A Toothless Shark

We hear such chilling tales about sharks, that seeing a toothless one was quite a novelty.

 This I ran into on the way to Bob Marley beach for breakfast and a swim on Saturday, before riding on to Macca Beach in Yallahs, to watch the international surfing competition.

As we entered the unpaved road to the beach, we saw a man with a wheel barrow with a huge shark inside. As Omar was just ahead of me with his camera,
I exhorted him to take a picture, after all, how often does one get to see a shark close up and even look in his mouth to boot.

It was about 6 feet long with a super -flat, broad head and I actually felt sorry for the creature which was still breathing and the fisherman told me it was a harmless nurse shark.

When I asked him why he killed him then, he said he had gone into his fish net and eaten some if his catch.

He even opened the mouth of the creature which was still breathing, to prove his point.

I never knew I could feel sorry for a shark but I did , especially when he told me he was going to sell it to a guard company for them to feed their guard dogs.

Eighteen of us went on to Macca Beach after we ate and swam, then Johann rode over to Yallahs by himself.

As we reached our destination I saw a jelly man and thirstily, we all converged, buying out most of his stock. I did not have any, as Grace who had been driving around like a tourist with David., had just saved my life with a bottle of water.When we got to Macca Beach, I was ready to go home as the waves were not as fierce and large as the last time we were there, so I knew it would be a tame meet. Besides, on this occasion, there appeared to be more vendors than spectators.

So as the first vehicle was ready, guess who was a passenger?

It was a nice day though, good breakfast, my first shark up close, a nice swim and an invigorating ride.

PICTURES COMPLIMENTS OF OMAR DOWNIE.

https://youtu.be/O4H4Js9esxY

Emancipation Weekend

This Emancipation weekend was a real Fun and thrills affair.As usual we had our Saturday morning ride and breakfast and developed the action plan for the long weekend. 

F&T ites lyming at surfing

On Saturday night we had a party at Howies house for the July members and boy did my foot get stuck in my mouth! You see they have this Book Club which I am not a member of but I arrived at the party before their session was over. Charles introduced  me to a man named Horace  Fisher  and I thought he said he was an author, not the author of the book of the month, Fish kill. So when someone asked me if I had read it, I declared that I heard it was boring so would not waste my time reading it.

(I did hear that) Embarrassing moment. Anyway, why would I want to read a book called fish kill? After that moment, I declared then that I  would never again speak for the rest of the night, but you know that impossible right?i After they broke up, I had quite a pleasant conversation with him and all is well. Hope he does not take me seriously and stop writing.!

Sunday it was to Coy as usual in Maryland, then in the afternoon it was to Yallahs, St. Thomas, to watch surfing, in fact an international surfing meet to boot. Yes, in St. Thomas Jamaica!

Maurice and a friend of his rode off into the sunset, sorry, sunlight to Yallahs at 11.30 and and we left about 12.15 pm but by the time we arrived, they were already  there. Man that Maurice must have been a bicycle in his past life!

The surfing was a new experience for me but nothing like what we see on tv, for Jamaica just does not have the huge waves necessary to make a spectacular splash in this type of sport. But all the participants were enthusiastic and did well.

Charles, Maurice and I decided to take am sea bath and while Maurice was able to wade out far enough to float in peace, both Charles and I had a problem getting past the rough waves which tossed us around as if we were made of straw.

It was a lovely day however as we walked around and socialised and sampled all kinds of food and Juju gave us the dessert in the form oft. a huge jack fruit.

This 1671 lb bull came first at Denbeigh

Monday morning I went for my usual walk and listened with one ear to hear if the planned trip to Denbeigh in Clarendon was still on.  That is where the Jamaica Agricultural society stages its annual farmers show. We had originally wanted to go on the newly restored train which had a special excursion, but that fizzed out as the return trip was not till 6pm, there were logistical problems with parking etc and besides when I heard Digicell would be sponsoring the train ride, that did it for me since anything they sponsor draws crowds of free loaders in search of free phone cards. Also since the train was out, I wasn't particularly enthused about going. Besides I had bad memories of Denbeigh since the last time I went there,  about 20 years ago, they towed away my car and I had to take a minibus to Four Parts police station to retrieve it and had sworn off Denbeigh for life. Anyway, its a good thing we decided not to go by train as the reports are that it was oversold.  We saw the train there however and were able to take a number of photographs as it is really attractive, decked out in Jamaica's colours.

Anyway Howie called about 10.30 am to say they were still going so naturally I decided tot accompany them. Maurice picked me up and we joined the convoy of three other vehicles outside Michele's gate.I am so happy I went for it was a really nice day. Yes we spent a lot of time just standing around and waiting while others went off on private jaunts, but as no one was in a real hurry it was no big thing. I was really impressed with the winning bull which weighted a whopping 1671 lbs and the goat display was also impressive. The parish stalls were not particular innovative or outstanding but the samples of rum punch and flavoured coffee we got at various points allowed us to overlook those imperfections.

As Janelle  had to get back to Kingston for a function, we eventually dragged ourselves out at minutes to three, but despite the need to hurry, we could not pass the coconut vendor just down the road.

When I got back to Kingston it was off to a jerk pork session by at Harry's place. Harry is such a pork fanatic that he actually built a smoke house at the back of his home and relishes overpowering his friends with smoked jerk pork....hmm delicious. What better way to spend  absolutely wonderful weekend?

Morant Bay Ride

For some time now, a few ambitious members of "Fun and Thrills" have been toying with the idea of riding to Negril, Westmorland, some 140 miles from Hope Pastures. Now it seems our toying days are over as the date has been set for Sunday October 18th and based on a resolution adopted on top of some hill, we have started to do long endurance rides.

So on Sunday 13th September we had our first endurance ride to Morant Bay, St. Thomas, a distance of 34 miles according to our top sprinter, (the Bolt of Fun and Thrills) Barry. Well departure time from Hope Pastures was set for 5.30 am to beat the sun, but having arrived on time many times and having to wait on the latecomers, I have slowly been becoming a latecomer myself! So I arrived at 6am only to find everyone on board. Winston drove the support vehicle accompanied by his son Zackaria.

Actually, it was a pretty non-exhaustive ride to Yallahs, (Barry tells me that a rasta man told him the real name for Yallahs is Ayallah,but the English colonial masters could not pronounce it and therefore corrupted it to Yallahs). So mi get it so mi give it and since rastas don’t lie, I believe it!)for apart from a small section in the Bull Bay area, it was level riding. I was actually feeling so comfortable that when I saw a number of my colleagues resting at Albion, I didn't feel like stopping. On hearing that Andrew had gone ahead, I decided to try and catch him up.

Now that was probably my gravest error for unbeknownst to me, Andrew stopped in Yallahs. So there I was killing myself to catch him up , long after he had stopped! By then the sun was in full swing and extreme heat was coming up from the asphalt, but I was determined not to stop until I saw him. Then thank God I saw Barry and Darragh (a young Irishman who is so fit that he has competed in the Ironman triathlon although he smokes!) at a shop where thy had stopped to buy a cold beer and Guiness and give Darragh an opportunity to smoke a cigarette. So I got a little rest before they took off like Bolt and I did not see them again until they had reached Morant Bay and turned back to "Washoff" where there is that little waterfall by the road.

So on I plodded by myself and in the hot sun, still determined not to stop until I caught up Andrew. On approaching Whitehorses, there is quite a challenging hill and I heard a bike coming behind me which changed down to first gear as the hill was so steep. That's when I knew I was crazy to be using woman power to get up that hill when no one was paying me to do so!

 The irrationality of the situation was further reinforced when I saw a man ahead of me pushing his bicycle up the hill. Aha I thought, if a man has to pushing his bicycle up this horrible hill the so can I. Then it occurred to me that maybe he had a puncture. As if to tease me, he then jumped on his bicycle at that very moment, then after pedaling for about 30 seconds, he dismounted and started to push again. That was all I needed to dismount too, but my conscience said to me that I ride up Long Mountain every week and he doesn’t so I should not get off. So I obeyed and on I toiled. That's when Howie, who had stopped in Albion to wait on the others, flew past me. That’s about when I finally reached the top and saw the lovely downhill ride and the clear, inviting, blue, sea which seemed to be calling out to me to jump in and cool off. All that seemed to have been sent by God as a reward for my perseverance !

 As the downhill section finished, I had arrived at "Washoff" and there to my delight, sat Howie and Damit at a stall drinking cold coconuts. Boy was I ever happy to join them, especially since my water had been exhausted and I had been becoming quite thirsty. There we stayed in the shade till Andrew who I had stupidly been chasing,, arrived. Then came David, Charles, Michael, Grace and Renee (not necessarily  in that order).

 Next, we saw Darragh and Barry coming back. Well those of us who thought that we could have called it a day, were in for a disappointment as team leader and dictator Michael mandated that we must finish the ride. So after a while it was back in the sun for another five miles to the round about.

We all got there within minutes of each other and started to ride back to find the support vehicle. Luckily Winston came within view very quickly and Renee and I gave up our bicycles immediately for a ride in the van. Then we saw Betty arrive in an air-conditioned vehicle and Winston was immediately rejected! At one point we thought mad Michael followed by naive David were planning to ride back to Kingston but when we got back to "Washoff" they too jumped into the vehicles.

 Then it was on to 'Survival" for a delicious breakfast of ackee, mackerel and callalloo with wonderful food and fried jonnie cakes. That was around 11am and only after that did I begin to feel normal.

Well as we of "Fun and thrills” like to finish a day’s expedition with a swim, we headed for Grants Pen beach (in St. Thomas). But bearing in mind the frequent reports about crime in that area and seeing how narrow the road was, making it difficulty to make a quick getaway if necessary, we decided to go to Cable Hut beach in Bull Bay instead. That was a wise decision as the sea was unusually calm. Barry, Renee and Darragh who left us after breakfast, missed the best part of that ride!