Category Archives: Nature

A Neighbourhood Walk

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A New Year. I promised myself that this year I would do things differently. That started last Saturday when I decided to take a morning walk in the neighbourhood.

Now, I should preface this by stating that we live in the community buffer zone of Jamaica’s Blue & John Crow Mountains National Park. This means that we have the pleasure of living on the border of a UNESCO World Heritage Site while dealing with the need for greater environmental protection of this ecologically sensitive area. These contrasting elements all came to the fore last Saturday morning.

The Hope River bathed in early morning sunlight.

The Plan vs Execution 

The plan was for me to follow my wife on her regular Saturday morning neighbourhood walk. This is something that she has been doing for years, and although I enjoy walking in nature, I’ve never joined her because my Saturday mornings are normally taken up with running up and down the hills in which we live. However – new year, new experiences. Plus I had ran the previous day, so I figured I’d use my rest day to go on a quiet walk with my wife. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

Flowers along the trail

Kingstonians of all ages should be familiar with the “Gordon Town to Holywell” hike. Youth clubs, school and church groups have been using this route for decades to introduce youngsters to hiking in the mountains. We live in close proximity to a leg of this hiking route, and that morning my wife decided that was where we would be walking. Specifically from our community of Redlight to the first bridge on the trail – a distance of 1.5 km. So a planned walk of 3km in total.

The walk was very pleasant. Leaving Redlight and going through communities such as Hopewell we left houses and homes behind. And yes, we did run into a group of young hikers cutting their teeth on the trail. It’s good to see that the Gordon Town to Holywell hike is still a thing. The trail narrowed as we walked along the Hope River on its journey down the mountains to the Mona Dam, which  provides Kingston with water. We’ve had heavy rain over the past months – so the flow was heavy and the vegetation was verdant. It was quite enjoyable and we soon arrived at the bridge. The planned turn around point. However my wife saw that I wasn’t quite ready to go back so soon. So we agreed to keep going, with the option that we can turn back at anytime that she wished. So we kept going…and going…and going. Needless to say, 3 km later we had reached Gordon Town.

What kept us going? Just the joy of being out in nature together, exploring and re-discovering God’s creation, located  literally at our doorstep. Marveling at the energy that was needed to transport the many massive boulder that were along the trail which towered over us.

Massive boulders along the trail

It was also an opportunity for me to get back to my hiking – which I haven’t done in a very long time. Which is a shame, considering where I live. So what should have been a short 3 km walk, ended up being a 3 hour, 8.85km hike from Redlight to Gordon Town – and back.

The First Bridge….

Solid Waste Abounds

While we enjoyed the hike, the fact is that communities exist on the banks of this stretch of the Hope River. And where there are people there is garbage. It wasn’t so bad at the upper and mid reaches of the trail, but as we approached Gordon Town, the garbage increased. It was dumped on the trail, burned on the trail, and left in the river and on the banks. Of course it doesn’t stay here. It finds its way downriver into Kingston Harbour and beyond.

Garbage on the trail

Garbage on the trail

Garbage on the trail

The residents will say that they have no choice – there is no garbage skip in which they can dispose their rubbish, and the solid waste management authorities do not collect from these locations. However, there must be a way whereby this garbage can be properly disposed of and collected. This would go a long way to reducing the eye-sore along the trail and the solid waste that reaches the Caribbean Sea.

I’ve been trying to convince my students that while beach clean-ups are all well and good – and dare I say “sexy” – I believe that tackling the issue up river at the source can also alleviate the situation. We just need willing participants to clean up the Hope River.

If this is done, the trail could be the basis of a community tourism enterprise based on hiking and the natural wonders of the trail on the periphery of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Hope River provides water for Kingston and St. Andrew

 

Birding at River Breeze

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I’ve always enjoyed photographing birds, although I don’t consider myself a “bird photographer”. This is because I lack both the patience and specialized equipment required to excel in this type of photography. However, for over 10 years I have owned a small cottage in the community buffer zone of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (BJCMNP) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The BJCMNP was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a mixed property in 2015 for its natural and cultural heritage. One of the reasons for this is the large variety of birds that can be found in these mountains.

A Red-Billed Streamer-tail Hummingbird, nestled in a Blue Mahoe Flower. February 2019.

River Breeze Cottage is located in the community of Cascade at an altitude of 700 metres above sea level and is located in the vicinity of Hardwar Gap which is a popular bird-watching site. This results in a large variety of both endemic species and migrant species on the property, which is less than an acre in size. On a wet and rainy Monday, Dr. Suzanne Davis of the Institute of Jamaica was able to identify over 24 species in less than three hours.

Jamaican Woodpecker. February 2019.
Vervain Hummingbird. August 2019. 

These included the ubiquitious Red-Billed Streamer-tailed hummingbird, an endemic species that is the national bird of Jamaica. Also present is Jamaica’s smallest hummingbird, the Vervain Hummingbird. Other endemics include the Jamaican Tody, the Jamaican Woodpecker, the Jamaican Euphoria, the Jamaican Spindalis and the White-Chinned Thrush. In the distance I saw a Chestnut-Bellied Cuckoo, and Suzanne was able to identify  the Yellow-Shouldered Grassquit  by its birdsong. These birds are found only in Jamaica, and I am blessed to be able to view them in my small patch of paradise. 

Black-Throated Blue Warbler. December 2009

Smooth-Billed Ani. December 2016

Apart from the endemics, Jamaica receives migrant species during both the winter and summer months.  Among the former is the Black-Throated Blue Warbler, while the Black-Whiskered Vireo is a summer visitor. Suzanne was able to identify the latter from its characteristic bird-call, which sounds like “John-Chew-It” (hence its local name). Of course, I was totally unable to distinguish such sounds. Other birds that can be found in the garden include the Smooth-Billed Ani, the Loggerhead Kingbird, Bananaquits, the Black-Faced Grassquit, the White-Crowned Pigeon and the Rufous-Throated Solitaire. 

So, these are just a few of the birds that can be found at River Breeze Cottage. Needless to say, I believe that I will be doing more bird watching and bird photography. I’ve already bought a pair of binoculars and I might even invest in some new camera lenses. I’m not sure about acquiring the patience though…

Bananaquit. February 2019.

Sad Flycatcher. December  2009

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River Breeze Cottage

Photography Biathlon

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“What’s a Photography Biathlon?”, you might ask. That is a very good question, and if you had asked me that yesterday I wouldn’t have a clue.

However, during this morning’s run it came to me. For some time I’ve been wanting to post a blog entry about my morning runs in the hills above Kingston, which are the gateway to the Blue & John Crow Mountains National Park. Of course, any blog post that I do requires photos, but I don’t like to mix my running with my photography – I feel that one distracts from the other. Since today was my long run and I had my Samsung J5 with me anyway (using my Runtastic app), I decided to – as the company from Beaverton says – Just Do It.

Mountain view during the first kilometre

My run this morning was a 10K run – 5K uphill and 5K down.  The steepest stretch is the 1st kilometre, and this tends to be my slowest pace and so this is when I started shooting. Now, I tend to muse while I run so later on in the run I thought to myself “here I am, running and shooting, like I’m doing some kind of photography biathlon”. Eureka!! Then the next thought was, “another challenge for my photography students”. (I’m not sure how they’d take to the idea).

Roadside flora

Sunrise through the trees

As I ran (and shot), I began to formulate the criteria. Firstly, it won’t work for distances less than 10K, because the runner needs to have put in the distance and/or the pace at the end of the day. Secondly, you are to average 1 photo per kilometre, and finally, the runner decides when during the run they shoot. Today I shot during the uphill 5K, so that my downhill run would be uninterrupted (although I was distracted by the goats in the final kilometre). The winner would be the person with a combination of the best photos (taken during the shoot – no editing) and the best time.

So, any takers for a Photography Biathlon?   

Another mountain view.