Venezia by PVII

HERITAGE HIKES & WALKS

SPICE TRAIL

School ToursThe walk from the bottom of Jacks Hill to Holywell park is a route that crossed from the Liguanea plains to the North Coast through Hardware gap.


The route would have been used by those bringing spices from the lush slopes and valleys of the St. Ann, St. Mary and Portland Parishes to the growing population of Kingston.


 

  • Period Offered: All year-round
  • Time: 10 hours
  • Suggested to carry: Water bottle, energy bars, walking shoes

Reserve a School Tour Now!

 

One natural adventure spot is located in the mist-shrouded upper slopes of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, a mountain rainforest situated in the island’s east. There, at 990 meters (3,250 feet) is Holywell Recreation Park, a designated picnic and mountain reserve within the national park. The recreation park protects 300 acres (120 hectares) of woodland, lush with dozens of fern species, epithets, impatiens, violets, nasturtiums, wild strawberries and raspberries. Pine trees dominate other indigenous trees, such as dogwood and soapwood. The slopes abound with the bright red of ginger lilies, giving the park the radiant look of a bouquet. In 1985, a renowned botanist recorded that 41percent of the plants found in the park were found nowhere else in the world.

Holywell (the shortened version of its name by Jamaicans) is ideal for birders. All of Jamaica’s 30 endemic birds are found in the park, a spectacular part of a total of 256 indigenous species of birds. They include Jamaica’s national bird, the streamer-tail hummingbird locally called the doctor bird because its long, narrow black feathered tail resembles a 19th-century coat tail worn by doctors. There are also ring-tail pigeons, black billed, red billed and yellow billed streamer tail parrots, Jamaican woodpeckers, Jamaican todies and solitaries, and many more. Cameras and binoculars are musts!

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