(from the City)
Just 14 miles and 20 minutes from the city lie the HELLSHIRE
HILLS,
a huge expanse of low hills, white sand beaches, limestone caves, salt ponds, scrub and cactus,
much of it still untouched despite the encroachment of housing estates. A comprehensive plan for
27,000 acres
here included low, middle and upper income housing, schools, medical facilities
churches, light industry and tourist resorts. The development, administered
by the government
Urban Development Company was launched in 1965 and has created the beginnings of a twin city.
Unfortunately the vast majority of the residents work in Kingston so traffic and transportation
problems were horrendous even before the launching in 1991 of the Greater Portmore scheme
which aims to provide another 15,000 dwellings.
The wilder regions of the Hellshire Hills still harbour wild hogs and it was a pig Marcus
hunter who three years ago discovered by accident, that the Jamaica Iguana still exists here.
No longer classified as extinct, it is now considered the rarest lizard in the world.
A conservation project headed by UWI naturalist Dr. Peter Vogel is underway. The undeveloped
hills are also one of the few places where another endangered species the Jamaican Coney
survives. This small nocturnal creature was hunted as food by the Arawaks and the Maroons.
Travel to Hellshire from downtown Kingston. Turn L off Garvey Drive,
skirting the Kingston
Freezone and crossing the causeway. To your R across the Hunts Bay lagoon lies Caymanas Park
Racetrack and the mouth of the Rio Cobre at Passage Fort. This was the seaport for the ancient
capital of Spanish Town and the place where the British force landed to capture the island in
1655. It is now the site of Jamworld entertainment centre.
Midway along the causeway there is a fishing beach to your right, and a collection of shacks
selling fresh fish. Most of the fish comes from far outside the harbour. Periodic oil spills
and pollution in the harbour and Hunts Bay have all but destroyed the marine environment here.
After leaving the causeway, historic Fort Augusta on your L is a women s prison which
invariably harbours several pseudo tourists, convicted as
drug runners.
PORTMORE sprawling in front of you is a middle income dormitory
suburb. The road to Port Henderson is lined with restaurants, clubs and guest houses the
character of which can be deduced from names like Happy Times , Moments , La Roose etc.
Jolly is a popular place for seafood, especially on Tuesday evenings.
The almost derelict multi-storey building looming under a small hill is all that remains of
the attempt to create a tourism resort here. It started life as the Forum Hotel, later it
became the Adventure Inn, and was finally bought by the government who have failed to put it
to any use at all.
PORT HENDERSON was a fashionable resort during the last century
and a favourite place of at least one governor s wife, Lady Nugent. She was fond of driving
here from Spanish Town before breakfast. One of its attractions, an icy mineral spa,
disappeared after a severe hurricane.
The PORT HENDERSON BEACH PARK, previously enjoyed by racehorses
from nearby stables at Caymanas racetrack has been recently leased to a group headed by PNP
politician Dr. Jepthah Ford. Refurbished and expanded it is now a rootsy playground for city
dwellers. Ask for directions to RODNEY's LOOKOUT and the ruins of
a residence belonging to Admiral George Rodney, the naval hero who saved Jamaica from a French
invasion. Rodney's Lookout, formerly called Grasspiece Lookout, is about a quarter of a mile
beyond the ruins and affords a magnificent
view of the Kingston harbour. Getting there involves
a steep hike but there is a safe place to park your car near the JDF camp at Green Bay.
To reach Hellshire Hills, turn R beneath the low hill and then L and L again driving behind
the hill through scrub and wetland and passing R a portion of the Greater Portmore scheme with
some weird and wonderful additions to the rather dismal basic units.
PLACES OF INTEREST IN HELLSHIRE
FORT CLARENCE BEACH: Follow the sign L of the first roundabout.
Fort Clarence is very popular with Kingstonians of all walks of life and offers at weekends a
fascinating glimpse of Jamaica at play. It is also a frequent venue for music shows and body
building contests. In addition to sea, sand, and surf there are changing rooms, lifeguards,
security, picnic grounds, a restaurant and bar, and snack shacks where you can sample fry fish
n bammy and a local specialty called festival ( a scrumptious fried dumpling with a trace of
sugar). The name Fort Clarence derives from a small fort on the headland nearby, another of
the string of forts all around the coast that were essential to the defence of the island
during the eighteenth century.
The shallow GREAT SALT POND south of Fort Clarence is connected
to the ocean. A favourite fishing ground of the Arawaks
it still harbours snook, calipoeva
mullet, mangrove snapper, stingray, shrimp and some alligators. The marine environment off
Hellshire is already showing signs of stress and there were fears that sewage from the huge
housing development of Greater Portmore would impact the wetlands and salt ponds and compound
pollution of the marine environment. So the developers, West Indies Home Contractors employed
UWI scientists to design an environment-friendly system that would require little maintenance:
the result is huge maturation ponds visible on your R and constructed wetlands for final
polishing of the effluent. Their boast is that water emerging from this system is potable.
For HELLSHIRE (or the Fisherman's ) BEACH, turn L at the next roundabout and follow your
nose. A collection of
shacks and parked cars will confirm that you re there. A number of fisherfolk live here and
the fish and festival served from their rickety stalls is excellent. The boats come in from sea
at about 11 am and
sell the fish right on the beach. There is safe and enjoyable swimming in
the northern part of the bay which is shallow and protected by a small reef. Very popular with
Jamaicans of all walks of life, it has a carefree, egalitarian
ambiance.
TWO SISTERS CAVE is worth a visit. After the Hellshire roundabout
continue L up and over the hill until you come to a rather faded sign. The entrance to the cave
is in semi-desert surroundings overlooking Kingston harbour. The caves are separated by tons
of fallen rocks and accessed by sturdy wooden staircases that lead down below sea-level to
caves filled with brackish fossil water . They are estimated to be 200,000 years old and
represent the final stage of a geological process called limestone cavern collapse.
From the observation platforms you can immerse yourself in eerie stillness and shimmering
reflections and brood upon the gentle extinct race who left
behind a rock carving to guard the
spirits in the cave. A lone petroglyph (rock carving) is on the wall of the smaller cave,
encased in a wooden frame. It represents an Arawak face, though 1000 years of humidity and
erosion have made this somewhat difficult to recognize. Ironically, the roof of
the larger cave
has two rock extrusions that resemble human faces. The water here is crystal blue and the cave
is inhabited by tiny swallows. Caretaker of the Two Sisters, Ronald Greaves, is helpful and
knowledgeable. | 
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