Yallus River Trail Re-Conquered by Team From Lime Tree Farm!
For many years I've wanted to find & hike the Yallus River Trail, this trail runs from below Hagley Gap high in the Blue Mountains to the town ofYallus on the south coast of Jamaica, it was constructed sometime around the 1950's as a donkey road to get coffee upriver to Mavis Bank Factory & produce from farms in the valley downstream to the coast & on to Kingston market, the trail may have been constructed in the 50's but these paths & trails were been used long before by Nanny & the Maroons(1700's) to evade the British Redcoats & wage a successful Guerrilla war which ended in a truce & autonomy for the Maroons.
Accompanied by a fellow adventurer & return Guest to LIme Tree Farm, Harry Monk, we set off at about 11am for what we thought would be a reasonably easy 5-10 mile hike upriver to Magans Coffee Farm. Undetterred by all local advice – "nobody been that way for years" – "road bush up bad" we found the trail & started moving up stream very slowly because,"road bush up bad" & nobody had been this way for years"!
After 5 hours we had only moved a couple of miles & started to realize that we would be lucky to reach before nightfall, going back was not an option, so we fought on against thorn bush & heavy grass alike( the views from 500-1000ft above the gorge were spectacular) – darkness started to descend – no cell phone reception – we had visions of a search party plunging 1000ft into the abyss as clearly they must if they came looking for us in the dark. Just as we had accepted defeat & started to contemplate a night huddled together in the bush we stepped out of a heavy thorn bush onto a well cleared farm road & a mile later arrived at Magans Farm in moonlit darkness.
The Yallus River Trail was one of the hardest hikes I've ever attempted(leg cramps for day afterwoods!). There was something strangely satisfying about rediscovering a trail which had been reclaimed by the bush & walking in the footprints of history. Harry Monk I salute you & look forward to your next visit & mission into the unknown!
For adventures & hikes in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica checkout Lime Tree Farm.
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Blue Mountain Hiking
Sounds almost like what some friends and i did a few years ago. However, we were in the Blue Mountains for over 3 1/2 days- in search of the head of the Swift River- which we did find a day into the exploration. Getting out of the forest was even more challenging.
Don’t know what you’re talking about Charlie – it was a stroll in the park. Or maybe that’s because you were carrying all the water and wading through all the bush while I just swanned along in your wake.
I’m still pulling burrs out of my hair and thorns out of my forearms three weeks later.
Loved every minute of it, even when I thought we were destined to spend a cold night outdoors together. Just you, me, the macka and the mosquitoes. You never really know another man till you pass a night in the bush with him, they say…
I salute you right back and look forward to our next conquest. We drove through Yallus town on the way back from Portland and I wondered about hiking all the way up the river from there…