31 August 2006 21:54
i climbed a tree today. a real, bona-fide climbing tree that was clean, tall, fun to climb, and--most importantly--relatively uninhabited.we got off to a fairly early start (two thirty in the afternoon, and yes i'm being sarcastic, and no it doesn't really matter because we've all adapted to the mindset of letting time do its own thing while we do ours--this probably explains why we didn’t get back into town until 2330)).
just on the north side of the blue ridge behind hollywell is nestled the twyman's coffee estate. when visiting them last month they quite graciously left us with an open invitation to come back and hike more on their grounds--which includes their own private waterfall. the things (waterfalls) are a dime a dozen in many portions of jamaica, but i maintain that it's still rather cool to have one all your own. in other words, too good of an invitation to pass up.
one could quickly summarize the trip to the waterfall and back in three words, following the format "blank, falls, blank". substitute "up" and "down" for the blanks, feel free to put them in whichever order you like...but if you'd like to know which order they were actually in i'll give you a hint: alphabetically starting with A. it was actually a very pleasant stroll through 85º sunshine with blue skies and an occasional light puff of breeze as we walked through shin-high grass and head-high coffee trees (or bushes. trees, bushes, whatever they technically are). and the reggae version of "knocking on heaven's door" drifting over from a shack on the next ridge was one i hadn't heard before.
their waterfall is nestled in a quickly plunging ravine betwixt two ridges on their property. this ravine is one of the few areas on the twyman estate not covered in staggered rows of coffee—instead a wild relative of ginger grows prolifically, performing excellently at the task of erosion-prevention by means of an expansive root system. also scattered among the undergrowth were trees and shrubs of many varieties, including some bamboo. the grand ridge of the blue mountain range in jamaica receives a Lot of rainfall on both the windward and leeward sides, in talking to mrs. twyman she observed that this was their third day of sunshine. she failed to mention over what time period, but i would assume it spanned several months. on average they are treated to a solid overcast on over 250 days out of any given year.
i've noticed something about waterfalls and leah had the same thoughts today when she said something to the effect of "you can only look at them for so long". very true. if you are a guest at a waterfall--especially if getting wet isn't in your plans--then it doesn't take long to exhaust your options. admire open mouthed for a few minutes at the beauty of it all, take a bunch of pictures, maybe splash around in the pool at the bottom for a bit, walk up and down the stream a ways, or sit on a rock and admire it all again (while wishing you had one in your backyard at home) and you're pretty much done.
if it were in your backyard, why then you could easily bring something to do at the waterfall: a sketch pad, a book, a fishing pole, knitting, whatever. diana brought a camera but taking a picture doesn't absorb much time (usually). it was a very pretty waterfall to photograph/look at, with two or three cascades totaling for a drop of about 25 feet. decent volume too, for all the small size of the ravine, the creek had an average cross-section of about five square feet.
after deciding not to climb the falls (mom would not be pleased with how long i thought about it before finally deciding that, though), taking a few pictures, running around on the rocks for a bit, and just standing admiring the view; i decided that it was time to move to dry land (i had already slipped twice dunking my left shoe laces-deep to the point where my sock was getting wet). on the way down the trail to the falls a tree had caught my eye and it was now pulling stronger than the waterfall.
now my childhood was blessed by our living on a property that contained plenty of climbing trees. i spent significant portions of my youth snugly ensconced in various lofty perches—all of them more than ten feet off the ground. on summer days i'd take a book and spend three hours in a tree reading until either starvation or the end of the book brought me down. then i went off to college where administration tends to frown on such things as students in its trees. i got frowned at a few times, but for the most part resigned myself to doing my leisure reading in class.
occasionally though, i get the urge to climb a tree and set off to find the nearest one. today was perfect—a tree and a lazy sunday afternoon. who could ask for a better combination? (i could, but didn't have a good book along, so i didn't ask). it was one of those fun ones where i actually had to climb the tree next to it for a while before jumping over to the correct one. i climbed until i found a nice perch about ten feet from the top and sat down to admire the view. it was the softest tree i think i've ever climbed, what with the coatings of spanish moss along the branches. miraculously it was fairly ant/bug/spider free...wildlife infestation is something that has prevented me from climbing more than one tree in jamaica.
so i perched and relaxed. the late afternoon sun was slanting through the leaves, the waterfall was a muted roar somewhere down below, the wind was rustling lightly through the ravine, the locusts had a small symphony going...
ahhhh. heaven.
02 July 2006
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