Afro Carib festival

 I love Steel Pulse and not having seen them for around 10 years, when I got the info that they would be the stars of the Afro Caribbean festival to close out Black History Month in Miramar, wild horses couldn't prevent me from attending.

Despite the close to an hour commute 

and the long, sometimes tedious wait for them to perform, it was worth every minute.

They must have read my mind as they performed hit after hit from the moment they hit the stage!👏👏👏💞.

It was like a musical explosion in slow motion.⚡🌄🌅🌪️✨

 Oh what a night.

Beautiful Nigerian prints on display 

The Nigerians were the only Africans who had displays at this festival. (Never saw any Caribbean booths beside Jamaica's either!😡)

This Nigerian mother and daughter showed off their outfits.

Jollof rice from Nigeria 

Sonia cops a pose

This band delivered some good African drumming 

Shuga from Montego Bay was good

This dancer kicked off the show. It started almost an hour late though😡.

Vincentian Soca warrior Skinny Fabulous got us out of our seats.

The covered area was eventually fairly full but overall, I expected a larger crowd.

You see, it was promoted as a free event for those wanting to sit on the grass or bring their own chairs.

 However, the covered area up front was being sold for $150.00. Very few people took up that offer though, so they eventually opened up that area to all us 'plebians.' Hence it looks crowded now!

Teflon tried his best but people were tired of having to wait too long for Steel Pulse.

Its actually the first time I ever attended an outdoor event at Miramar.

It is a much larger city than my own Tamarac and with a population twice the size as ours. And the fact that it is dominated by Jamaicans is obvious, based on their apparent love of Jamaica time.😁👍.

The festival was quite good though, although some performers could have been left out.

of

But what the heck, Steel Pulse saved the day.

Getting lost

 It's becoming very easy to get lost in Jamaica these days, because of the rapid development taking place everywhere.

So I guess on my annual visits I just have to get accustomed to it.🥴. 

Last year we got lost trying to find the roast yam and saltfish vendors at Melrose Hill. For they had been moved from their regular place in Williamsfield to the new highway bypassing Mandeville. And because as per usual,  no information signs had been posted anywhere about how to get to their new location, we just decided to forget the yam treat and head home to the north coast. That's when we almost ended up in the bowels Clarendon for again, there were no directional signs anywhere about how or where to connect with the Edward Seaga highway 😡.

Getting lost this year had nothing to do with signs however, but rather because of the rapid development taking place everywhere along the Northcoast highway, from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios.

This is making many areas unrecognizable! 

I had visited my friend's home in St. Anns Bay many times, but could we find the entrance today! This had been easy to find as one simply drove down a lonely, unpaved road to the beach.

But it's not lonely or unpaved anymore, for a massive housing development of some 1000 units on 100 hundred acres of land is now taking place right where the entrance had been, and more, there is now a massive private security gate.

After driving around in circles for a while, in frustration, called our friend Chris who had to drive to where we were and lead us to the new paradise. 

But it was worth the frustration as once we got there, we had a wonderful afternoon hanging out with old friends.

L-r back: David, Grace, Bernie, Joan, Chris

 Front: Shirley, Denise.

Most of us had been members of the once vibrant Fun and Thrills Adventure Club which saw us regularly hiking and riding around the island and normally ending up by a nice river where we would swim and eat delicious meals cooked right there on the river bank.

Those were the good old days.

 Today, it was really great hanging out with the old crew once we found our way.

Great memories.

Hmm. Wonder where we will get lost next year?  For with the rapid development taking place everywhere, it's bound to happen.

(NB. Some pics taken by Denise and David.)

Thor's gift.

 His name is Shawn Richardson and he has become the second greatest gift our late, murdered son Thor has given us.

The first of was of course his son Shadrach who was only six weeks old when Thor was so suddenly and tragically taken from us.

Shawn with his racing Bimmer!

Shawn had been his best friend for around fifteen years and eventually became a kind of surrogate son of mine.

I have probably known him from he was around 10 years old and when Thor was murdered, we both leaned on each other for comfort.

He has always loved tinkering with cars,  so later pursued his passion and has for years operated his own garage.

I have therefore always relied on  him as a dependable asset, whenever I am buying, selling or needed repairs for my own vehicles. This has from time to time even had him coming to rescue me when the vehicle broke down on the road. He would often lend me something when necessary, to drive while mine was being repaired.

When my brother Bernie bought a vacation home in Jamaica and over the years imported cars to leave there for when it visits, Shawn has been the person to keep them in good running order between his visits.

However, this July (2025,) on this latest visit Shawn did not go the extra mile, but an extra hundred miles for us!

For on Friday as we made our way from Duncans to Montego Bay for our regular domino/dinner session, the Land Cruiser started to show signs of overheating. So we turned back and called Shawn. It was quite late and Kingston is over 100 miles away.

But would you believe that he left Kingston after work, drove to Duncans arriving after 10 pm, and while we slept, changed the thermostat on the vehicle, road tested it, slept in one of the visitor's rooms and left early next morning to drive back to Kingston? 

I never even saw him!

When he worked on the car he realized some other parts were old, so he told my brother that he would buy the new parts in Kingston and return on Sunday evening to replace them.

On Monday morning we thought he had not yet come until Bernie went outside and saw the old parts on the ground!

 He later learned that Shawn and an assistant had arrived after midnight, changed the parts, had dinner and watched a movie, then left early morning while 6 of us slept deeply and heard nothing!

This was absolutely amazing. There is no doubt I my mind that Shawn is Thor's special gift to us, that just keeps on giving.♥️

Whats with Montego Bay?

It’s a pretty well-known fact that Jamaica has more Christian churches than most places in the world. In fact, it has long been reported that the Guinness Book of World Records has Jamaica recorded as the country with the most churches per square mile in the world.

And  now google too has confirmed this.

Even a  hotel in Portland has a private chapel!

I have always wondered how a ‘churchified’ nation such as ours could also consistently be among the top five most violent and murderous countries in the world!

While it is only my opinion, I feel this violent and murderous nature of ours has a lot to do with of our unquestioning belief and support of  the viciousness promoted in the Old Testament. 

But I am no sociologist. 

However I have never been able to get a better explanation anywhere!

There also seems to be a special problem with churches in Montego Bay, one of the most violent crime spots in Jamaica.

 I only  brought up this topic of churches and crime once again on reading the article in the Gleaner on Sunday July 2nd headlined “Authorities raid MoBay church compound.”

For wasn't it less than two years ago that we saw similar headlines coming out of Mobay?

 Then it was concerning the Kingdom Restoration Ministries.

In case you have short memories, that was the church in Mobay led by the late Dr. Kevin Smith.

Granted Smith was more extreme as he was actually performing human sacrifices at his church, whereas the charges against the church referred to in the Gleaner report, though extremely concerning, have not been reported to involve bloodshed.

This latest controversial church in Mobay is ; Bayith Yahweh, Paradise, Montego Bay, St James.

According to the report, the raid by the military, officers from the Area One headquarters, the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse and the Jamaica Fire Department was based on reports that massive child abuse was taking place there.

The report states that several adults were arrested and children rescued from the church’s compound.

While all are innocent till proven guilty and we must await the actual charges  based on solid evidence, aren’t we just getting too many weird reports out of Mobay re religion?

Something stinks to high heavens in that area which seems to have unusual church controversies and an alarmingly high murder rate.

Do we need to do a special study into the relationship between religion and crime in Jamaica in general and especially in St. James?

Home sweet home, Jamaica....warts and all

Jamaica remains my favorite place on earth,  for I have wonderful friends and family there, none more dear than most of the Williamses, who I still consider family. And I did get the opportunity to meet the latest member of that clan at a lunch soon after I arrived.

Actually, the worst thing about Jamaica is the dangerous and downright annoying crime problem, but life cant be only roses can it?

I could have once again  become a  crime victim when I returned in February 2020, as some assholes saw me, a single woman driving their favorite car, a criss Toyota corolla and decided they wanted it! 

Fortunately I had learnt from experience, that I should never get out of the car and open the gate when strange people follow me home, so I waited them out until my host family returned. Then and only then, they drove off.

 I have always maintained that even if I get a Toyota corolla free, I wouldn't want it. Unfortunately, I had a lot of business to do on this trip and since that was the only car my "adopted" son Shawn had to lend me, had to use it. He was not surprised that people wanted to carjack it, as he said there were quite a few accidents involving that model over the Christmas holidays and the thieves wanted parts. My grandson has the perfect description for those assholes, "Cowards" as they never cease to target women driving by themselves.

The glorious Silver Sands beach

I gave the car back to Shawn as soon as I got the major things done and took public transportation. Actually, JUTC buses are quite good, as they ran frequently on the route I was staying and were air conditioned to boot!

Apart from that incident. it was great being home.

Posing in front of the Bolt billboard in Trelawny

We spent some time in Silver Sands at my brother's home and with cousins who live overseas and the water was great as usual.  As my brother just loves to drive, we spent some time on the road too, as one cousin wanted to see where in southern Trelawny the legendary Usain Bolt was born. 

I knew the area, having ridden there with my "Fun and Thrills" riding group some years ago, but alas, I took them on the long winding route with some of the worst roads in Jamaica. In fact, the day after we returned to Kingston, one newspaper carried a story that taxi drivers who ply the route to Wakefield, Trelawny, mounted a demonstration over the condition of that same road. Good for them. 
We however took the shorter and less potholed road back. It runs beside the Martha Brae river.

When we arrived at Bolt's parent's home, we found a brand new structure. When we went there some years ago, it was an ordinary country home, but now that Bolt is rich, he seems to have demolished the original home. Such a pity as the original home where he was born would attract  visitors I am sure, but I guess he wants no more paparazzo knocking around! 

Anyway they have erected a billboard in the community and established a gift shop nearby, so his presence is not lost.

A 250 year old house in Accompong

Another place we visited was Accompong in the Cockpit Country area of  St. Elizabeth.

This is the largest Maroon community in the island and we visited the community a week after their elaborate annual celebration. 

The maroons are former slaves of the Spanish colonizers who refused to become subjected to the British when they conquered the island. They fought them and when they could not be defeated,  they were given lands in various sections of the island and a form of self government.


 Some Jamaicans do not like them, for as part of their peace treaty with the British, they agreed to help capture the runaway slaves brought in from Africa by the British.

Regardless of how you feel about their actions, their communities are an important part of our

The "Bank of Accompong"

island's history.

Recently, they tried to take their independence to another level, trying to establish their own currency in  Accompong. Its called the Lumi, which they claim is worth $1200 Jamaican dollars. Even a Bank of Accompong has been established, but of course that, will not be given legitimacy and will only be bought as souvenirs,  by the vulnerable. And talking about the vulnerable, one maroon man conned $1000 out of one of my cousins,  for she touched his bead made from coconut and he claimed it was sacred and that is what it would cost to be cleaned!

 Unfortunately I never heard about the scam until we were in the vehicle returning home. 

When we went there, is was a Saturday, so the museum was not open but the visitors got to look around at the community. I was rather appalled to see that they have taken off the portrait of one of their foremost leaders, Queen Nanny, from the front of the museum and replaced it with two skinny girls. 

The original portrait of Queen Nanny that was on  the museum

But its their museum so they can do what they want I guess.

A great experience on this trip was a trip with friends and acquaintances to Mayfield Falls in Westmorland and it was so wonderful that it earned its own blog at ;                                                                                       :https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2020/02/return-to-mayfield-falls.html.

The new portraits on the museum at Accompong

Another nice experience  was going to the monthly Bank of Jamaica cultural show with my cousins. I had always only seen musical entertainment there, but this time they had an interesting comedy called the " A Tiny Room" performed by a small group from Montego Bay, and it was quite entertaining.

Yup going home is always wonderful and it is certainly something I will do as regularly as I can, despite the damn thieves and murderers!

Essay 4; Jamaicans are "world builders"

I do not think there is a place on earth you can travel to and not find a Jamaican! And sometimes we turn up in the most unusual places. In fact, my own brother even took his family on a tour of the pyramids of Egypt only to end up with an Arabic-speaking tour guide from Montego Bay, Jamaica!

For years politicians of all stripes have complained that a problem the country faces is that when taxpayers subsidize the tertiary education of many Jamaican professions, the country ends up losing as those professional immediately migrate and do not give anything back to their country. Yes that is a real problem but could the penchant for Jamaicans to migrate be in our DNA? I am no scientist but ask the question due to the conditions under which the migratory habit of generations of Jamaicans seem to have arisen.

As far as I can discern, the necessity to migrate came with the  abolition of slavery in 1834. For the freed slaves had no money, no jobs, no land, no food and in many instances, not even family in the country to which they had been forcefully transported

. Things were so bad for the freed slaves that in order to avoid starving to death some had to even return to their wicked slave masters and request that they employ them just to get  food to eat.

It was the lucky ones  therefore who could find a little boat or some means of migrating to anywhere where they as free people they could earn a living.

Monument in Cuba

In the late 1800's to the turn of the century, Cuba was recognized as the powerhouse of the region due to the industries that were flourishing based on "king sugar." News  of their need for labour spread rapidly throughout Jamaica and indeed other Caribbean islands which also faced a similar dilemma as we did, and migration to Cuba started in droves. So today when you go to the southern provinces like Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin, the descends of Jamaican and other former West Indian people are everywhere.

Fortunately too, in 1903 the construction of the Panama Canal begun and despite the fact that the project was extremely dangerous and many people lost their lives (including my maternal grandfather), Panama became a major drawing card for Jamaicans in need of employment. When  the project was completed and opened in 1914, there was still a need for workers there as the economy was booming, so instead of returning home, thousands of Jamaicans remained there, most settling in the city of Colon.

However others decided to go north in search of economic opportunities, as the Jamaican economy was still struggling and blacks had very little means of survival. Many went to Honduras, and even more went to Nicaragua, settling on the Caribbean coast and naming their new home Bluefields after a seaside village on south western side of  Jamaica.

Inside Irazu volcano, Costa Rica

Still others moved to the province of Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and today the descendants  of Jamaicans play an important role in that country, even producing  the very first black congresswoman in Costa Rica , a lady who was always proud to boast about her Jamaican roots.

During the 30's and 40's because of the massive toll the two major  European wars took on British men, the then colonial master England, was forced to open its doors to workers from their colonies to do their menial and labour intensive jobs. Jamaicans therefore  migrated to Britain in hordes up to the  late 1960's when the USA and Canada also opened their doors and the trek to those countries there took off in earnest.

Before the 70's, the majority of  Jamaican who left home, were in search of economic opportunities and their remittances to assist their family left back at home became critical to the economy.

The great migration that took place between 1972-1980 harmed the Jamaican economy unlike the net effect of previous migrations. This was because it was widely perceived that the then government was introducing communism and taking Jamaica into the USSR/Cuban sphere of influence. So the  better off Jamaicans and professionals voted with their feet. They went mainly to the USA and Canada and it set the Jamaican economy back for decades, as not only did they take their capital with them but also their skills. The Jamaican economy is still struggling to recover from that outflow!

While there have been periods when Jamaican migrated in droves, individual Jamaicans have always on their own steam, found other places to go, even as far as cold Alaska in search of opportunities. However the overall picture is that by being a migratory people,  we have contributed a great deal to the building of just about every nation in the world including our own and migration remains strong in our DNA.

Banana Republic Forever

I guess Jamaica is doomed to remain a banana republic forever. Why? Those things called bureaucracy and red tape which is designed to stop progress forever. Look at this latest case of red tape and bureaucratic madness.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sean Thompson, whose parents are Jamaican migrants, has been working with the Ministry of Health and the hospital to come down to Jamaica today and do, free of cost, hip replacements on 6 indigent patients who could not otherwise have afforded orthopedic care at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.  The implants which cost US$15,000 each are donated by US medical firm Stryker.

Would you believe that now that the Stryker rep is here and Sean is in flight, they are being told that Customs is holding on to the implants as they want them to pay for them!!!

And this is the type of madness that occurs when a government agency, ie. The procurement division of the Ministry of Health, is assisting!! Can you imagine what the bureaucracy does to ordinary persons when no officialdom is not involved?

Jamaica cannot afford to provide any level of proper health care for its people and guess who suffers most? The poor. We are supposedly blessed in  having a prime minister who "loves the poor", yet this is what happens when those who can, attempt to help the poor!

No wonder investors are shying away from doing business in Jamaica as the latest international report indicates that we have now been downgraded 5 points, from 85 to 90. ( See doing business report 2013)

Is there any doubt that Jamaica will forever remain a banana republic.

Its All Over

There was a time not too long ago when people living in rural Jamaica either refused to travel to the capital city Kingston or when urgent business required them to do so, they would conduct said business and return to their peaceful  neck of the woods immediately.

This shunning of the capital was due to the high crime rate, especially violent crime.  However now, hardly  a day passes without you hearing the most savage reports coming out of once peaceful districts in rural areas. 

I think my first  realisation of this new trend came a few weeks ago  when  the parish of St.James, where you find the tourism capital of Jamaica, Montgeo Bay, had the highest per capita number of murders. Hardly had the ink dried on that report before we were hearing of mob killing and injury of innocent people in remote Zion , Trelawany, the home invasion of and murder of a female farmer in quiet, peaceful district of self sufficient St. Elizabeth , the home invasion in quiet Mandeville at the residence of the former Mayor, the doubling of the incidence of rape in Clarendon and over the weekend,  the invasion of the market and the gun slaying of two men in the bustling Browns Town, in the salubrious hills of st. Ann . Of course the rape of the five women including three children  in St. James just confirms that this parish is going to the dogs in  terms of violence.

The first duty of any government is to ensure a safe and secure environment for its citizens but not even that principal task can be achieved by this regime and to add insult to injury, there is no leadership offering hope or even the slightest promise that they have clue how to deal with  the terrible scourge of crime overwhelming the country.

Yes I wore black last Friday but no to protest against the report of just another brutal atrocity, but rather to mourn for my country and the  dismal future we have carved out for our children.

Chacka Chacka Mandeville

I hate bureaucracy. In fact, if  I had the power, I would  install large billboards all over Jamaica, saying "Bureaucracy is hazardous to your health". For if you take bureaucrats seriously, you must end up with high blood pressure!

Check this. On Sunday I was in Mandeville, capital city of the parish of  Manchester and as it was lunch time, I decided to stick to the evil I know and head to Jucci Beef for lunch. Thank god they did not serve lunch at that branch for as I was leaving I went to the rest room. Biggest mistake of my life for outside of a pit toilet,  have never smelt anything so foul and the floor was covered with water.

On Monday I decided to call the public health authorities in Mandeville for them to send an inspector there. Guess what they told me? They could not take a report over the phone as I must come in person to make the report!!!

.

Now understand this, it is the job of public health authorities to ensure that all public places are hygienic and I imagine, even more so, those serving food. Now they are always complaining about shortage of staff, so shouldn't they be happy to get information that could assist them to target particular places since they cant cover all?

Oh no, such thinking is just too logical for bureaucrats I guess,  so if I do not wish to travel some 60 miles to make a report, this restaurant will most likely continue to operate in an insanitary manner. As I related this to a friend she laughed and said  I was lucky they did not tell me that in addition to coming in personally, I would have to fill in  six copies of  the complaint forms!

Oh poor Jamaica. If this country does not sink under the burden of unnecessary bureaucracies, we will be lucky.

On another  note, I had not been into that  town for probably 15 years, but my memory of  it was that it was a clean and ascetically pleasing place . Not any more for  it seems over the years it has been developing in a most chacka chacka manner and everything looks run down and disjointed.

I am no fan of the parish council system which I consider redundant, but every time I express that concern, I am told that  "Town Planning' is their major function. Well if what is happening to Mandeville and has happened to St. Andrew, Montego Bay,  Port Antonio, Ocho Rios and Port Maria,  are examples of effective town planning, dawg nyam wi suppa.

Cutting Down on Government

Hearing the Minister of state in charge of local government on Power106 news this morning, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. For according to him, the local government reform programme had been set back another year and the consultants would stay in place.

Just last week there was a loud outcry about the level of fees being paid to divest the sugar factories, but does anyone have any idea how much we have spent so far on consultants for this so-called local Government reform programme which seems to have been going for over a decade? It must be costing us a pretty penny but we have nothing to show for it. I am amazed that the government can be continuing this nonsense at a time when the prime minister is talking about cutting back on government. Isn’t it obvious to them that so-called local government is just another useless layer of government? How many of us even know our councilors aka local government representatives? How many communities have ever made representation to the councils to have something done and actually had them respond with action (not a bagga mout!)? When do we hear anything about most of the mayors and other officials apart from when they are going off on junkets to the Bahamas or Switzerland?

To get government expenditure back under control and give taxpayers some value for money, what we need to do is cut out parish councils and replace them with County Councils. This is not a novel idea for it was set out (after much study) in a well laid out document over a decade ago. That consolidation would require no more than around 80 representatives as opposed to the some 280 parish councilors that we now have. What on earth do we need 14 mayors and 14 bureaucratic structures for when we have only two cities, Kingston and Montego Bay? So three mayors, one for each county would be more than enough.

As I understand it, the main functions of the parish councils are; public health; some water supplies, fire service, poor relief, some level of town planning, local government roads, markets, street lights and parochial matters like bushing open land and community facilities such as playfields.

Almost all these functions are all overlapping with other agencies. Just recently the government instituted a road maintenance fund based on a levy on gas. Shouldn’t all roads be therefore centralized under the National Works Agency instead of being splintered all over the place for when you approach to your councilor to fix the parish counsel or farm roads anyway, all you get is the “…..there is no money " excuse.

Poor relief. Why can’t that not are simply taken over by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security which has Path and other such programmes as well as the bureaucracy that can oversee the poor houses.

Street lighting? Ah come on, when the street lights don’t work, you simply call the JPS and they deal with it and if we adopt the County council model, they can deal with the parochial issues, such as drawing up schedules for new areas to be lit.

Water supply? Don’t we have a National Water Commission with so much money that they can spend over half billion on billing system, so why should they have a problem dealing with a few extra local water supplies!

Markets used to be handled quite well by the Metropolitan Parks and Markets which was changed its name to NSWMA so why can’t they take back the function? With a fully blown Ministry of Health we certainly don’t need a different bureaucracy at the local level to deal with public health and the bushing and upkeep of playfields etc can be done by the Social Development Commission while the fire service remains the responsibility of the County Councils. All other parochial issues like zoning can be handled by the County Councils too. So what on earth do we need 14 bureaucracies for?

Right now the entire discussion about the cuts is swirling around which ministries to eliminate but apart from Sports which should be combined with Education and information which should go back under the prime minister’s office with a minister of State.

I really don’t see what great savings are to be made by cutting ministries. Instead, the ministers should be put to work to justify the existence of the over 200 statutory bodies, government companies and executive agencies that are under their portfolio for many of these were simply established to provide "jobs for the boys and girls” and have never given taxpayers any value for money.

But we are not serious about cutting governmental expenditure are we?

A MEMORABLE RIDE FROM KINGSTON TO MONTEGO BAY

By God they did it!

When some crazies(aka. MTR....mad to rass) from “Fun and Thrills” (our esteemed riding club)decided that they wanted to ride all the way from Kingston capital to Montego Bay city, a distance of over 100 miles, I scoffed at the idea..

 Amazingly however, some fourteen crazies said they would participate in that ride. Those of us who hate the burning sun said we would ride until it got hot, using markers such as Manor Park or Port Maria as their goals. However, Howie, Michael, John, Heather and Damit decided that come hell or high water, they were riding the almost the 120 mile distance.

I actually started to invite bets privately with friends outside of the club, banking on no one completing the trip. One of my friends who had no respect for the stamina of our club members, actually took up the bet, putting $500 down that no one would complete the trip, so in defense of my colleagues, I changed my bet, greatly perturbed that I was going to become $500 poorer!

(My biggest problem in life is that I can never collect from my cheap-stake friends when I win but I guess they have the same complaint about me!)

Well on Saturday April 4th, 2009, the courageous sixteen set out on bicycles at 5.15 am (half hour later than planned.) The ambitious souls were-Howie ,Michael, Damit, Charles, Sasheena, John , Joan, Heather, Orel, Donna and Olivia… a visitor from the US of A who participates in professional riding on the flat plains of Florida. Problem, Jamaica is not flat, so the trip proved a challenge for her but she took a stab at it. Driving in front of and at the back of the group, with their hazard lights on to shield us from impatient motorists, were Mr. Rhoden, Betty accompanied by Winston, Shari and David.

The route selected was not the traditional route via St. Catherine and up Mount Rosser, but rather up Stony Hill, over the Junction and on to the new highway from
Agualta Vale in St. Mary to Montego via the parishes of St. Ann, and Trelawny .

That was an absolutely wise decision as the Stony Hill to Agualta Vale route via Castleton Gardens is one of the most scenic routes in Jamaica, with lush valley, mist covered mountains and the long Wag Water River with its humungous rocks, flowing lazily in the valley below. The early morning ride to Agualta Vale was absolutely marvelous, though to weak blooded persons like me, a bit chilly at times.

Well, despite Donna setting a low goal for herself, that being to ride to Manor Park, she made it to Agualta Vale in St. Mary which is some 26 miles from Kingston, though she did get off the bicycle from time to time and drive.

I had decided to surpass my previous long distance record of 37 miles by trying to make it to Port Maria, but after refueling at Agualta Vale, I could not stand the hot boiling sun, while air conditioned vehicles were available to drive along in, so I ducked out there.

Charles and Sasheena outdid me, riding valiantly to Port Maria in the boiling sun and Betty then gave up the cool air-conditioned comfort of the Prado to join the ride there. She rode to Ocho Rios.

As we drove along in the air conditioned comfort of our vehicles watching the sun getting fiercer and fiercer, we kept saying the rest would never make it to Montego Bay. But they plodded, re-hydrated, fixed punctures, changed bicycles when some became disabled and rested occasionally.

Would you believe that Orel made it to Greenwood at the border of St. James and Trelawny? According to him, when he arrived at Greenwood, he realised that was where our hotel was and was only too happy to throw in the towel for a dip in the sea. Heather was nearby and he tried to tempt her, but she replied "I left to got to Montego May and that's where I am going"....and she did. Her husband John who was far behind her, said that when he reached Falmouth in Trelawny and saw a sign saying Montego Bay 23 kilometers, he wanted to quit but soldiered on looking for his wife. That's the only reason why he rode all the way to made it to Montego Bay he said.

As to Damit, from we left Hope Pastures, he took off like the Green Lantern in his blue shirt and I never saw him again until we caught up with him when he got a puncture in Trelawny. He had actually had a spill and hurt his hand in St. Ann, but before we got there, he again took off like a light, determined to complete the ride to Montego Bay,(which he had initiated, by the way) and he did. He is also full of praises for two motorists who stopped to enquire about his health while he was taking a nap. He said he had a puncture and while waiting for those who had a tool kit to catch him up, he fell asleep (Damit falls asleep at the drop of a pin!). He said he was awakened at one point by the screeching a car brakes and the sound of a car reversing. Knowing our reputation (he is from Sri Lanka), he was a bit apprehensive, but the motorist simply wanted to know if he was hurt, as did the other who stopped.

The stars who made it all the way were Michael, Howie, Damit and John along with the lone heroine, Heather. All rode proudly on to the Montego Bay Hip Strip at about 8 pm on Saturday night.

Had someone told me that we had members who had attained that level of fitness to complete that harrowing journey, I would have laughed (and I did secretly while telling non-riding friends of mine of the mission impossible that "Fun and Thrills” members were planning.)

It was a wonderful feat as far as our club goes and it now appears that the sky is the limit!(Those who refer to us as the "Ring Road Posse" have to eat their words!

Unfortunately the group broke up on Saturday night as some persons had to get back to Kingston but six of us stayed back, determined that we wanted some real fun ….going to the beach on Sunday.

“To tek shame outta mi yeye “as we say in Ja., I decided to ride from the hotel in Greenwood, St. James next day to Silver Sands in Trelawny, where we were going to swim. Donna, myself and amazingly, Michael (who had ridden over 100 miles the day before) set out and whereas Donna had challenges with the sun and made the wise choice of air conditioned comfort, we rode against the breeze to the famed resort where we happily plunged into the warm sea bringing to a pleasant end another wonderful expedition.

Each time we finish a trip, we have to heap praises on Howie who had taken the decision about two years ago to acquire a vehicle that could transport the cycles after we have finished riding. If he hadn’t you would see us on the road sides with our bicycles, bumming rides from all and sundry, after tedious and challenging rides out into the beautiful countryside, from which we need weeks of rest to recover.

Look at some photos from this challenging ride at;
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100683&id=763366822&saved