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.

What the Heck

They say lighting never strikes the same place twice, but if its impossible or improbable, Charles will overcome. For it was only last year that he invited us to ride to Linstead to have breakfast with a friend of his who works with the courts and was having a fund raising event. Well after slugging it all the way to Linstead and totally starving when we got there, we were informed that it was not a breakfast but a brunch so no food was ready. We ranted and raved and they did manage to come up with some awful food.

This time it was a similar situation .......another member of the court's office having a fund raiser, but the ride was to Port Esquival also in St. Catherine. So off we went at 5.30 am and it was a pleasant enough 50 km ride with lots of stops all the way.

As far as I know, there was only one mishap. It happened near Mccooks Pen when Chuck the non dropper's front wheel hit the rear wheel of Pat the dropper, but amazingly she stood firm and he spilled! Pat did not drop once on this trip so she still has to break her own record, that of having fallen seven times on the very first day she started riding with us. Chuck got a few bruises but he courageously got back on and completed the ride quite easily.

Saturday 20th November also seemed to be a day for careless drivers to go off the road into ditches as on the short trip , we did see two of those, one on Washington Blvd and another just outside of Old Harbour. Fortunately no one seemed to have been hurt in either. It is rather disgusting how the parish council has allowed the bush to have overgrown and protrude into the road by the exit from the highway just outside Old Harbour though and it is possible that the second spill was caused exactly by that.

But back to the ride. A group of us slower riders had left out early but by the time we got to Old Harbour, we had all converged. As usual though Barry had caught us up long before the others and unfortunately Damit had to go back to Kingston to give a lecture, so he left us there and took a minibus back .

Did I tell you were we were told to bring our bathing suits? Well when we got to a playfield just outside of Old Harbour with a sign saying "Port Equivel Sports Complex" we noticed that Charles got on his phone and rode in through the gate to the buildings there, no river or sea in sight. Minutes later we got a message that it as indeed our destination. A bit puzzled since the banner outside advertised an afternoon barbecue, we nevertheless entered. Surprise, surprise, no breakfast was there for us! I understand that when the scouts had arrived, the organisers were just unloading the firewood from a car.

Anyway immediately Charles went off in the support vehicle to try and find something for the hungry and angry riders to eat for breakfast. Thank god, while we waited Karen Chuck arrived in a pickup and Michael invited those who wanted a lift back to Kingston to travel with them . Well since my grandmother always told me 'Hog wash in the first water im see", I jumped to the offer, as did Stanford. So off we went just about when Charles returned with bags of breakfast which I understand contained stewed chicken, (which I don't particularly like) ackee (to which I am allergic ) and calloo.

Things worked out great for us for as I contemplated going home and scrounging for something to eat Michael suggested we go to Old Harbour Bay for fish. Unfortunately that area has become a virtual slum, dirty and full of stagnant water so we opted to go to Hellshire instead. That was an excellent decision as the Karen phoned ahead as we were starving so when we got there we did not have a long wait before getting some huge fish and delicious bammy. Only Michael opted for as swim however as he said he needed to wash away his bruises which had started to burn. As we drove out of Hellshire, Charles called and said they were in Kingston so I guess the other 18 or so riders did not tarry after breakfast and no beach!

Anyway as far as we four were concerned, it was a matter of "All's well that ends well." What the heck, just another eventful day with Fun and Thrills.

For other photographs, see my facebook album.