Trek to Alligator Pond.

Wi nevva even catch cole!😭

That's the fate of fisherfolk. Sometimes the fish are running and sometimes they keep their mouths shut.

About a week ago, we went out from our usual spot in Duncans, Trelawny, but not even the fisherman who took us got a bite.

So,  having been told that Alligator Pond in Manchester had better fishing grounds, we drove over three hours for the big catch.

Shanti who took us out

We stopped at Sunny Isle Cay. Last year's hurricane wrecked sections of it.

This is by Sunny Isle Cay off the coast of Alligator Pond. 

The only thing we caught all morning was sea weed.😭

Three times I thought I got a bite and it was sea grass. Not even the fisherman got a nibble.

That area would be great for manatee (sea cow) but we ate them into virtual extinction on the south coast.

Anyway it was a good trek as we got an Airbnb and lymed at Little Ochi the night before.

Our Airbnb 

Port Kaiser and Lovers Leap in the distance.

Hanging out at the Airb&b.

Lots of fishing boats around

David, Bernie, Joan, Kai, Father Topping

Mitzie and David 

Mr and Mrs Evans who organized the trek. They gave us lots of fried lobster and curried crab😋

David and his dad

Yup we came home empty handed, but next year we gonna catch those critters .

 I can't believe it's tomorrow that I have to leave😭. 

How time flies when u having fun.

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.♥️

Friends forever

 It's always great to get together with friends occasionally, for life is so uncertain.

So when I joined my brother Bernie in July at Winedown, in Trelawny, we organized a little get together/domino session to see some we had known for decades.

The food was great, the camaderie refreshing and of course the dominoes challenging.

A wonderful night with forever friends.

My name is KORLEKi😊

 Yup that's my African name given to me by the Krobo tribe in Ghana.

https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-cultural-awakening.html?m=1

That name is specific to me, as it is based on certain aspects of my birth and personality.

On the other hand, Joan is a relic of colonialism and I can't believe I changed my good name, Marshall to a common name like Williams.

I remember being told by someone who was checking the telephone directory many years ago to try and find me, that he had counted 32 Joan Williams!

And that was in Kingston alone.

See what I mean?

I want you to go find me another KORLEKi Adjado anywhere else in the western hemisphere.

Pity it's such a bureaucratic nightmare to change ones name officially.😡

Ps. Big up my designers Judi and Coretta.❤️. Great job by the seamstress in Duncan's too, Charlene. Not only is she a neat dressmaker but a super pleasant person as well..

No place like home

"There’s no place like home" is probably the most overused cliché ever developed, but it’s used so much because it’s so true.

Beautiful Silver Sands beach

 At least in my case, for there is nothing I look forward to more than my annual visits home, to Jamdung, Jamaica, whatever we lovingly call it.

Be it reconnecting with good friends, the dominoes, eating real food, the incomparable beaches, the cycling, the fishing, whatever, its simply wonderful.

This year it was a different type of fishing for me, although I had no success there.

 Anyway, my brother Bernie had become so tired of hearing me grudgingly complain about how he caught a few large barracudas (pictures displayed on his wall no less) while I had never even had the opportunity, that he arranged for me to go with his dedicated fisherman Yusafta.

I don’t take chances however, for they had gone to Barracuda Alley the previous week and came back empty handed. 

So since I couldn’t face the possibility of such an outcome, I told Yusafta that if we didn’t get a hit there within an hour, we should go to the regular spots where we were at guaranteed to catch butter fish, welchmen etc for breakfast!

Luckily I did, for we travelled miles out to sea to the appropriately named place where the water is around 300 feet but never even got a hit! I guess we should have been forewarned that they were not running since we saw no other fisher folk heading in that direction.

We did run into a fisherman who on pulling in his fish pot, saw that a huge conger eel inside eating out his catch, so he was in the process of killing it.

After an hour out there, I didn’t feel badly as the Yusafta never got hit either.

So we did as I suggested and at least got breakfast plus a conger eel which Yusafa said he would take for a lady who loved to eat them. I had tried the fried conger eel once but really never liked it, so happily donated it to her dinner.

Barracuda Alley faces a recently built Spanish hotel located in Coral Springs, between Duncans and Falmouth, (Trelawny).  I must admit it is most unimpressive and unattractive looking  from the sea as it looks like a huge prison with its solid blocks. I hope it’s more attractive from the land side!

The new Spanish hotel is unattractive from the sea

I love Silver Sands and was so happy to be there with my brother and sister in law Judy, at their home “Winedown.”                                                                                Ran into Lisa at the beach there too. Then learnt that my former sister in law Betty, children and grandchildren were at a cottage almost behined us, so vistied them briefly.

    

During my stay, as usual the sea was flat and wonderful, only becoming rough on my last day there.                                                                                                                                                         I also enjoyed riding there, as it is nice and undulating although for the first two days, I could not conquer the hills. By day 3 I did though and even found a big bearing guinep tree at the top of one hill, where I could get refreshed.😋                                                                                                                                                        You see I now reside in flat, boring Florida which does nothing for your riding muscles, so being back in the hills is always a treat. Anyway I was spoilt by our riding group Fun and Thrills  whose riding expeditions involve going out into the country parts, swimming in a cool clean refreshing river then eating the most wonderful Jamaican breakfast before driving or even sometimes riding home. (Check out some of the Fun and Thrills blogs right here. They were also the basis for the Gleaner series; "Enjoying the Jamaican outdoors.”)                                                                                                                        The people who I could ride with in Florida, ride, ride, ride for around 20 miles to some place, then ride ride ride back. 

No fun or thrills on their rides!😕

Charles the 1st leads the troops, Charles11 behind.

So, when I arrived in Kingston, it was wonderful to get back with some friends from that wonderful club. We drove to Port Royal, parked, rode to the round about at the airport then returned to Port Royal where we lymed with cold beers, conch soup and guess what, jerked pork and fried bammy.

I was in my element as I had never had jerked pork in Port Royal as it has always been the fish capital of Jamaica. However, my friend Chuckie who is like me a porkist, had discovered the jerked pork there and surprised me. It tasted good too. 

Yummy. that made my day.

Gathering round the jerk pork😋

At Port Royal I saw that the cruise ship pier had been completed (but I was not allowed inside.) Also, for the first time, compliments of Grace, I learnt that there was still standing, part of the structure of the Woman’s Jail there which had been built before the 1692 earthquake destroyed the Wickedest city in the world!

Outside the restored Women's jail

Yup as I said, there’s no place like home, for not only do I get to reconnect with some of my dearest friends, but also there is never a visit when I do not discover something new.

Sweet Memories of  the return to Jamdung 2022

Outside the new cruise ship pier in Port Royal

This special barracuda bait never helped😡

When it gets rough at Silver Sands

 Some pics supplied by Charles Simpson and Grace Perez