Reggae Falls - Hash Harrier Meet - April 3, 2011
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 05/Apr/2011 03:21, 34 days ago
Here are the Reggae falls themselves for all those more interested in scenery than in-depth analysis of what a hash harrier might be, although close to a river you don't want to get too in-depth. I'm not a true hash harrier yet, so please do not add corny to the list of the hash harriers' admirable personal attributes.Many hashers take photos. Surprisingly there was enough water for some of the locals to jump off the rocks into the river below - the river was about waist deep at that point. Hash harriers showed their conservative nature by not participating in this activity.You can see CUSO-VSO's Myrna and Dominic admiring the falls from a high-up ledge. The symetry of the falls is a result of their original role as part of a concrete dam.I know some of you may be thinking that the Reggae Falls are quite an incredible place, so how do you get there? Simple, head east from Kingston along the coastal road for forty kilometers to Morant Bay, at the roundabout turn up left past the Petcom gas station and head away from the coast. Carefully traverse a few hundred potholes to Seaforth. Go through Seaforth and see a pretty fancy bridge. Don't go over that bridge. Take the other road to the right. Turn this way and that, go up a big hill and down it again, come to a large concrete sign saying Reggae Falls and you're within five minutes of it. Locals will be pleased to help you out if you still wonder where the falls are.Or if you are not big on following directions, lower yourself carefully from the fancy bridge and wade upstream for about a couple of hours until your progress is impeded by a large waterfall. That would only work in the dry season. In the wet season all those SUV's you'll see below would have been washed down into the Caribbean. When Hurricane Gustav or Gilbert passed by, even the bridge's predessor ended up in the Caribbean.Here is a brief input on what a hash harrier might be. The hashers in this photo reassured me that they were the better looking harriers, so you may add objectivity and humility to any preconceived ideas of what you might have thought a hash harrier was. As helpful advice to other amateur photographers, I set the camera aperture speed to 1/1000ths of a second so that the photo of these fast-moving hash harriers would not be too blurry.Another attribute is consideration for others and being energy conservationists. These SUV's in the the river show hash harriers saving their energy by driving across the river to the hash start. It also evidences their angels of mercy attribute by transportinglife supporting liquids in the form of Red Stripe beer and Tingpop for use by other hashers.See below for a crowd of hashers who were faster than me. Note the flat non-slippery trail that was only, I heard, seven kilometers long. A seven kilometers hash is an effective exercise for fighting the cold feeling of a Canadian spring day, but is a bit on the hot side in Jamaica just after noon. We came back along a river bed that was water-challenged fortunately, and then eventually back into the shade.Another faster than me creature even though slowed down by a rope.So that's it for now. One final point on the hashers is that they are very, very civilized. I remember being quite overwhelmed at my first hash two weeks ago to see the on-site cooking facilities for genuine Jamaican cooked chicken, pork and goat. And other cooks were there for this hash thanks to the hash organizers.I'm a believer.