Bog Walk Ride

Thanks to Howie, we had a great ride to Bog Walk yesterday through a most scenic, pleasant undulating route with a profusion of bamboo trees  along most of the way providing us with great cover from the sun.

The bamboo lined roadway provided great shade for the riders

We gathered at Stony hill just around 8 am and before the A team arrived, for they had chosen to ride a more difficult route via Lawrence Tavern. 

Our group headed west just out of Stony hill and the view of the mountains in the north was to die for, as the mist was just rising out of the valleys.

What a view of the mist covered hills! Wow.

This route through west rural St. Andrew, which was full of potholes and corners, took us though districts I had never heard of such as Evans, Golden Hill Pinto, Lacy, Sergeant Valley as well as other better known areas such as Red Ground, Cavilers, Salisbury Plains, Above Rocks, Parks road and  Zion Hill and past quite a few relatively dry rivers.

I noticed that these areas seem to produce a  lot of kola nuts which is used to make Bissy which is used locally to cleanse the blood or taken if one is suffering from food poison. Internationally it is used to flavour soft drinks like pepsi and coke.

When I first saw people putting it out to dry, I had assumed it was chocolate that is used to make the tea but on asking one person who I saw putting iyt out, I was educated.

Potholes as large as this were a regular feature in the st. Andrew section

When we got to St. Catherine, the border being Harkers Hall, there were two significant differences.

 Firstly, the roads were much better paved and relatively pot hole free as well as wider  and secondly, the river that we stopped at there actually had in quite a lot of water and St. Catherine rider Winnie commented that it was the first time he had seen water in that river,.. and remember there was a severe drought in most of Jamaica!

Some of the hikers

When we got to the plains, almost at Tulloch estates, we saw Ayatollah and his band of hikers who had driven past us in Stony Hill and had started walking where the road descended into the St. Catherine plains.

It was just before we got to them that I was lucky enough to come up on a large jackfruit that had fallen into the road and as my good fortune would have it, Chris drove up at that point in one of the support vehicles so I gave hit to him to carry.

 It was somewhere along that stretch too that members of the A team started to fly past us.

Grace arrives

As we rode along the plains however, I got tired of riding and jumped into a support vehicle with Stanford who  had to go to Jucci to pick up extra breakfasts. It was while we were there that we had were joined by Grace who had gotten awake late but drove down to Bog walk to have breakfast with us.

Then it was off to the Tru Juice picnic grounds where we had breakfast. These are extremely nice picnic grounds , well kept with even portable toilets and a nice river running through. The river was low however, but that did not stop some people from getting a dip.

 I was so happy to hear Chuck was coming back early as I had a party to go to, so  I packed in my bicycle and stayed close to him.

Wading in the very low river

What spoilt the day however was the fact that I had ordered a dozen water coconuts from Winnie who has a farm in St. Catherine and he brought along some "brawta" which I left in his car trunk and invited some riders to have.

We  packed my dozen into the back of Chuck's vehicle along with the bicycles belonging those who were going back early and would you believe that after breakfast when I returned to the pickup, ten of my coconuts had been stolen....and not by strangers either, I was informed. That was so disgraceful.

I suppose I am shocked at the reality that Fun and Thrills jaunts have now become just like everything else in Jamaica in that the only way to secure your things is to put them up under lock and key!

Such a pity.