On
the main road, just before the White bridge
the R fork leads to Calypso Rafting and
then into the hills for Sandals Golf Club
at Upton. Leaving Ocho Rios, traveling east
on the coast road R is Rio Blanco Village
an apartment hotel, and L Sans Souci Lido,
member of the Super Clubs chain, an elegant
resort with its own mineral spring. Over
the hill, R is the turn to Prospect Plantation
Tour.
At
the next opportunity, turn R for Wilderness
Resort about 10 miles into the hills. Travel
L of the White River gorge, taking the L
fork through Cascade to Labarinth and then
the R fork towards the next crossroads and
"Miss Miri's" shop where you turn
R to Goshen and Wilderness Resort a broad
valley with large fish ponds where a small
entrance fee covers bait and tackle and
even, if needs be, someone to bait the hook
for you. Here you can fish to your hearts
content, then buy your catch of freshwater
snapper and have it cooked. You can try
kayaking or paddle boats on another large
pond. Or walk a nature trail. There are
restrooms and a restaurant and campsites.
Goshen is the remnant of a large estate
that once stretched from Mt Diablo to the
coast, and the water for the fishponds comes
from the White River via a slave-built stone
aqueduct. Owners Alex and Fay Lanigan are
usually on hand to greet you. This attraction
is very popular with Jamaicans, especially
on weekends.
R.
of the coast road is Harmony Hall (art gallery,
craft shop and a good pub). Sea Palms, and
Chris Anns are condo hotels; Glenn's Place,
R, has good food and jazz. Next is Couples,
which in a previous incarnation was called
Tower Isle. Created 40 years ago by the
patriarch of Jamaica's tourism, the late
Hon. Abe Issa, it was the first large hotel
on the north coast. The tower on the small
island offshore was built to make the name
appropriate. In 1979 Abe's nephew John Issa
jettisoned its somewhat staid concept in
favour of a new all-inclusive couples-only
format. The highly successful formula has
been copied, and elaborated by others but
Couples remains one of the most popular
resorts in the Caribbean. No longer a member
of John's Super Clubs chain, it is now marketed
and managed by his nephew Christopher Issa
and Paul Issa, youngest son of Abe.
Just
past Couples, look carefully on your R for
the insignificant hut of Rastafarian sculptor
Brother Albert Jones and a sign tacked to
a post which advises, "Mankind Remember
God help those who help themselves."A
consummate carver, he specializes in intricate
pieces fashioned from cedar and mahogany
roots. Across the road Irie Ceramics is
a partnership of four young potters.
At
Rio Nuevo, a road L leads down to the battle
site where the remnants of the Spanish forces
led by the governor Don Cristobal Ysassi
were defeated. The site is well tended,
shaded with pimento (allspice) trees and
has a fine view of Rio Nuevo Bay and fishing
beach. The site, open from 9am to 4pm, 7
days a week, is a pleasant place for a picnic.
British guile may have played a decisive
part in their victory. Their force sailed
around from Port Royal and landed on the
other side of the river. The weary River
Spaniards were encamped on the hill. The
British sent an envoy waving a white flag
ostensibly to negotiate terms but in fact
to assess the strength of the Spaniards.
Satisfied that theirs was the superior army,
the British subsequently stormed the hill
and routed the Spaniards, many of whom fled
to Cuba by canoe. Ysassi is believed to
have left from Don Christopher's Point east
of Robins Bay and Annotto Bay.
The
Rio Nuevo is little more than a stream in
dry season. The fisherman's beach can be
reached by turning L just before the bridge
a bad road but short. The beach is made
of smooth- weathered multi-coloured stones.
Fisherman Morgie Adams sells cool drinks
and snacks. Boats can be hired here for
fishing or snorkelling. Prices negotiable.
There are sandy coves under the headland
to the west. On a hill just above the beach
the Rio Nuevo Great house offers accommodation.
Continue
east to Stewart Town, a nondescript village
whose only claim to fame Moxon's Restaurant
- has seen much better days. Moxon's, when
operated by a transplanted English couple,
Oliver and Benita Moxon, was a gourmet mecca
that lured V.I.P. visitors from near and
far. The late Oliver Moxon, a former JLP
parish Councillor also started numerous
community projects, including a flooring
industry using tiles made from the thousands
of coconut trees killed during the 1950s
by a mysterious disease called Lethal Yellowing.
The
Boscobel Beach Club is an up-market all-inclusive
with special facilities and programs for
entertaining children of all ages. Once
a Hugh Hefner Playboy Club it was refurbished,
expanded and lavishly landscaped to create
a successful member of John Issa's Super
Clubs chain.
On
a plateau R of the road is the Boscobel
landing strip for light aircraft. This one
is official. There are still numerous private
and illegal airstrips on the island catering
to ganja flights. Periodically they are
destroyed by the army and just as routinely
repaired.
The
road descends as you enter Oracabessa. At
a triangular junction usually occupied by
fruit sellers, commuters and school kids
turn R towards Sun Valley Plantation and
into the pleasant world of rural Jamaica
where the roads are bad, the foliage lush
and the people friendly. Signs will direct
you L to Noel Coward's Firefly and to Brimmer
Hall Plantation, a tour popular with cruise-ship
passengers. At Jacks River ask for Mrs Gloria
Davis. A potter in love with her craft,
she fashions custom-made clay pots in a
tumbledown shed, and fires them with wood
- for fun rather than profit. Further on,
the Jacks River Basic School L swarms with
tots in gingham and khaki uniforms and a
parent has painted a scenic mural on the
outside of the school house. Past the village
at a fork in the road with a bus shelter
on the R follow the ìSun Valleyî
sign straight ahead for another mile to
a 60 acre banana plantation owned by Nolly
and Lorna Binns and enjoy a ëhands-on'
introduction to banana cultivation, from
planting to packing. You will also see -
and sample in season - everything else that
grows on the farm: citrus, cane, naseberry,
otaheite apple, guava, nutmeg, coconut water
and jelly. Local snacks and fruit juices
are complimentary and there is garden bar.
Tours are often conducted by Lorna , a lady
who personifies traditional Jamaican hospitality.
The farm is part of Crescent, a sugar estate
established in 1741. At a spot still known
as "The Factory" there are ruins
of the mill, waterwheel and slave barracks
and a Guango Tree said to be three hundred
years old. Optional extras are horseback
riding and climbing the soft falls in the
Crescent river.
Retrace
your route to the coast and Oracabbessa.
Fifty years ago, when ships anchored offshore
and were loaded by lighters this was a booming
banana port. Today it is a sadly neglected
one street town where almost all traces
of wazzu elegant Victorian buildings have
been obliterated by crude repairs and alterations.
During the 1970s, millions were spent on
a project to build a deep water pier. The
harbour was dredged and the foreshore dumped
before the project was abruptly abandoned.
Towns-people say that the government planners
discovered, belatedly, that the prevailing
wind made the site chosen for the pier unsuitable.
To
date, Oracabessa's considerable tourism
potential remains untapped. The Goldenhead
Hotel, on the beach beside the river has
had a chequered and mostly unsuccessful
career. It is once again up and running,
financed by Neville Blythe, a local insurance
mogul and owner of the Jamaica Herald newspaper.
Currently, entrepreneur and music promoter
Chris Blackwell has plans for a multifaceted
tourism village on idle government lands
along the foreshore and adjacent to his
oceanfront property Goldeneye. This was
formerly the winter retreat of British author
Ian Fleming, creator of masterspy James
Bond, and most of the novels were written
here. Fleming got the name for his flamboyant
hero from what he called ìone of
his Jamaican biblesî - Birds of Jamaica
by ornithologist James Bond.
One
of Oracabessa's most interesting residents
is artist Richard Von White, grandson of
W.E.White a self-made man, baker, planter
and Oracabessa's leading citizen in the
early 1900s. Von's brilliantly hued, evocative
canvasses reflect the tropical flora that
is the source of his inspiration. He spends
two days per week as resident artist at
Boscobel Beach Club and paints at home the
rest of the time.
His
airy wooden house overlooks the sea and
art-collectors are always welcome. Turn
left after the police station, first house
on your left.
Towards
Port Maria you pass the Galina lighthouse
L and the spot where the Misses Parsons,
retired school teachers, were drowned in
hurricane Allen in 1980 when they elected
to stay in their cliffside home with their
pet dogs. The house was comp-letely destroyed
by an unprecedented storm surge.
Approaching
Port Maria bay turn R at the sign and proceed
carefully up an unpredictable road to Firefly,
once the home of Noel Coward, British playwright
and wit. He died here and is buried at the
bottom of the garden under a plain marble
slab an eternal "Room with a View"
over the sweeping vista of Port Maria Bay
and Cabaritta island. Coward's heirs gave
the property to the nation. Ill-kept for
years, Firefly is now leased to Chris Blackwell
who has restored and refurbished it, and
created a Coward museum complete with video
presentation, theatrical memorabilia and
some of Coward's own paintings. Blackwell,
whose mother was a close friend of Coward's,
is the music promoter who discovered Millie
(My Boy Lollipop) Small and launched Bob
Marley.
Firefly,
once part of Llanrumney estate had another
famous owner - Sir Henry Morgan, a buccaneer
who turned ìrespectableî, became
famous for the sacking of Panama city, and
ended up as Governor of Jamaica. He claimed
to be the son of a Welsh gentleman, but
unkind rumour had it that he came to the
islands first as an indentured servant.
A brick ruin in the garden , said to have
been his look-out, has been restored and
now as "Morgan's Kitchen" is a
bar and "Tea-Room"
Just
below Firefly is an Arawak site that has
been partly excavated. Owner of the land
Rastafarian Errol Henry welcomes visitors.
Casa Maria L of the main road and overlooking
the bay is a small hotel.
Port
Maria was christened Puerta Santa Maria
by the Spaniards. It has an interesting
history and great natural beauty but is
currently one of the poorest and shabbiest
towns in the island, waiting, apparently
without much hope, for the revival of the
banana trade or tourism development. There
is no shortage of churches: the very picturesque
Anglican Parish Church was built in 1861.
By the bridge, an old Baptist church has
been defaced by modern improvements. At
the other end of town an odd but imposing
Presbyterian Church was built in 1830 to
christianize the slaves of Frontier, the
same estate where Tacky's rebellion had
started 90 years before.
Tacky,
a Coromantyn chieftain, was captured and
sold into slavery. In 1860 he led a brave
and bloody rebellion that terrorized the
plantocracy and government for over a month.
He was shot by one of the Maroon mercenaries
impressed to fight with the militia. A monument
in front of the Port Maria courthouse commemorates
Tacky's resistance against tyranny. Unlike
Sam Sharp and Queen Nanny of the Maroons
Tacky was never made an official National
Hero perhaps because in planning his revolt
he enlisted the aid of the obeahmen, or
witch doctors and was rumoured to be capable
of catching bullets and hurling them back
at the enemy with deadly effectî a
power also attributed to the legendary Nanny.
It is interesting to note that the parish
of St Mary of which Port Maria is capital,
is still reputed to have the most effective
obeahmen in the island.
In
the east of the town is Pagee Beach, a gentle
curve of smooth sand stretching along the
water for almost a mile. The swimming is
safe and the beach usually deserted except
for some friendly fishermen who relax by
playing dominoes. Boats can be hired here
by negotiation, to take you fishing or across
to Cabaritta island.
En
route to Annotto Bay you will pass Whitehall
Estate L , its great house crowning a hill
thickly planted with coconut palms. An all-inclusive
country resort is in the making here. Further
on, two interesting roadside stalls specialize
in pots made from an amalgam of aluminum
and iron.
As
you approach Annotto Bay and the bridge
over the Wag Water river signs will direct
you L to Robins Bay - five miles of recently
resurfaced road offers unparalleled seascapes
and sandy coves for swimming. You pass through
the tiny village on your way to two unique
resorts.
Sonrise,
owned by Bob and Kim Chase is the reincarnation
of Strawberry Fields, a former hippie haven.
Now a family oriented operation, Sonrise
has spacious camping ground above a large
white sand cove, spotless cabins (with bath)
include a deluxe honeymoon cabin above its
own tiny cove. There is a restaurant and
bar (serving nothing stronger than Red Stripe)
and a dining pavilion perched above the
ocean. Clean communal bathrooms are available
for campers and day visitors. Hiking trails
take you west along an unfrequented coast
with waterfalls.
The
road surface deteriorates abruptly at Sonrise
but a short distance down a rough road brings
you to River Lodge: a small guest house
in a restored "pirate castle",
probably once a sugar factory. Perched above
a tiny stream River Lodge blends into the
foliage: approaching over an emerald green
lawn you are surprised to discover buildings
six individual rooms (with bath) have high
ceilings and thick stone walls. Further
investigation reveals a tiny Reggae-oriented
gift shop, a dining room in a thatched cabana
and a bright, spotlessly clean kitchen brimming
with local fruit and vegetables. Created
and managed by a transplanted German, Brigitta
Fuchslocher, River Lodge is popular with
European nature lovers.
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