those who  pushed the legislation for taxpayers to bankroll the political parties, this will prevent those with deep pockets who now  finance  the parties from influencing policy.

Hah. Since we are a country notorious for a lack of accountability and transparency will someone tell me how picking taxpayers pockets going to remedy this malady ?

Besides,  it is apparent that policy in Jamaica is more dictated by the IMF and foreign investors with deep pockets than by rich locals who finance the party of their choice. And this situation will remain as long as we remain a beggarly nation  as we have been since gaining independence 52 years ago.  And from all indications, we will remain so for decades to come because corruption and lack of accountability is so entrenched.

And as long as the level of national poverty  remains, foreign investors with deep pockets  will determine that they want Goat Island or any other section of Jamaica  and do anything they please that will damage the entire environment, without interference.

How is this latest legislation which will only put further financial pressure on the overtaxed population going to correct these situations?

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving 2014 was absolutely wonderful except that I learnt too late that a desert could get darn cold.

For I had visited Las Vegas twice before and had always found the weather to be the closest thing to hell fire (yes, I was there!) and although the temperature drops drastically in the early mornings, I never knew the winters could be so bad.

Brr!

So off I went with a suitcase filled with bathing suits, shorts and short sleeve clothes only to arrive in temperature in the 40's! Wow.

 It is a good thing Melissa of football fame ( Michelle's little sister) lives there and had brought down winter clothes from New York and that is the only thing that saved us.

After that it was great.

Shadrach flying from Tampa met up with me at the Charlotte airport and we were able to sit together for the rest of what was a very bumpy flight and when we got to Vegas Michelle was already there and waiting at the airport.

We visited the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon and although I had been both places before, I realised I remembered nothing.

The grand canyon is really awesome and remains one of the most visited of the 7 Wonders of the World. Long trip to get there though for although we left out about 6 am did not return to hotel until around 8.30 p,m. Worth it though.

Since we could not get over to Phoenix to visit Amrita and her family, they came over and I saw the baby for the first time. What an absolutely sweet baby. Goes to everyone and although they stayed overnight, I never heard her cry once.

I never expected the thanksgiving dinner to be so great for I forgot that Norma, Michelle's mom is a top cook and she brought down everything from New York including green gungo and goat mutton.  We then had a wonderful time at Melissa's home in the suburbs.

Amrita and family with Michelle

 Of course we took in all the sights in Vegas itself which is really an unique place where the unexpected elsewhere is the norm, including women standing almost nude on the sidewalks in 40 degree weather and offering to take photos with those who want to be seen with a sexy chick!

Of course, not being a gambler myself, Vegas did not benefit much from my visit as I lost all of 25 cents, yes a quarter! For I had declared that I would be gambling $5 just for kicks but the stupid machine kept spitting out small wins until I got bored and retrieved $4.75. The last time I visited I decided to gamble $10 and lost it all. Yeah, that's me, the last of the big gamblers!

Anyway, minus gambling, Vegas is still a great place to visit for the architecture and splendor, shows etc are a must see at least once in a lifetime.

And with some members of the family there there was much to give thanks for.

Interesting security signals

In an article in the Gleaner of the 12th November, the commissioner of police assured the Chinese ambassador  of a crime free Christmas for his nationals who operate downtown. Today's paper tell us that thieves are preying on students along North Street but no similar assurance for the youth. 

Interesting signals being sent by the new commissioner.

Way to go Michele

Now that my granddaughter is almost four going on 40, her mom Michele has decided to resume her educational development, hence her decision to now pursue her Phd.

Way to go girl!

Unconscionable Politicians

It is bad enough that in the midst of a debt crisis when the government has insisted that they have no money to help the poor and dispossessed to survive,  the prime minister of Jamaica, Hon Portia Simpson Miller stubbornly maintains a cabinet of over 20 ministers to administer the affairs of a mere 2.7 million people.

When the economic crisis first threatened to totally devastate the nation, concerned people called on the government to take a symbolic pay decrease to demonstrate to the hurting nation that they too were prepared to make sacrifices, but even this symbolism was resisted by the prime minster and despite the cut backs in education, health, security and other areas critical to the welfare of the nation, the government has done nothing to curb the voracious appetite of the petty politicians who deem themselves the gods of our universe as the strut around in the high end vehicles supplied by taxpayers and flaunt all the expensive perks of power.

We should therefore not be overly surprised that members of a government like this has also been been abusing the public purse in how they use the taxpayer provided cell phones, as they no doubt, individually set out to impress god knows whom.

So here we have Arnaldo Brown, a juniour minister to boot, racking up a cell  phone bill of $1.09 million for one year, according to the excellent investigative reporting done by Radio Jamaica (RJR).

And his is just the most obscene of the revelations so far as only half of the cabinet has supplied the information requested by RJR and that half alone has racked up total bill in excess of $5 million for chatting for one year. 

We have yet to hear the figures relating to the other half.

What is  enlightening too is the appearance that  those who have been the most expensive in this exercise have been the least productive. For what has Arnaldo Brown been doing that is a real asset to the country? On the other hand we see where Justice Minister Golding who has been doing a reasonable job, has not  cost the taxpayer one red cent for unnecessary chatting. That tells quite a story doesn't it?

Of course my advice to all who are expecting the Prime minister to do anything about this latest national disgrace is, please do not hold your breaths.

Excerpts of the RJR News Report on the Cost of Chatting by some members of the  the Jamaican cabinet.

Foreign Affairs State Minister Arnaldo Brown's bill for the year was the highest.
The Junior Minister, who roams on his foreign trips, had a $1.09m cell phone bill for the twelve months.
For June this year alone, Mr. Brown's cell phone was 410-thousand dollars.  
He recorded $150,000 in October last year and 170-thousand dollars in December. 
His senior minister AJ Nicholson calls cost $230,000 for the year.... about a quarter of his junior's cell phone bill. 
The next highest bill was that of  Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell...at over 930-thousand dollars.
He has two cell phones. 
For one month, Mr. Paulwell's Digicel phone bill was $116,000. 
His junior minister Julian Robinson cell phone bill for the year was $76,000. 
Health Minister Dr. Fenton Ferguson and Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill inched close to $800,000 in talk time. 
Dr. Ferguson with this two cell phones totalled  $749,000 for the year.
Mr. Pickersgill charge was $791,000...except his ministry submitted only 11 bills.  
In June this year, Mr. Pickersgill's cell phone bill was $142,000. 
The same ministry spent  $110,000 on junior minister Ian Hayles account for the entire year. 
But from January to May this year, that account was in credit to the tune of $48,000 dollars because the ministry had apparently overpaid the bill.     The ministry says it had overpaid in January...though it is said by $18,000.
    With two phones, Tourism Minister Wykeham McNeil's cell phone bill for the was almost half a million dollars... but again only 11 bills.
   In one month talk charges were $153,000. 
   His junior minister Damion Crawford's cell phone will was $364,000. 
In February, his bill was $180,000. 
Local Government Minister Noel Arscott's bill was $289,000 and junior Colin Fagan's $200,000 for ten months. 
Transport, Works and Housing and its two cabinet ministers and one state minister combined for over $400,000 bill. 
Richard Azan's cell phone bill was $53,000 for entire year. 
Youth Minister Lisa Hanna's bill was low relatively compared with the others...$45,000.
Mark Golding, the Justice Minister, does not have a government mobile phone assigned to him. 
Of the records we received, National Security Minister Peter Bunting $32,000 bill was the lowest. 
Of note too is that his monthly bill cell phone bill remained at also $2,700. 
The ministries of Finance, Education and Labour and Social Security have not responded. 
The Agriculture, Investment, Industry and Commerce ministries have promised to provided their bills shortly.

Deportation or Cover UP?

When Jamaicans are denied entry to a foreign country, be it Barbados, Trinidad, England etc, they are simply sent home using their return ticket.

No matter how Minister Bunting tries to defend the waste of $4 million of taxpayers funds to send Abu Bakr  home on a private Lear jet, it does not wash for he is not the first deportee to "gwaan bad" when denied entry into a country. And the more the Bunting spins the more suspicious/ ridiculous he sounds.

Some people have even started wondering if the real story isn't that the government owed the Lear jet operator $4 million for some of the secret, time/money wasting trips that minsters take as they traipse all over the place and they had hoped to quietly slip in the payment using this ridiculous cover Abu Bakr story. To tell you the truth , even this sounds more plausible!

And when you weigh this waste of $4 million of taxpayers money against the simultaneous salivating at the feet of Sagicor which had to underwrite the  $4 million cost of  purchasing  fever scan machines to detect Ebola, you realise how pathetic what passes for governance in this country really is. 

No Minister Farrakhan

I have always been mesmerized by Minister Louis Farrakhan who I consider one of the greatest orators./ debaters of our time, although I could never endorse his religion which treats women as second class citizens, but that is another matter.

Last weekend at the million man march, Minister  Farrakhan  did not disappoint despite  having reached  the grand old age of 81.

For  man of his depth however, I was disappointed how he allowed himself to be influenced by cheap local rhetoric regrading our maintaining the status quo as regards  the queen of England.

While I support the removal of the British queen and her expensive representative in Jamaica, we need to go much  further to make governance more relevant to our needs, now that we are supposedly independent.

 For to get rid of the queen while holding for dear life to the remnants of colonialism such as the Army, the British devised local government system, Caricom ( the Federation of the former British colonies by the back door ) and the allowing of members of parliament from the commonwealth while banning those who American citizens, can help this country, is in no way progressive or independent.

Take the Local government system as bequeathed by our former colonial masters when it took days to travel from one parish to the next and land phones and other means of communication were in the dark ages, is ridiculous. And who does it benefit? In my book, only the JLP and PNP who get the benefit of having their grass root campaigners financed by taxpayers to the tune of some $4 billion per year. 

Jamaica with its small population, certainly does not need 15 governments and 15 time wasting bureaucracies (14 Local government and one central government) thus using all our resources to pay politicians, consultants and bureaucrats, leaving no or very little resources to build communities. (Incidentally,  the parishes were demarcated in a manner thought best to facilitate the Anglican parishes in the colonies, it had nothing to do with the  the convenience or efficiency of serving the interests the people, as the Anglican church was the official church of the colonizers and the only thing more powerful than that church  then was the monarch).

We should have moved long ago to the concept of three County councils as proposed decades ago after intensitive study, plus local government agencies for the two cities. How much more practical would 6 governments be for a population of 2.7 million as opposed to the 15 we now have?

Then take the army. The British needed a full fledged army to protect their empire in the Caribbean  but where is our empire? (They successfully samfied some colonial minded politicians into accepting the concept of federation to keep the colonies together and we are still holding on to it for dear life via the body called CARICOM) !

We need to restructure the army to serve the interests of the Jamaican people, not to preserve an empire. So what we need is a good coast guard to protect our shores, an efficient engineering corp and an air wing and redirect the billions we are wasting on the infantry which will not even use a couple paint brushes and hammers to fix up the historical site at Newcastle that they occupy.

 Instead the members of the infantry should be invited to join the police force so they can be trained to serve and protect the people of  this nation, not treat us as enemies to be to be cut down, which is what soldiers taught to do.

Then there is his nonsense where members of the commonwealth  including Pakistani Muslims can serve in our parliament and even become prime ministers after residing here for a year while Jamaican who migrate to the US and have gained experience and valuable education are deterred, is absolute madness.

Yes Minister Farrakhan, by all means lets get rid to the Queen of England, her heirs and successors and all she represents, but we need far more than mere superficial tinkering if we are interested in becoming really independent and determined to build this great country into a place where we can live as a proud people.

And by the way, if we are going to remove all vestiges of colonialism, we need to do away with  the "cricket holidays" that bureaucrats still get to go watch that ever so colonial game, with its tea time breaks and all!.

-- 

Black Hill , Portland, Jamaica...the extinct volcano

The first time I ever heard of the extinct volcano at Black hill in Portland, was on a ride to the parish and we stopped to rest at the top of the hill just beyond Orange Bay. A young man mistaking us for tourists came up and offered to take us for a tour to the volcano at Black hill where he said you could see evidence of the lava and the denuded hills. When I asked  him when it erupted he said;

Basalt rocks are evidence of  volcanic eruption

"About 50 years ago." That was my laugh for the day as I told him if it had erupted 50 years ago, I would have heard about it! Poor kid, to him 50 years was a lifetime away .

Anyway I decided to research  volcanoes in  Jamaica and when I could not find anything beside when the island was formed by underwater volcanoes erupting millions of years ago, forgot about it.

 Then in September 2014, I  got an email from the Natural History Society advising of a field trip, declaring "Activities: The next NHSJ field trip is planned to the Orange Bay area in Portland.

 We will climb an extinct volcano (Black Hill) and explore a tunnel close to the coast. It was part of the abandoned railway line from Kingston/Spanish Town to Port Antonio. Finally we will visit a private property east of Orange Bay (Rodney Hall Farm), where lunch is served (pork, curried goat, vegetables). The property has easy access to a beach (cliff). The coastline of the region offers numerous opportunities for photographers (see images below), and information on the geography of the site will be provided. Dr. Simon Mitchell, Professor of Sedimentary Geology and Head of the Dept. of Geology and Geography (UWI, Mona), will be our tour guide."

 

You know who had to go!

First stop Rodney hill

So off  we headed with me getting a lift from Marcia Davis a recent returnee to Jamaica who is also an outdoor lover who had climbed the 19,300 foot Mount Kilimanjaro. 

Also travelling with her were other thrillers, Sharon, Richard and Shamira while David and his cousin Denise came by themselves.  On this trek too I ran into Martin McLeavy, someone I grew up with decades ago but with whom I had lost contact although he lives right here.

We had a little difficulty at Long Lane as the police had blocked the road as a minibus travelling from St. Mary to downtown Kingston crashed into an oil tanker killing the driver Juniour Douglas. We had to drive on the old road up by the old Stony hills hotel and exit on to Gibson road but it was not a problem as we knew our way from having ridden to Hermitage dam on so many occasions.

After that it was an uneventful drive to Rodney hill where the convoy of around six or seven vehicles carrying 24 persons got out in anticipation of a most informative talk by Professor Simon Mitchell of the department of Geography and Sedimentary geology at UWI. He is a British man who has been in Jamaica for 18 years.

We then walked up to Grange hill where we saw a bunch of kids lyming at the front of an unfinished shop while others hung out on some tombs at the back. Again mistaking us for tourists, some of the fellows offered to be our tour guides to take us to the top of the hill called Honey hill, which they said was around 2 1/2 miles away and . When we went there by ourselves however it was nothing close to 2 1/2 miles but closer to 1/2 mile!

Kids lyming on the tombs

It was a most informative trip with our introduction to things like basalt rocks formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava.

This is what has broken down over the years to give places like Orange Bay the black sands and Black hill actually got its name because of the color of the rocks there, black because of the high content of iron oxide. 

I personally learnt a lot about limestone too and the fact that Jamaica has the potential to earn billions from this product which is among the purest in the word. But you know us, we are full of unrealised potential!

Anyway these are things we see all the time but really do not understand the importance of. 

This extinct volcano according to Prof Mitchell, was quite "young:" having erupted abound 12 millions years ago, young because Jamaica was first formed by eruptions some 40 - 50 million years ago. We also learnt that Black Hill was 'discovered" around 1860 when the colonial masters, having lost out their cheap labour after the abolition of slavery, decided to do geological surveys in the colonies to search for precious minerals. 

Despite the wealth of information I gathered from the knowledgeable professor, my most interesting lecture on folk lore came from a young man, Adrian,  who had just graduated from Annotto Bay high school and  who plans to go to HEART to study electrical installation. His version of the extinct volcano is that it last erupted just as Columbus was approaching the island in 1492 and when he saw the smoke he did not stop in Portland but went to Discovery Bay instead. I rather like that version!

The property by the sea where T. P Lecky is said to have been born

From the top of Honey hill, we had a fabulous view of the Orange bay area and my informant Adrian pointed to property below by the sea at Orange Bay where he said the late, great T. P Lecky was born.

 For the benefit of those who do not know, Wikipedia tells us that Lecky was a great scientist  who through experiments in genetics, developed in the 1950's the Jamaica Hope, a tropical dairy breed which catapulted him to international acclaim. These cattle were a combination of the British Jersey cow (small, and light feeding) with the Holstein (heavy milk producers) and the Indian Sahiwal breed (disease resistant and adapted to the tropics). 

The Jamaica Hope could produce up to an average of 12 litres of milk a day, ­ 3 times that produced by other cattle on the island.  Lecky's work revolutionized the Jamaican dairy industry and scentists from many different countries flocked to Jamaica to see what he had done. 

At the entrance of the old railway tunnel

Not satisfied with stopping at the Jamaica Hope  which was mainly a producer of milk, Lecky turned his attention to creating a Jamaican breed able to produce meat. He worked with cattle farmers and looked carefully at Indian cattle. 

He selected from amongst a few breeds of Indian cattle that had been brought into the island and created a new breed known as the Jamaica Brahman, which has since become popular also in Latin America. Farmers had noted that the imported English Red cattle, which had not proved resistant to ticks and tropical disease, when bred with the Jamaica Brahman, produced cattle of top quality beef. 

This breed became known as the Jamaica Red ­ the main meat-producing cattle on the island.

So not only did I learn a bit of geology, geography and folk lore on the trip but saw where the great man had allegedly grown up. 

After the field trip, we drove down to the beach to look at an old railway tunnel which had been used up to the early 90's when we had a rail system joining Kingston toPort Antonio and Kingston to Montego Bay. 

We did not go inside however as rain water had leaked into the tunnel and it was full of (chick-v?) vectors!

So we just enjoyed a walk by the beach till it was time to go to Rodney Hill farm for lunch.

View of Savanna point from David's front yard

When we got to the lovely house by the beach  near Savanna Point with peacocks and all, I discovered it was owned by a long time friend David Vernon who years ago had been a sports reporter at Radio Jamaica. There we had the best lunch I have ever had on a field trip ; Among the tasties were, of ackee and pork, barbecue spare ribs, chicken salad , escoviched fish etc all for $500. ...the absolute best bargain I have had in Jamaica for years!

After sampling the food and the ambiance, those of us who ride, decided that a ride there has to be on the agenda soon, a ride to Rodney Hill Farm and I spoke to David about providing some delicious food for us and he said any time. Looking forward to it.

It was an absolutely wonderful  day  spent with with the members of the Natural History Society.

                                                                                                           

JOAN WILLIAMS, moderator of  JOAN WILLIAMS ON LINE broadcast on POWER 106, describes herself as an unapologetic addict to the Jamaican outdoors. A foundation member of FUN AND THRILLS ADVENTURE CLUB, she explores the island at any given opportunity cycling, hiking or swimming with that group, family, Jah 3 and anyone else who will have her. In 1995, she published the popular TOUR JAMAICA and the 4^th edition is now an ebook available at;

http://www.amazon.com/Tour-Jamaica-Joan-Williams-ebook/dp/B00EJWCSHS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389464644&sr=8-1&keywords=tour+jamaica+by+joan+williams

Contact; gratestj@gmail.com

Chikungunya or whatever

I will never make another chickunuya joke as long as I live for that damn virus is no joke.

Well I don't know for sure if that is what I got over the weekend for I did not get the rash which I hear is part and parcel of the package. And the fever and cold never really took on but I suspect that was because my ganja and white rum home remedy killed that in the bud. But lord the pain, I have never had such pain apart from in child birth.

 When it hit on Saturday morning, I swore I had aged about 40 years overnight as I felt like someone who had never stood up on my own two feet for a long time. The pain was everywhere too but worst at the front of my feet so I tried walking on my heel but I could barely stand up. Then I could not lift up my right hand, my left thumb hurt like hell and my head felt like it was splitting.

It took twelve Panadols before I could take a few steps without writhing in pain.Thank god for Al as he really was my saviour this weekend.

The minister of health keeps telling us there is no chik-v epidemic so I want to know what it is the at least 15 people that I personally know are having and so many other people around the island who are complaining about this strange painful illness.

 Maybe I did not have chikungunya, but whatever it was it was one hell of a virus and it made me miss two important events, the trip to Noisy River and the coastal clean up on Saturday 20 September.

Another great weekend

I can think of anything else that can surpass a weekend at Silver Sands with its wonderful white sand beach, fishing and some vigorous dominoes later.

This was another such weekend of fishing and all that, except this is the first time that our fisherman City
Yout shocked us when he declared the way out that he was low on gas and shortly after water started  coming into the boat. But all things seem to work for the greater good as despite our not being able to go out as far as we are accustomed, we seemed to have caught more fish than we normally did when we go beyond the reef. As to the water coming in to the boat, this was because the plug put  into the bung was not installed properly so after bailing out the water and correcting the error, all was great and the fish just could not stop biting. (I never tasted one of my catch though as they were fried and gobbled up very quickly)!

In the afternoon I played dominoes until I could not sit down anymore and as usual it was "bruk an spoil" and the surprise of the day was that I never got one six love, the first time in recent history but neither did any. What a pity.

Saturday had been overcast so dominoes was perfect but Sunday was extremely sunny so it was beach and pool all day and it was nice to have Penny, Stefan and the kids driving over from Montego Bay to visit and swim. Pity they came so late but it was nice to see them nevertheless and with this wonderful new highway, hopping over to the northcost is certainly now, easier, more pleasant and a scenic journey.

An historic ride

I think Fun and thrills riders created history on Sunday August 31st by being the last riding group to take on the new south to North highway which reports state have been killing automobiles because of the steepness of the incline. Last, as the very next day is when the toll kicks in and cyclists will definitely not be allowed, they say.                                                                                                            It was  however the closure of the Mount Rosser route on the 31st August 2014 that caused some 30 of our courageous cyclists to take that route for they had been severely warned that cyclists would not be allowed on it.

Moneague  Lake

While I have no way of knowing who actually did it all as I, being o little courage said from day one that I would not be riding over Mount Rosser on that trek to Blue hole in Moneague which was organised by our efficient sheriff Nicole. 

Instead I choose to hike from Faiths Pen with 9 other persons. We therefore drove on the new highway which took us through brand new, absolutely beautiful and lush country.

We had planned to take the exit to Faith's Pen so we could hike to Moneague, but that exit was closed so we had to go to the end of the highway, drive to Faiths Pen then hike back to Moneague then east to Blue Hole.

Shortly after passing Moneague lake and
Watsonville, up drove Charles Simpson declaring that he could ride no more and had jumped into his vehicle. Gail who had been driving the supporting vehicle took  then took the opportunity to stretch her legs and joined us hikers.

The destination, Blue Hole is quite an attractive park in the making. The owner, Mr. Carter, told me it had been bush land but he has a dream to eventually make it into a full entertainment centre with movie theatre and all.

 Incidentally, he told me the name of the river there was Blue Hole but I prefer to believe the map which identifies it as River Hole!

As we had driven  most of the way, we were there some time before the riders started filing in . First came was barber Dean who arrived at least half hour before the 2 second place person .

 Barber Dean hasreally blossomed  by leaps and bounds for now he  hardly bothers to ride with us little leaguers and in fact won the Kingston to Negril semi professional race this year.

  Omar too has  become a top rider with out group.

Third came Bernadette, the first woman rider ( I am sure!) to conquer the new highway although she says she stopped three time.

 Blue hole was a lot of fun although on the first touch, the water is quite cold. However once you become acclimatised it was absolutely wonderful and some local kids had great fun showing off to us how they jumped from the ledge up above and even out of a mango tree, into the bottomless blue hole beneath. They must have been shocked however as Kelly one of our hikers, not to be outdone, alsomade the leap!

Local kids also jumped off the ledge in to the deep blue hole beneath.

We all had a wonderful time lounging around, kissing the tree that is supposed to cure all ailments, eating a nice Jamaican breakfast  (though small;!) while different persons related their experiences riding up those unforgiving hills on the new highway while Howie's granddaughter Ria enjoyed herself in the river and on the swing.  

An Omar Downie photo

It was then too that I  heard how Gibby too had made history by falling twice on the new highway and he has the scars on his elbows and knees to prove it too!

When you see Maurice did not make any move to ride back, you get to realise how challenging the ride to the destination must have been and we really missed Barry who is ill in hospital, as we know he always enjoys a new challenge. 

Anyway, regardless of the difficulties some people had completing the journey, everyone had a wonderful day as we always do, especially when  we "discover" somewhere new.

JOAN WILLIAMS, moderator of  JOAN WILLIAMS ON LINE broadcast on POWER 106, describes herself as an unapologetic addict to the Jamaican outdoors. A foundation member of FUN AND THRILLS ADVENTURE CLUB, she explores the island at any given opportunity cycling, hiking or swimming with that group, family, Jah 3 and anyone else who will have her. In 1995, she published the popular TOUR JAMAICA and the 4^th edition is now an ebook available at;

http://www.amazon.com/Tour-Jamaica-Joan-Williams-ebook/dp/B00EJWCSHS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389464644&sr=8-1&keywords=tour+jamaica+by+joan+williams

Contact; gratestj@gmail.com