Riding and All That

Yesterday the ambitious F&T crew took on the challenge to do a 71 mile ride from  Mineral Heights in Clarendon to Chris Dalrimple's place just outside of Priory, St. Ann. Not being one of the ambitious ones, I decided to ride until I felt like quitting then taking off to enjoy the day at Chris' beach.

So off I went on an uneventful ride with Charles and Chuck from Mineral  Heights to Jucci in  Clarendon Park and after a short stop, Alrick and I rode off to take on Melrose Hill in Manchester.

Alrick humored me by staying with me until he sighted the first of the A team coming and took off like a light.

 I thought I was doing quite well until my derailler started to give problems as I ascended the hill , causing my chain to fall off and become entangled in the back spoke. Gary (Shawn's driver ) was close by and stopped to help me. He got the chain back on, but by then, I had lost the impetus to ride so jumped into the support vehicle that he was driving.

As we started to ascend the notorious Shooters Hill in Manchester (which I find has suddenly been rechristened Penn Hill,) we saw Bernadette who wanted some supplies from the van. As the hill did not look too daunting, I took our my bicycle and decided  to give it a try. I guess I rode about 1/8 of the hill before I decided that life was too short for such a struggle and after trying unsuccessfully to get the support
vehicle to pull me up hill by holding on to the stem of the side mirror, decided to still get some exercise by pushing the bike uphill instead. (Holding on to the stem of the side mirror as the vehicle drove, felt like my arm would be pulled out of the socket! I had seen Shawn do it earlier but I guess he has an expertise that I don't!)  That too did not last too long so I returned to my favourite past time, driving  in the support vehicle and listening to good music and watching the others struggle in the sun.

I was really proud of Shawn for this was his first ride with us and he did quite well though. He  actually completed the entire 71 miles and told me he had a wonderful time. Incidentally, there is no doubt in my mind that Johann is by far the strongest and best  F&T rider.

By the time  got to the top of that infamous hill, I decided it was time to go to the beach  and thankfully Nicky allowed her vehicle which was being driven buy Ulette to be commandeered.

Chris'back yard.  ()A Samira Bowden photo.)

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the road from Spaldings to Cave valley in St. Ann was beautifully paved, really great surface and I regretted for a while that I did not have my bicycle to fly off the hill in that section..

We got to Chris' by 12.30pm . (we  had actually left Kingston at 5.30am although the scheduled departure time had been 4.30am.) Anyway as I got there the beach was very inviting and I saw "Ask Dr. Mary" swimming and joined her. It was then she revealed that she had been the first female to ride from Kingston to Negril. I knew she was an outdoor lover but would never have known she had that particular distinction.

Stewie, Pat and crew soon arrived and as usual Stewie had his  stash of vodka so we started out having a breathless afternoon. After the mannish water and curried goat I was hit by a severe case of niggeritis and had a wonderful sleep.

 I think the last masochist aka rider,( Aytollah) rode into Chris' place about 5pm. Most of the riders did not even seem to have the time to enjoy the wonderful beach but as they say, different strokes for different folks. 

 I drove back to Kingston with Charles 1st and needless to say, slept most of the way.. ....even now, I have no  clue where my bicycle , bicycle rack or helmet is.

What the heck, I know it is safe somewhere and I did indeed have an absolutely wonderful day with the crew, including Chris, who unfortunately returns to England in 3 weeks. Will really miss her as she had been  my Beverly Hills Saturday riding partner for quite a long while/.


Ps. Gary knows where Noisy River is. I thought it was in Manchester but it is in Trelawny near Troy. Hoping to go there soon,

Rio Magno

Charles 2nd has finally redeemed himself!

You will recall how he led us on a wild goose chase last year...to port Esquivel to be exact. So wide did he carry us that he even told us to bring swimming equipment but when we got there it was an arid play field. And to add insult to injury after we rode all the way from Kingston, there was no breakfast.

Well yesterday was the exact opposite..... it was absolutely fabulous.

For off we went to Rio Magno, a lush, underpopulated area which we had to ourselves and we had a ball.

We the ordinary riders drove from Kingston around 6 am while the A team rode off at 5.15 am and I understand Michael said he would do the ride to Juici patty in Bog Walk in 45 minutes. Well while Maurice, Orrel and Alrick did it in just over an hour, Howie who stayed back to keep Michael's company and Michael made it in just under two hours. Lol. Barry of the A team, had a puncture and had to drive over.

Anyway we waited for the entire A team at Juici and although it was just after 7 am, the thick fog that characterises Bog Walk had not yet lifted. In fact as we rode off, I was a bit sceptical about breaking the traffic light to to go to Rosemont as unless the cars had on their head lights, you could barely see them coming.

Anyway by the time we cleared the miles of orange groves that accompanied us most of the way until we made the turn off to Redwood, the sun was just really emerging. This made it an extremely pleasant ride as you know my aversion to sun and for the rest of the way there was a great overhang of trees all the way.

When Charles and I had scouted out the location on the Wednesday before, the hill leading from Redwood to Cedar Valley looked daunting and I determined from then that while I would ride up to Redwood, I would not be riding up the other long hill. Surprisingly though, the hill was not as difficult as it appeared when I was drivin.... in fact it seemed a lot shorter and after pushing up my bike at two separate points, I ended up doing the entire ride without doing my usual, jumping into the support vehicle.

In fact, Charles played a role there too for as I pushed up one especially challenging section complaining loudly that I wanted the support vehicle, he told me I was mistaken as we had not yet reached the challenging hill! I disbelieved him a bit but as I had pledged to do the first hill, I carried on only to realise on reaching the top it was actually the 2nd hill that we had just completed and it was downhill all the way from there. At one point as I pushed I heard Grace shouting that she was riding through and in shock I turned around only to see that she was indeed riding, but Orrel was riding behind her and pushing her up the hill ! Orrel is absolutely fantastic at that and he is extremely strong although he is not even close to being built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have often seen him riding up long Mountain and Beverly Hills and pushing damsels in distress on their bikes in front of him. This is an amazing feat that takes an inordinate amount of strength and skill and I have never seen anyone else anywhere do this. Maybe he should be nominated for the "Guinness Book of World Records?"

Anyway I took the lead flying down the other side of the hill and while after crossing over the fording I did pass the track leading to our swimming area at first, when we turned back I saw the lady who was cooking for us and her team by the river. It didn't take me a minute to tear off my shirt and shorts and jump in the river (not nude, I had ridden down in my bathing suit underneath) and it was absolutely wonderful. Actually, where we were was the Indian river, a tributary of the Rio Magno.

At one point there was a bit of concern for whereas we had committed to bring the eating utensils, Charles had left them with Betty and he said she was an hour behind. Pat saved the day however for she had brought two lovely banana breads and voraciously we dived into them giving us the ability to enjoy the water a bit longer as we waited for Betty without dying from hunger.

The food was just great and plentiful......turned cornmeal, lots of ground provisions, calloo, run dung, ackee and saltfsh and wonderful corned pork. We had a wonderful time swimming and eating and when a local young man showed us a spot where the huge rock has a small opening that you can swim through, Michael and Barry had to scratch up themselves on the rock to prove that they could do it.

Our cook Hopie had told us on the previous trip that there was a waterfall nearby and eventually we convinced the same young man who had come there with her to take us to it. At first when she was quoting the distance, she said it was a mile away and when we protested, she cut the distance down to 1/2 mile!

Charles set out with a small group and shortly after, about twelve of us set out. Problem was, we didn't see where they went as by the time we got to the main road they were out of sight. So we followed the general direction in which Hopie had pointed and headed up the hill. After struggling uphill for about fifteen minutes and getting the feeling we were going away from the river area, we stopped a route taxi only to be told yes, we were going the wrong way for the only waterfall we would see at the top of the hill was a tank overflowing.

Disappointed we turned back but as we almost reached our original picnic spot, Charles the 1st (Simpson) suggested that we drive to look for the waterfall and Grace and I accompanied him. We went in the general direction that we had been told and it appeared that we were getting further and further away from civilisation. We were all for turning back but Simpson said that often when we turn back in situations such as this, we hear later that we were almost at our elusive destination, so we should continue a little further.

Shortly after we heard loud voices coming from what appeared to be a deep wooded ravine with humongous trees. So we went up further to find a spot to turn back and as we got back to the spot we saw Alrick sitting on the roadside. Apparently because it had actually been a 45 minute walk, Charles and company had called Betty to ask her to come for them and Alrick (who never swims!) thinking the vehicle that had passed had been her had come up from the river so she would be able to find them.

We parked and walked gingerly down a slippery and treacherous path until we got to the river where we saw Sharon under the excuse for a waterfall. Actually that waterfall is no bigger than the one we often use at Maryland on a Sunday. Behind a huge rock was Charles and company in what they described as a sauna. When I tested the water and saw how cold it was, I ignored the invitations for me to join them. However, that area is known as Ham Lane and the river is the Rio Cobre which comes down from Guy's Hill. It is an absolutely awesome area heavily wooded and in a deep ravine (I think of it as it as a very mini Grand Canyon !) with some of the largest trees and rocks I have ever seen. The eastern side is an extremely high ninety degree hill which gives it an almost eerie look.

Betty arrived shortly after and reluctantly the adventurers got out to return to our original picnic spot. When we got there everybody was more or less packing up and would you believe that Nicole and Chris Dalrimple decided that they would be riding back to Juici with the A team. Once you had gotten over the hill that we had sped down on our arrival, it was more or less downhill all the way however and we who drove back did not have to wait very long before they all got back to Bog walk.

Then it was back to Kingston after an absolutely wonderful day. Actually I think we need to find more of these quiet, natural and idyllic spots instead of always going along the beaten track to known locations such as Reggae and Reach Falls, for exploring is far more interesting.

Of course, whenever you have winners you usually have losers and we were the winners on Sunday. The losers were my friends Michael and Camille. I had invited them on Friday night but they didn't confirm. However, according to Camille, when she woke up on Sunday morning and remembered the turned cornmeal and corned pork I had told them about, they decided to drive over. Would you believe they reached Rio Magno, saw the fording and the pedestrian bridge but didn't see us.

Not being persistent like Charles the 1st, they turned back after trying to call me a couple of times and having the phone going straight to voice mail. According to Michael he left me a message filled with reams of colourful cloth for not answering the phone and causing them to have to drive back home hungry. But as it turned out the laugh was on him as he had transposed my number incorrectly!

  I wonder who got all the colorful cloths he left for me?