Travel: Two wheels / one love – The Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival
Mountainbiking on Jamaica? Endless white beaches, Bob Marley and Reggae music are usually the first things that spring to mind, but that you can ride a mountainbike here, we don’t quite believe it.
We’re the last travellers to arrive in Montego Bay on this evening. Unfortunately as is so often the case the bikes don’t arrive with us but on the next day. So now we have to continue without them. The taxi driver offers us some super green malay kratom to help us relax, we politely decline and continue to Ocho Rios, the start of an 8 day mountainbike adventure named – Jamaica Fat Tire Festival.
On the first evening a group of approx. 18 bikers are gathered at the small tourist Hotel ROOMS in Ocho Rios directly situated on the beach. Over a few BlackWell Rums (which was also a gift to guests) with pineapple juice we share info about the coming days. The colourfully mixed group of Canadians, Americans, Brits and us Germans covers the whole age spectrum of 23-65. Whilst we do get some info we don’t really have the faintest idea what to expect over the coming days.
The next day we meet up in back yard car park in Ocho Rios where an old lorry and bus collect us, over the next days they will be our camper vans and shuttle. Inspite of the fact it’s 30° in the shade we are advised to wear longsleeve jerseys as the Murphy Hill trail is full of Poison Ivy and the plant can leave unsightly blisters on your skin. Murphy Hill snakes along the coast and is perfect for us to acclimatise to the temperatures and air humidity. After the first shuttle run we get a traditional Jamaican meal – Jerk chicken, rice and beans of course washed down with Red Stripe beer. After that it’s off to the next trail. The high humidity and frequent rainfall makes the rocks as slippery as can be and so we slip and slide down the trail towards the beach and finish the day with a cool Red Stripes.
Having shuttled yesterday the today requires some muscle power and we are led through the flowy trails of the Mango Valley. En route we get an energising drink of freshly harvested coconut juice from a local farmer who lives in a wooden shack in the middle of nowhere. More flowy trails lead us through the jungle and fields take us to the auspiciously named “James Bond beach” – our destination for the day. And we weren’t disappointed! No wonder Ian Fleming chose to write a number of his spy novels here. A perfect white beach, picture book sunsets and turquoise water for cooling off. An iconic beach bar helped with further cooling down with a selection of chilled drinks. Solid nourishment was provided by, you guessed it chicken, rice and beans.
Video of the Trip
Pressure Drop and John Cow Gully awaited us the next day. With just 20 mountainbikers on the whole island the trails are of course more hiking and transport routes than smooth singletrails. As the routes take us through bamboo and rock gardens we take extra care as the nearest doctors are miles away – if available at all. Steffie can tell you a thing or two about that as she already damaged the ligaments of her left foot on day two. But only the toughest survive and she has to continue with her foot fully taped up. To our great surprise Pressure Drop includes several jumps and berms which, in-spite of the risks we still have to attack at full speed.
The trail finishes on the picture-postcard Black Sand beach – only accessible from the Pressure Drop trail. Another local farmer brings us freshly squeezed soursap and carrot juice aboard his donkey so that we are able to quench our thirsts whilst filling up on chicken, rice and beans.
A short but super steep and technical transfer along the coast takes us to Strawberry Fields, our base camp for the next two nights. In the middle of a small Rastafari Community, where the people live predominantly from own grown vegetables and fish we stay in the River Lodge guest house – a 17th century pirate castle. A very welcome change from the many concrete tourist bunkers we’ve seen. The small appartments are spartan but totally sufficiently furnished. The highlights are undoubtedly the open air toilets and shower. We finish the evening sharing the fantastic impressions of the day over a cool, campfire beer.
The next day we decide to tackle Pressure Drop once again. The trail was simply too much fun and needs to be ridden again. This time however we turn off at the end into the jungle to complete a short hike without the bikes to a gigantic waterfall. Very few tourists in Jamaica will get to see this place in the middle of the jungle. For a few hours it belongs to us alone. Once again we are reminded of just how many different sides and surprises Jamaica can offer.
After a second night at the River Lodge on the next day we take the lorry and bus to the south of the island. Here the climate is noticeably drier and less tropical than in the north. The journey takes us to a mountain called Strawberry Hill: below it lies Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. Downpipe Gully is the name of our first trail and it really lives up to its name. Many of the native population live on the edge of Kingston and build their accommodation from whatever materials they can find.
The paths to these houses are full of water pipes and they make the riding experience unique. Read the terrain is the motto as we pick our way through pipes, rocks and dwellings. Children standing on the edge of the paths are excited as we pull wheelies – not something they see every day. The most impressive trail experience so-far by a clear margin and difficult to top. Lunch is served in the luxury Strawberry Hill hotel by Chris Blackwell who produced both Bob Marley and U2. Gold records decorate the walls of the hotel, which is one of the most expensive and best on the island. For the likes of us there’s just a simple lunch menu, much to our surprise: chicken with rice and beans.
Today we are joined by Boogie, a Romanian dental technician living in Kingston and one of the few bikers on the island who owns a full suspension bike. He shows us the last trail of the day, called “Just kiddin.“ It clings to a super-steep ridgeline heading towards Kingston, where our shuttle driver picks us up. We spend the next nights at the Scorpio Inn Hotel, used mainly for weddings. No wonder the Honeymoon Suite on the second floor has giant bathroom with two showers. Unfortunately we can’t make use of them as the water pressure is too low. We round off the day with beers, rum and good conversation on the rooftop terrace.
On the penultimate day of our trip we need an early start. At 5 AM we are picked up by 4×4 pickups for a shuttle up the steep flanks of Blue Mountain, Jamaica’s highest mountain. It’s a miracle we even get there, the Defenders wouldn’t even be allowed to take part in the Crash Car Challenge back home in Germany. Our driver has to hold onto the door whilst at the wheel, otherwise it would fall out and the suspension has at least 10 cm of play. A lot of fun all the same! The drive takes us up to a traditional coffee roaster and from here we have to climb the remaining 1000 metres using our own muscle power. With 30° temperatures and extreme air humidity not an easy undertaking.
Not everyone in the group manages the energy sapping ascent, which is not completely rideable. At the top the weather also unfortunately didn’t reward us with a fantastic view – we could only imagine where Kingston was beneath the fog. After a quick snack in some ruins we set off on the descent over moss-covered rocks and slippery surfaces. We pass the coffee roaster again with gigantic grins on our faces, the descent was worth every bit of the hard climb. Lunch awaits us there – once more chicken, rice and beans. Surrounded by the coffee plantation we enjoy what has to be the best coffee in the world – Blue Mountain coffee. Powered up with chicken, beans and caffeine we set off on the last descent of the day. The trails are dusty and dry and couldn’t be more different from those of the first days of the trip.
The last day on Jamaica has come. The Defender jeeps have to holp up for one more day and transport us to the summit of Flamstead mountain. We descend to the beach on the Money and Boots and Triple Bypass trails. A blue sky and a stiff breeze give us the obligatory sunburn right at the end of the trip. Over the last meal we recall the past days: no regular holiday could have shown us the variety and uniqueness of Jamaica. We’ll surely need a few more days, if not weeks to take in the adventures and impressions we’ve experienced at the Jamaica Fat Tire Festival.
Photos: Sebastian Doerk
