Perilous adventure

Today, my second in command and I undertook perilous activities. First, there was a trip to the blue hole, an impressive string of small-ish falls, with deep pools.

There were four jumps, with an optional fifth.

Everyone did the first three, we managed the fourth too, but abstained from the last one in view of the ridiculous height.

I lost my glasses on the third jump, which was itself scarily high for a man with a fear of heights.

No, of course I wasn’t wearing them. They were in a secure place (my back pocket).

A diver was available for a reasonable price and, unbelievably, he found my glasses thirty-odd feet below. So all ended well and I don’t need to wear sunglasses until our return home.

Then, a little while later, wearing my glasses, I scaled a near vertical waterfall. OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but I’m getting on a bit and I’d also lost my asthma inhaler in the aforementioned leap of death.

We thoroughly enjoyed the climb up Konoko Falls, and the earlier plunges. However, since there was so much water, we have no pictures.

Not that I’d have been able to see to take any when it mattered. Still don’t know how I managed that fourth jump while almost blind.

Addendum: I should have mentioned my second in command’s spider powers. I was astonished to see her nimbly swinging legs up to reach ambitious footholds, at one point climbing almost horizontally.

A true spider woman. Probably inspired by the huge creatures dangling over our heads.

Marley’s ghost

We also visited Kingston today. Where we went to the Bob Marley museum.

There’s just the one picture, because cameras weren’t allowed inside. But it was worth going. Essentially, it’s a Georgian house, largely as it was intended, apart from the 70s recording studio.

The shot room was a little strange, though. Best look it up.

I did learn something new about the bloke. He was a vegan. Which makes him cool. Forget the music, he was a vegan.

Coffee II

This is coffee.

Blue Mountain coffee. Apparently, Jamaica imports tons of instant coffee, because the good stuff is exported.

Coffee

We climbed a mountain today. A blue one, which didn’t look at all blue. And we learned that everything we (thought we) knew about coffee was completely wrong.

The coffee was nice though, as were the views.

The picture above was actually looking down onto a pretty scary road which zig-zagged up the mountain.

Five decades

This is my second visit to Jamaica. I was last here fifty years ago. Admittedly, my last visit was limited to less than a couple of days in Kingston.

I remember little from that visit, although I clearly recall being given a stick of chewing gum (Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit) by a beautiful young lady who was standing in a doorway. Many years later, on remembering the occasion with an adult mind, I realised she was prostitute.

Anyway, while we’ll be visiting Kingston, our temporary home is a beach resort.

A beach resort with poor Wi-Fi. Which is probably why we were unsuccessful in this morning’s Glastonbury ticket sale.

Anyway, this is our house for a little while.

Feck

The Worley Almshouses has apparently been closed for a few months. According to the bloke outside who said it was due to reopen a few days ago. He was meeting a mate from Malta there.Anyway, it hasn’t reopened yet. Even worse, a missed opportunity.

If only this had happened next year.Anyway, we found another Sam Smith’s pub, the Botolph Arms.

Beautiful.

Thievery

Every time I walk past this bike stand, I recall the theft of our new bikes.

Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t aware that bike theft was a huge problem in Peterborough.

I’m consoling myself with a pint of Punk in the Draper’s Arms, while waiting for the Wortley Almshouses to open.