The route from Montego Bay to Negril still
offers stretches of sparkling seascapes on
one hand and green fields and hills on the
other. It also has many flat, fairly straight
road sections - an irresistible temptation
to most Jamaican drivers so remember, at all
times, to drive defensively.
Reading,
now just a suburb of Montego Bay was once
a sugar port. The pier is now a jetty for
pleasure boats and the small port occupied
by Norma's trendy restaurant. Budhai's Art
Gallery L displays the work of the epoynomous
artist in residence. The Reading Reef Club,
a small hotel R is the headquarters of Poseidon
Nemrod, a PADI Dive centre operated by environmentalists
Theo and Hannie Schmidt. Hannie is a Director
of the Jamaica Conservation Development
Trust and Theo is on the Local Advisory
Committee of the Montego Bay Marine Park.
Approaching
Great River...the
Great River, one of the longest
in the island is the venue for the Evening
on the Great River tour. Across the river,
the road hugs the side of a long hill offering
a fine view across the sea to Montego Bay.
Nine
miles west of Montego
Bay Round Hill, "not a hotel,
more a way of life," appears consistently
in the Harper's and Queen list of the Three
Hundred Best Hotels in the World. Round
Hill was created in 1953 by John Pringle,
a member of an old Jamaican family who was
later a successful Director of Tourism.
The concept of a nucleus hotel with luxurious
satellite villas owned by shareholders and
built to their own design was used shortly
afterwards at Half Moon and Tryall. The
Round Hill, 53 acres of land almost encircled
by the sea, was purchased from Lord Monson,
owner of the large cattle and coconut estate.
Original shareholders included broadcasting
magnate
Bill
Paley of CBC, Noel Coward, Oscar Hammerstein
and Gladys Cooper. The roster has changed
with the years but Round Hill remains a
magnet for the slightly conservative jet-set.
A stellar event of the Winter Season, Round
Hill's Sugar Cane Ball raises money for
charities in the parish of Hanover.
Hopewell
is a bustling village; the photogenic Methodist
church at the cross roads was built in the1870ís.
Back on the open road there are two interesting
craft shacks L and a sign offering the services
of Captain Steamer (snorkelling guide) just
before the Old Steamer beach where the skeleton
of an old coastal steamer is a reminder
of the days when these boats were a vital
transportation link. Captain Groome of Rio
Bueno captained this one, and it was reportedly
used to run guns to Cuba in the revolt against
Spain.
Flint
River,
now a cattle property, has an old stone
wharf with cannon and is one of many estates
with extensive ruins of slavery-built sugar
works.
Tryall
Golf and Beach Club (with
a beach club guarded by cannons from the
erstwhile Tryall fort) is a 2,200 acre residential
estate with 50 villas, a small hotel, gourmet
dining rooms, manicured grounds, and a golf
course which hosts the annual Johnny Walker
Championship. One of Tryall's original shareholders
was Governor John Connally of Texas. Current
homeowners, though low profile, are representative
of the financial, industrial, political,
diplomatic and publishing establishments
and constitute a unique and influential
international colony. As Tryall's late and
much lamented Managing Director Count Kenneth
Diacre de Liancourt used to explain: 'We
don't make any pretence you know, it's a
rich man's club, its no good coming to Tryall
unless you are prepared to spend money .
. . there's nothing shameful in being rich,
you mustn't be mean that's all.' Created
in 1956, Tryall does not reflect the economic
and social changes that the island has undergone
since then, but the citizens of Hanover
cherish considerable loyalty to this institution
which employs about 500 persons year round
and contributes lavishly and conscientiously
(noblesse oblige) to local charities and
community projects. Tryall was originally
a large sugar plantation. The giant water
wheel L of the road which turned the mill
in the factory has been restored and is
sometimes still powered by water transported
from Flint River via a 2 mile aqueduct.
In the 1832 slave rebellion Tryall Great
House was damaged and the estate burnt.
Embedded in the lawn at the entrance to
the hotel is a fragment of the gravestone
which commemorates the headman of the estate
"shot by rebels while defending his
masters' property."
Sandy
Bay
was founded as a Baptist Free Village for
emancipated slaves on the initiative of
the Rev. Thomas Burchell. The playing field
here is still known as Burchell Field. Jamaican
parents bestow on their offspring the surname
of anyone they particularly admire and Burchell
is almost as popular a christian name as
Manley. Haynes Printables/Haynes Jamaica
Ltd., a subsidiary of the Sara Lee Corporation
has a large factory here assembling garments
for the U.S. market.
Kenilworth,
has some fine seventeenth-century ruins,
the elegance of which has prompted theories
that the structure originated as a Spanish
monastery before it became a sugar factory.
At
Mosquito Cove the road skirts an inlet nearly
1 mile long: spelled Miskito Cove in old
maps the area may have once been settled
by Amerindians from the Musquito Shore (the
eastern coast of modern Nicaragua), a semi-dependency
of England during the eighteenth century.
Lady Nugent (wife of the then governor of
Jamaica) was obliged to entertain the young
king of the Miskitos, which she did with
sugar plums and the children's toys and
reported in her diary that she was: "obliged
to send the little Musquito King forcibly
to school; but not before, in his rage and
reluctance, he had broken the poor orderly
sergeant's watch to pieces, and scratched
his face sadly."
Scenic
detour: Turn L at the head of Mosquito
Cove and (road conditions permitting)
drive through the lush hills and districts
of Jericho, Cascade, Pondside, Great Valley,
Old Pen and back to Hopewell. The Baptist
Church at Gurney Mount, built by Thomas
Burchell in 1830 was damaged in the 1957
earthquake. The rebuilt church includes
the Freedom Stone from the original. At
Old Pen, turn R for Chigwell a farming community
periodically submerged (after prolonged
and heavy rains) by an ephemeral lake which
rises from the overcharged aquifer. In 1979
half the population had to be evacuated
but some die-hards moved to the hilltops
and waited 9 months till the water receded).
Approaching
the headland that overlooks Lucea a sign
boasts "Best View, check it out"
and a stall sells the inevitable cold Red
Stripe beer etc. The large cylindrical tanks
on the slope below are used to store molasses
for National Rums Ltd., and the private
beach at Bamboo Bay is the venue for the
Miskito Cove picnic, a popular tour.
Lucea,
retains few vestiges of the elegance and
importance that it once enjoyed as the capital
of a flourishing sugar parish. Hugging the
west of the finest natural harbour on the
northcoast it is a pleasant rural town,
steeped in history, as any member of the
active Hanover Historical Society will tell
you.
The
imposing town clock atop the nineteenth
century courthouse was ordered for St. Lucia
but delivered to Lucea by mistake. The townspeople
refused to exchange it for the more modest
clock they had ordered and took up a subscription
to pay the balance. The clock tower was
the gift of a wealthy landowner of German
extraction - hence its resemblance to the
helmet worn by the Royal Guards of Germany.
The thoroughly modern lions guarding the
courthouse were added by the late Sir Alexander
Bustamante, when the square was remodeled
during the 1960s prior to being formally
opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
The
eighteenth century Parish Church on Fort
Charlotte Drive has several interesting
monuments including one to Sir Simon Clarke,
a gentleman of great good sense (he married
an heiress) and rectitude whose grandfather
was originally exiled to the island for
highway robbery.
On
the headland, Rusea's High School was established
in 1777 with a bequest from Martin Rusea,
a French refugee who 'in grateful recollection
of the hospitality manifested toward him
in the colony left . . . all his real and
personal estate for the establishment of
a school in the parish of Hanover'. Rusea's
disappointed relatives disputed the will
and 13 years elapsed before the school was
founded. Among its famous alumnae is track
star Merlene Ottey, who first learned to
sprint in her home village Pondside in the
hills nearby.
Guarding
the bay is Fort
Charlotte, named for King George
III's consort and one of five forts built
in the 18th century to protect
the island's northwest coast from the French
and pirates. (Others were at Point, Tryall,
Round Hill and Montego Bay.) The battlement
has positions for 20 guns and 2 massive
George III cannons on rotary carriages remain.
During the 18th century Lucea
was a busy naval base and among famous maritime
characters to visit here was Horatio Nelson.
A sailor called Bligh, later notorious for
his ironfisted command of the ship Bounty,
also came to Lucea to visit relatives who
had an estate nearby. It was at Fort Charlotte
that Bligh first met a young officer named
Fletcher Christian, the man destined to
lead the mutiny on the Bounty against him.
Bligh is best remembered for introducing
both the breadfruit and the ackee to Jamaica.
These
and other fascinating historical anecdotes
about Lucea were unearthed by Evangeline
Clare, founder of the Hanover Historical
Society and wife of the local member of
parliament Ben Clare. She is also the creator,
fundraiser and curator of a site museum
at the old police headquarters (turn towards
the sea by the St.s Philip and James Catholic
Church). Perched on a breezy cliff the museum
features eighteenth-century dungeons embellished
with an illustration of slaves on the treadmill.
It has an intriguing collection of artifacts,
a re-created Arawak dwelling, mini-garden,
snackbar and clean washrooms. The caretaker,
Mr Thompson, is cordial and informative.
At
the entrance to Fort
Charlotte is an interesting and
somewhat poignant craft workshop: all the
workers are handicapped. One member of staff,
Roy Manning, who lost both legs in a train
accident, has won gold and silver medals
in the Wheelchair Olympics. He once traveled
right around the island in his wheelchair
- a feat that took him 22 days.
West
Palm on Fort Charlotte Drive is the only
hotel in town. Clean and comfortable, it
is popular with local businessmen.
Animal
Hill,
which overlooks the square got its name
because the families who settled it all
had animal names: Mares, Steers, Lyons,
Foxes, Hogges, etc.
As
you leave Lucea, heading for Negril there
are L some factories and a housing scheme
and R a modernistic courthouse and goal,
then Long Acre on the Rocks a seafront restaurant
and nightclub and frequent venue for reggae
shows.
Now
begins a succession of mangrove shrouded
coves, once the haunt of pirates and sometimes
still used by ganja runners. There are cottages
and rooms for rent at Lances Bay. At Cousins
Cove (so called because it was
originally part of the dowry of an heiress
who married her cousin) there is an Arawak
cave, artifacts from which can be seen at
the museum in Lucea. According to signs
on the roadside it also boasts a Business
Association one of the members being Friday
who advertises snacks and snorkelling at
the bend where the canoes are beached.
Interesting
detour: At
Davis Cove turn L and travel a short distance
to Blenheim, birthplace of Sir Alexander
Bustamante. His father, Robert Clarke was
an overseer on the estate. The Jamaica National
Heritage Trust has rebuilt the thatched
farm house in which the family lived and
a memorial ceremony is held here every year.
'Busta' - possibly the best loved and certainly
the most colourful of all Jamaican political
figures - was an adventurer who fought in
the Spanish civil war and took many jobs
all over the world before returning to Jamaica,
setting up as a money lender, and entering
politics at the age of 50. He was the founder
of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union
and then of the Jamaica Labour Party and
Jamaica's first Prime Minister. A rallying
song of his supporters 'We shall follow
Bustamante till we die' illustrates the
trust and unquestioning loyalty that he
inspired. Busta used to boast that he was
a man of mixed blood. On other occasions
he would assert that he was 50% Irish, 50%
Jamaican and 10% Arawak. Another anecdote
describes a staid reception for Commonwealth
Prime Ministers at Buckingham Palace when
everyone was at his most punctilious. Except
Busta, who seeing the young Queen Elizabeth
diffidently approaching his group, turned
towards her, opened his arms wide and called
"Hello Honey". Her Majesty, protocol
forgotten, moved smilingly into his avuncular
embrace.
Green
Island
village straggles along a long bend in the
road. You can turn L here for a drive through
sugar cane country and past Dolphin Head,
at 1789 feet the highest peak in western
Jamaica, to Grange Hill, Frome Sugar Estate
and Savanna-la- mar. Green Island has a
large secondary school and an establishment
named Mandela Green (for South African Freedom
fighter Nelson Mandela) which offers restaurant
and bar, live entertainment and a Raving
Reggae Disco.
Rhodes
Hall Plantation
offers horseback trail rides around the
large estate and has about one mile of more
or less deserted beachfront.
Orange
Bay
is becoming a dormitory community for Negril.
The reef offshore here, once diverse and
spectacular is now affected by spreading
algae and facing longterm pollution from
an on-shore garbage dump.
The
beginning of the Great Morass on your L
heralds your approach to Negril Harbour,
better known as Bloody Bay. Negril begins
here - or in your head.
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