Never a Dull Moment

I could just see the "Star" headline 'Well Known Bridge Champion Caught With Stolen Car" or better yet "Wife of Criminal Attorney Heads Car Stealing Ring".  

Seriously though, sometimes we forget we live in Jamaica and take these things for a joke when they could be lethal, for had that the "stolen" car not being driven by a lady  but instead by one one of the regular male drivers  the the headline could most likely read  read "Car Thief Shot After Attacking Police with bicycle Pump". So we need to thank god for small mercies and that all ended well.

This was the potential dramatic ending to a wonderful weekend of riding, swimming, eating and frolicking as the members of "Fun and Thrills Adventure Club" rode out in search of fun over the Emancipendence Holidays.

On Emancipation Day, we the sane ones, rode to Caymanas river while the crazies pushed their bikes up to Hollywell.
lol (based on the pictures I saw!)

Caymanas ride was easy and uneventful. I was at Dunrobin at 6.30am as arranged only to see poor Nicole Thompson there as she had been told to meet the other riders at 6.15am.

I had to remind her that there is Jamaica time and then there is Fun and Thrills time. As we waited, up drove Neville anxiously asking if we had seen his sister Lisa as their father Ayatollah had sent him to find her. (Lisa only recently started riding).

Although Nicole assured him she had not passed, full of anxiety, he drove off searching for her. About fifteen minutes later she arrived, amply protected under Pat's riding wing.

All went well until we got to the river where there was rope across the gate and a young man thought he should shake me down for an entry fee of $150.00. When I informed him that the fee was for parking and I was riding, he told me things had changed and we had to pay to swim.

As I started to enter, he tried to block me, but I had to warn him that if he touched me it would be assault, so he sullenly stepped aside. Then he stepped aside for Sheriff but kept the other eight or ten rides who came up after, sweating at the gate.

They eventually got in without paying and all went well at the river although, because of the drought, it was quite shallow.

That suited Theresa fine however as despite all her attempts at diving, she never went below the surface of the water!                                                                                                                       I had actually decided to ride back to Kingston but when I was ready, I discovered that my back tire was punctured. The Ayatollah loaned me his bicycle, but the seat was a bit low and although I did manage to ride to as far as New Haven, when Neville drove up, I jumped into his support vehicle.                                                                                                                                    Being out of it, I only heard the next day that poor Aswaria had an accident and have to get 7 stitches on her foot. She is a good sport so I hope she will be back on her bike soon.

On Sunday we had a more difficult ride, this time to Mountain River Cave. 

As usual, the group was late so when Chully and Chuck rode up, I took off with them. Chuck stopped off at Jose Marti round-about to wait for the others, but we continued until we got to just below Dovecot and saw David waiting with a support vehicle and Grace all saddled up and ready to ride.

I later had her eating crow as she swore to Chully that it would be a flat ride all the way as "She drove that route every day for one term."

Flat ride my foot, it was mostly hill and it is the first time in recent history that I went thorough 4 containers of water.

Chully with his macho-self, rode away and left me just outside Kitson town and as we neared Guanabo Vale, Donovan caught up with me and I stayed with him. We were running out of water then Larry and his sister drove up and gave us a little, just enough to take us to the bottom of Cudjoe hill where Delroy,  a former tenant of mine, lives.

He loaded us up with water and to tell the truth, as the sun was really billowing down, had he not told me it was just a mile left 'and not a country mile either," to our destination, I might have given in to my normal inclination and jumped into an air-conditioned auto.

But I kept struggling up the hill. When we were almost at the top, Donovan's vehicle drove up and he headed to get his fluids then changed his mind and jumped into the vehicle although I assured him that we had less than quarter mile to go.

Alrick and I suspect, Maurice (aka RIBI,) lost money off me as they had expected to see me arriving in a vehicle, but I rode up in fine style only to find out that Chully who had left me in the dust did not ride up the hill, neither did Sean who has become quite a strong rider although he rides infrequently.

After a good breakfast, a lot of clothing material (claats!) were being described by Ayatollah for Barry had taken away his vehicle to go to his farm and it had the swimming clothes for Chully and Fatman.

 I left him ranting and raving and walked down the treacherous path to the river, followed by Alrick and RIBI. I actually had hoped to take the easy route to the river which is beyond the huge rocks that others relish climbing down, but unfortunately the easy route is now overgrown and I was attacked by burrs and insects and had to return with my tail between my legs to where we have to climb down over the huge rocks.

I must admit though, F&T has some real gentlemen, so all was well but (rider) Stanford refused to climb down the rocks so missed a great swim and frolic in the water, which was again quite shallow because of the drought.

As we enjoyed the water and camaraderie, the air was pierced by a blood curdling scream as Bernadette had gone into the cave behind the waterfall and encountered some little 2 inch fish and let out such a scream that would have led a man from Mars to think she had been attacked by a dinosaur!

It was a really great day and I couldn't even remember the woman I had cursed off on the previous visit when she sought to denigrate us with her constant reference to what the "white people' did and how they reacted as opposed to how we did. Typical house slave. Anyway, I don't even know if she was there on Sunday.

As usual, RIBI and a few mad ones rode back whereas most of the us simply got our revenge on the hill by riding down until we got to the flat area then piled into the support vehicles.

On Independence Day the ride was also great, especially when we got to the cool, peaceful Bog Walk Gorge with the Rio Cobre river flowing peacefully beside the road.

Before we got to the Gorge, we were joined by Andrew at Angels, as he had left out early to make a stop. We were running a bit late as Ayatollah had gotten a puncture in Kingston and Charles the second got one at Jose Marti round-about. It was there I saw Barry and was quite surprised as I had assumed he would have ridden with the A team over the hills but he admitted he wasn't a hill rider. (The A team had wanted to ride up to Clydesdale but compromised by joining us but via the difficult route.)

I rode mostly alone but by the time we got to the end of the Gorge, I was dying of thirst as my second bottle was in Chuck's vehicle. Luckily, Carolyn came along and saved my life then when we got to the first coconut stall, everyone stopped, and Maurice treated me to a cool nut.

This was at the back of Jucci Patty where a number of persons had already gathered. We waited a while for the A team but when they failed to arrive, we headed to our final destination. They never arrived till we had headed to the river and were enjoying a wonderful swim as the Rio Cobre which was beautiful and clean this time, unlike the red water we encountered on our first trip there.

When we went up for breakfast, the drama unfolded, for up drove Betty in Bernadette's vehicle closely followed by two severe, no-nonsense looking policemen.

As it unfolded, Bernadette has had tracking equipment in her vehicle for five years and had recently complained to the security company that they were not doing their job properly as her vehicle had gone to all sorts of remote and strange places and they had never called to ask her if she was with the vehicle.

Today was therefore their day of revenge, for Betty had gone to buy gas and couldn't find the switch to unlock the gas tank so the helpful attendant had gone into the car and pressed a button which turned out to be the panic button!

So finally, Bernie's alarm company got some work to do and quickly called the police to let them know a possible kidnapping or car theft had taken place!

 Although Betty said she did not think it was she the police wanted when she first heard the siren, when she finally stopped, it was the clicking sound of the guns that brought her down to earth!

One policeman admitted that it was because she was a lady why they bought the story she told, so they followed her to verify that the owner did in fact give her permission to be in the vehicle. We had a good laugh when it was all over, but I shudder at what might have happened had one of our male counterparts been driving, for the trigger happiness of our police often ends in tragedy for poor young men.

I had to leave early so after breakfast did not even get the opportunity to return that twelve love Carolyn

had given me in St. Mary as I jumped in the first vehicle leaving which was Chuck's, for you know Caymanas racing cannot survive without him!

Breakfast was not too great as I cannot eat our national dish of ackee and saltfish as it makes me sick and there was no mackerel. So I had to settle for liver which I don't really like. The Guinep juice was fantastic though and it was overall, a good day with all ending well.

As Chuck was in a hurry, Maurice and I rode from his home, me downhill all the way and Maurice uphill most of the way, but what the heck, he is a man so he must work!

Incidentally, on my way down, I saw about four or five police vehicles at Wickam Avenue and wondered what major crime had taken place, only to hear on this morning's news that it was a ganja find at an unoccupied house.

As we enjoy our various forays into the countryside however, we must give tremendous thanks to people like Omar, Brian, Sheriff, Donovan, Charles, Ayatollah, Chuck, Mark and the ever-present Howie (except this weekend) and all the other people who have made their vehicles available to us on all these rides and all the people who put up with the boring feat of driving at 5 miles per hour behind us so we can enjoy ourselves. None of this would have been possible without all these great guys and girls who give of their possessions and time so willingly for our pleasure.

F&T Wins Again.

Charles Simpson aka Charles the 1st, made an excellent choice. He had been insisting for almost a year now that we arrange and outing to Mountain River Cave, which is at Cudjoe Hill and which he had read about, but the powers that be had not been accommodating. Anyway, last Tuesday he finally got Charles 2nd, myself and Chuck to go with him to the location to make arrangements . So Sunday 5th March was the big day. And what a lovely day it was.

We of the A team, had decided to ride out early so we could get as much in before the sun started blazing, so departure from Charles 2nd's house was set for 5am. As usual they were late. I had ridden to Michelle's home at 5.15am so we could get to Dunrobin Avenue by 5.16am and meet the others. Chuck was there at the appointed time but the other members of the A team were missing until 5.30am.

A view of the plains below

It was a lovely ride on the flat Mandella highway and since Chris, the driver was in a fast driving mood, I decided to try and keep up with him to see how much I had improved. My original record was 9 km per hour but on Sunday, as I kept up with him, he said he was clocking 20 km per hour. 

Keep up the good work Joan!

We had a few stops here and there, the main one being by Jose Marti school where Pat brought out some goodies including a delicious piece of potato pudding which I enjoyed with much relish, happy in the thought that I would not put on an ounce, since the ride would consume it all.

All the way to the entrance of Dovecot, the road was flat and the ride easy. After that the gentle grades kept growing all the way to Guanabo Vale. On the way there, we were passed by David driving Howie's vehicle. He was on his way to get Grace who lives just above Dovecot. She joined the ride just outside of Kitson Town.

It was quite challenging up to Guanabo Vale but as it was a cool morning, no one complained. We stopped and hung around just by the Police station and just as we were ready to resume the ride, up rode Maurice RB. (RB means ride back for if were he alone, he would ride back to Kingston after all our fun jaunts!

The cave is grilled to prevent theft/vandalism

We got to Cudjoe Hill just before 9am after most of us conquered what had been aptly described as a "Bitch hill".

The view of the St. Catherine plains as you rode up the steep incline, was breathtaking. As steep as the hill appeared however, everyone but Fatman, Chuck and Charles the 2d, conquered it totally. Grace did get off to rest a little bit but got right on. Of course, she had the benefit of "fresh legs"!

The B team arrived about half an hour later, then we were joined by those who drove down, Desiree, Chris Dalrimple, Lisa, Barry and Karen.

Just as we gathered, a fudge man passed by and I think the tired troopers bought out his entire stock. 

The breakfast that followed was absolutely wonderful. (I had a blow up with the guide, see (Of yoga, Blackness and the Maroons) and the only reason why I did not write a formal complaint to the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, was because she was instrumental in cooking that delicious meal!)

After breakfast we headed down a steep incline to the river. So treacherous was the pathway that the Jamaica Defence Force had installed iron railings to assist hikers.

Taino markings outside the cave

Most of us went up to the cave...about a mile hike along a well fruited area, but the cave itself but it was not at all impressive. What was really wonderful and very impressive was the swimming area by the waterfall. I am now re-assessing my impression that Big Dunn in Portland, is the best river swimming area that I have ever experienced, but that another matter.

Getting to it was not for the fainthearted as we had to climb down large, treacherous rocks to get there and both Michael and Howie demonstrated that gentlemen still exist, as they stayed by the rocks to help the women down .

What was great about the swimming area was the moss in the river bed which was easy on the feet and the fact that it had both deep and shallow areas so one could dive off the rocks and the non-swimmers need not have worried.

Theresa did create some excitement however by trying to drown herself, for after asking if a section was deep and told it was, she jumped in and when she couldn't stand up, started to yell in panic. She was pulled to safety by a young lady (I think it was Sparkes) who was sitting on the rock while Theresa continued to scream and carry on.

The water was also very buoyant which made floating easy, so I was able to just lie quietly and mediate away whatever residual anger had remained after cursing off the guide!

The waterfall had an area behind it where you could actually climb up and get behind the falls. After observing a local gentleman doing it, David succeeded in getting up there. The rocks surrounding the falls seem designed for rock climbing and Chuck tried his skills at it but did not succeed while a local lady did it without any difficulty.

Everybody seemed to have had a ball and when it was time to return, Chuck decided to follow dog which was supposed to know the way back and nearly ended up in LLudias
Vale!

We did not walk back up the steep rocks as those who came down later had discovered that if you had walked a little further down, it was much easier.

When it was time to return, most of the riders decided to join Maurice RB since it was all downhill to St. Johns road. Since I am allergic to riding after eating, I travelled back with David and Grace.

Kudos to Charles the 1st and Charles the 2nd for a wonderful location and excellent coordination.

For more photos, see my  fb post "Mountain River Cave etc"