The next morning, we awoke to a partly-cloudy day.  There was rain in the forecast, and the humidity was higher.  Unlike the Arizona desert, in Jamaica, when it looks like it's going to rain, chances are, it's going to rain...hard.  So how was that going to affect our drive across the island, to Treasure Beach?

Knowing that it was going to be a two to three hour trip across the island, we decided to get an early start.  Just after breakfast, loaded our luggage into the Yaris and checked out of the Coyaba.  From there, we began to head east on A1, towards Falmouth.

So why would we go east to go south?  Well, John had been studying the maps in his Lonely Planet tour book and found what he thought would be a nice, scenic route to Treasure Beach.  True, it would have been easier to have taken B6 or B7 to Black River; after all, these were roads known to us.  However, John thought that it would be much more interesting to see a different part of the island. 

If that was the idea, then we got more than we bargained for!

The route that John had picked to take us through the island to Treasure Beach would take us along the Martha Brae River to Bounty Hall and Wakefield.  It would be a long, winding, mountainous road, much like the other highways we had taken; the map in the book displayed it as a squiggly line, with very few towns along the way.  One of the stops along the way was called "Rest and Be Thankful".  Hmmm, I thought, I sure hope John knows what he's doing.

Almost immediately, upon exiting Highway A1 at Falmouth, we got lost.  We took a wrong turn and ended up going in the wrong direction.  We were supposed to be going southwest; instead, we were going south.  When we realized our mistake, we quickly turned around and returned to Falmouth in an attempt to find the right road.  We eventually found it and continued on our merry way.

Everything was going fine until we came to the town of Bunkers Hill.  By that time, we had already been traveling for almost an hour, but we hadn't gotten very far into the country: mainly because the roads were so bad and were so poorly signed.  It was for that reason that we ended up taking a wrong turn in Bunkers Hill...

We figured that something was amiss when the pavement ended, a few miles up the road; but instead of turning around, we kept going.  We typically aren't scared away by unpaved roads.  Along the way, we kept getting passed by the same bicyclist; several times, we were able to get up enough speed to pass him by; but then the road would force us to slow down, giving the bicyclist the opportunity to pass us again.  We kept this up for several miles, until he finally stopped along the side of the road, where his buddy was waiting.

We, too, stopped, and we asked the two men if that road would take us to Windsor.  Unfortunately, we had a difficult time understanding them; their Creole was very thick, and I wasn't used to it.  John was able to pick up a few words here and there; he had learned some of the Jamaican Creole from his co-workers in Mo-Bay, so he was able to gather that the road that we were on would eventually take us to the town of Windsor.

So, we kept going...and the road kept getting worse and worse.  It was barely one lane wide and so rocky that we were worried that the Yaris was going end up with multiple flat tires.  Then, something worse came along: a giant water truck!  The truck was so big that it forced us off of the road and into the tall reeds, just so that it could pass by us without hitting us.

The good news is, that was the only vehicle we had to worry about on that road.  The bad news is, that was the last vehicle that we would see for a while.

We continued on along that road, as it wound through the mountains and the tropical foliage, over rocks that could have easily taken out our oil pan or our tires, and into one of the least densely populated areas of the island.  We were fortunate to find, however, that the area was not completely deserted; in fact, about every ten minutes or so, we would pass by another person, walking on the side of the road.  Some of these guys were carrying machetes and sugar cane; they also smelled heavily of reefer.  Good thing they were friendly and harmless, because John stopped to ask them for directions!  Again, we struggled with the Creole, but we were able to ascertain that we were going in the right direction.

Now, there was only one thing that could make our trip along this road worse: rain, and lots of it.  During our drive, we kept looking at the storm clouds gathering overhead, and we worried that those clouds were going to open up on us.  At one point, we did get a little rain; but the rain stopped just as quickly as it started.

More than an hour after our ordeal began, the road began to improve; and we ended up in the town of Sherwood.  Once we figured out where we were and that we were finally out of trouble, we made the quick decision to abandon our first plan and to return to Falmouth to find another route to Treasure Beach.

And so, more than two hours after leaving the Coyaba, we returned to Montego Bay.  All that work, just to end up back where we started!

Plan B was to take one of the minor highways to the other side of the island.  From Montego Bay, we took B8, then merged onto B7, which would take us all the way down to Lacovia.  In Lacovia, we would intersect with A2; and once there, we could ask for directions for what would be the best route to Treasure Beach.

B7 was definitely a much better road than our previous route; but it was still slow-going.  The road was full of potholes, and, at times, we were certain that we were lost again.  There were many times that we would come to intersections that didn't appear on our map, and we didn't know which way to go.  We went with our instincts and kept going; and it wasn't until later that we would discover that we were still on the right road.

About an hour or so into our journey, the skies finally did open up on us, and it rained hard.  Although we were grateful that we were no longer on a dirt road, the rain still made passage difficult; it hid the potholes from us and slowed us down considerably. 

We soon came to a gas station, located at a fork in the road.  John announced that he needed to stop, so he drove the Yaris under the canopy and parked it behind a delivery truck.  While Mary and I waited, John went inside and asked the manager for directions.

Meanwhile, the truck driver was leaving the shop.  He got into the cab of his truck and proceeded to back up...right into our Yaris!  John and the manager yelled for him to stop; and he did, but not before he had hit the rental car.  Now, John will tell you that he hit that Yaris hard, but I was actually inside the car, and I can tell you that he didn't hit us very hard at all.  He hit us hard enough that he did move the car, but there was no damage, much to John's great relief.

Now that we were all out of the car, Mary and I decided to use the restroom while we were there.  That was when we learned that the power was out at the gas station, due to the storm that had just passed over them.  The workers there paid it no mind; to them, it didn't seem to be that big of a deal.  When we purchased our sodas, they simply wrote everything down and used a calculator to ring it up for us.

John was still talking to the manager of the store when Mary and I finished in the restroom.  The manager showed us where we were according to the map in our tour book; he pointed out that we weren't far from Lacovia and that, once we reached Lacovia, we should continue our journey on Highway A2, going west towards Black River.  He also showed us how to get to Treasure Beach from Black River.  Confident that we would no longer get lost, we thanked him for all of his help and continued on our way.

It took us only five more minutes to reach the town of Lacovia, located at the junction of B7 and A2.  Once on A2, we went west for about fifteen minutes, until we reached the city of Black River.  There, we stopped for lunch at the Tasty Foods, a barn-like eatery located on Market Street.  The food here was all-Jamaican, with a menu that included stewed pork, stewed chicken, and yes, even cow's head. The three of us each had stewed pork and rice and peas, all of which was delicious and satisfying to us weary travelers.

After lunch, we left Black River to finish our journey to Treasure Beach.  Of course, we got lost again - briefly - in town.  We had understood from the directions given to us by the gas station manager that we needed to turn left then cross over a bridge.  What we didn't realize that the manager didn't mean the small bridge near the Tasty Foods; what he meant was the BIG metal bridge over the Black River!  We missed that completely and ended up driving around in circles at least twice before we found it.  Once we discovered the bridge, we crossed over it and continued on our way.

It took us only thirty more minutes of driving before we arrived in Treasure Beach; and once we passed by Calabash Bay, we knew that we were in the home stretch.  A few minutes later, we found it: the Treasure Beach Hotel!  Truly a sight for sore eyes...or, in John's case, sore hands from gripping the steering wheel for six hours!

When we walked up to the front desk at the Treasure Beach Hotel, we discovered that, like the gas station in Lacovia (and the Tasty Foods in Black River), the power was out.  It had been out for several hours, and they didn't expect the power to be back on anytime soon.  As a result, the agent at the front desk had to resort to using a manual process to check us in.  It took a long time; and while we waited, we were served fruity drinks and offered seats in the lounge.

A half an hour later, a bellboy collected our bags and carried them down a long flight of stairs to our room.  The way that the hotel is set up, the front desk and the restaurant are located on top of the hill; the rooms are downhill from there.  No doubt about it, we were going to get a lot of exercise going up and down those stairs!

The rooms, as we soon discovered, are all grouped together by fours: two on top and two on the bottom.  You enter the room through the arcadia door that locks with a key.  Each room had one king-sized bed, a futon for a sofa, a television set, an air-conditioner, and a bathroom (no, this would not be a European-style hotel!).  The hotel staff had also brought in an extra twin bed for Mary, at no extra charge.  Unfortunately, the one thing our hotel didn't have - at least for the next half an hour - was electricity; hence, the air-conditioner didn't work. 

While we waited for the power to come back on, John and Mary and I went exploring, to see what else the hotel had for amenities.  We discovered that, downstairs from the rooms, there were two pools - both of them rather dirty - and a bar that was apparently closed for the season.  Near the pools, there was a set of stairs that led to the beach.  Here, the sand was different from the sand on the beaches of Montego Bay.  Instead of white sand, it was black!  The water was also a couple of degrees warmer and felt like bath water; it was very nice!

By the time we returned to our room, the power was back on, but the air-conditioner wasn't working right.  It took us a while to figure it out, but it still took a long time for it to cool down.  On top of that, we had trouble getting the arcadia door to lock.  Eventually, we became so frustrated with it that we returned to the front desk to let them know.  Eager to please us, the agent offered to let us switch rooms. 

And with that, she sent her staff down to take care of us.  After getting the new room ready for us, they helped us move our luggage into room 54: the room closest to the edge of the cliff.  This room offered us a better view of the sea, so we were happy with the room change!

Around dinnertime, we went back upstairs to the Yabba Restaurant to eat.  Unfortunately, we were told that they would not be serving dinner that night, as the power outage had caused problems with the kitchen.  The server suggested that we go to Jack Sprats down the road; and so we did.

Jack Sprats turned out to be a fun place for dinner; and it was a wonderful place for us to watch the sunset.  We ordered a pizza and some beers (and a Ting for Mary, of course) and sat outside to enjoy the view.  It was the perfect place to unwind after that stressful day.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel, where we all turned in early for the night.  The long drive had taken it out of us; but at least we had made it to our destination safe and sound!

Return to Jamaica!

Return to Naked in the Woods.