Sep
18
Hiking A Knuckle: The South Hills of Antigua
September 18, 2007 |
Sunday found myself and a friend Tom driving his old windowless red van south towards Jolly Harbour, where in Jennings Village we explored a few dirt roads before deciding on one that took us to a high pasture near a razor-wired compound. Skirting the compound, we walked down into a small valley pasture with an occasional mango tree up to the base of an unnamed hill boasting a prominent knuckle. We began for the knuckle.
The unvegetated areas looked deceivingly negotiable, so we picked a line up to the beginning of a broken ridge and soon found ourselves up to our chins in undeceiving lemongrass (Cympogon citratus). Although aromatic and sweet, the hairs on the blade-backs cross-grained our legs and did an outstanding job of sawing hundreds of microcuts into them. To fight the heat we put bruised lemongrass in our water so as to absorb some of its Vitamin C.
Following the ridge down into a ravine crowded with butterflies, Tom and I began our last ascent to the knuckle. Climbing a fifteen-foot face, we lifted ourselves up to a goat path winding through the cassia and followed the small bare spots to the top. Throwing our packs down, we lit into ham and cheese sandwiches, let the wind cool us off, and enjoyed an amazing view of Antigua’s south hills.
Comments
1 Comment so far
Josh,
Great blog..Enjoy following your exploits as a naturalist..Im glad you have finally admitted you are a terrible fisherman..I will take this chance to do so myself but alas, we are young and have the rest of our days for such noble aspirations.. Just not bass fishing in NC, they seem to have a personal vendetta against us..all the best
chuckleberry