Somerset Falls
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 30/Jan/2011 03:06, 34 days ago
Now that it's the dry season we decided to rent a car and visit one of Jamaica's fabulous waterfalls. Besides Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios, there are several magnificent waterfalls in Jamaica. We've joined the human chain to reach the top of Dunn's River Falls, we've taken the tractor ride to YS Falls near Black River and we aborted a drive through the mountains one very rainy day last September to Mayfield Falls near Montego Bay. Mayfield Falls is on our to-do list the next time we're in the area with access to a four-wheel drive.Today we chose Somerset Falls which turned out to be deep in the midst of a tropical jungle. We've avoided Somerset Falls in the past because they appear a bit more touristy than we like, but the online photos certainly looked pretty and it was within a reasonable distance from Kingston so a day trip with lunch was totally do-able. So off we went. There were some ah moments, especially when we turned a corner in the little boat which took us to the main falls where we were blessed with the most amazing stream of white light coming down from the sky over the falls.Somerset Falls were fine, but we soon found ourselves looking for more...like food, we were hungry, it was lunch time so we walked across the stree to the Likkle Portie and bought what they had on hand -jerk pork and curried chicken. The snapper the cook is preparing below was for the order before ours.While we ate our lunch we watched a family head out on a raft and and two women washing their clothes in the river at the point it joined the Caribbean Sea. Who could ask for a better place to do laundry?Pictured below is part of the old railway track. Trains stopped running quite awhile ago but there are rumours that the Chinese government has bought the railway and will get it running again someday. As they say in Jamaica, soon come!After lunch we headed on our way in an attempt to visit Reach Falls as well for comparison purposes. On our way, we passed Trident Castle below, the largest private home in Jamaica and touted in the coffee table book Jamaica By Air as one of the largest homes in the Caribbean. We always thought it was an abandoned hotel but after we took oiur photographs we asked a local sitting on the side of the road nearby who lived there. He told us Michael Lee-Chin. What a surprise! The house has a Canadian connection. Michael Lee-Chin is a Jamaican-Canadian investor who donated $30,000,000 to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto a few years ago which was used to build the controversial Crystal extension.We didn't make it to Reach Falls, we soon realized it was too far, so we stopped for a swim at Great Huts where we were greeted warmly by the staff even though we didn't have a reservation. The receptionist/manager remembered George, even his name even though we hadn't been there in almost 9 months. We were very impressed. My flowers for the day were all taken at Great Huts.Then on our way home we stopped at the Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio where we had a light supper, while watching a Rod Stewart concert on DVD projected on the wall.But our weekend didn't end here. Even though we went home at the end of the day, Sunday we drove back to Reach Falls. Now that is the real non-touristy Jamaica, the Jamaica we love, so come back soon to see what we discovered.