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Meditating in the mountains
published: Thursday | February 7, 2008
The scenery is spectacular! - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Photographer[/COLOR][/COLOR]
It was a strange place. Looked more like a utility vehicle graveyard than a place where people actually lived. It was somewhere high in the Blue Mountains that the vehicle in which photographer Norman Grindley and I were travelling came to an unexpected and abrupt halt. "Shhh," was the only sound coming from the engine that, by now, must have needed a break.
All around us were trees, dirt and various parts of vehicles that had come this way before. Nobody was in sight. The discarded remnants of the vehicles, mainly green Land Rovers, the kind that were popular more than 30 years ago, gave the place an eerie feel. What had become of their drivers? Were we about to meet the same fate?
The vehicles looked to me like animal carcasses after they had served as meals for hungry vultures and as I glanced over at our now motionless vehicle, I wondered whether we had unwittingly stumbled upon the Bermuda Triangle for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]SUVs[/COLOR][/COLOR].
Hair-raising squeal
It is like a vehicle graveyard!
The journey to the place we now found ourselves stranded was not an easy one. More than once, I anticipated rolling down the hill in the direction from which we had come. It was a steep climb and it started to seem natural that so many vehicles had come here and managed to get no farther.
"Squeak!" What I believed was an animal, but to this day I remain unsure, let out a [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]hair[/COLOR][/COLOR]-raising squeal.
Then, a ruffle in the bushes nearby. Something was walking towards us. Was this the creature that devoured the drivers of the other vehicles? I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the impact. "Unu lost?" Not what I was expecting to hear. I opened one eye and saw a short, shirtless man with dreadlocks looking at us quizzically. "Is where unu was going?" he asked. To be honest, we weren't heading anywhere in particular, so we told him this and he laughed. The kind of laugh that said, "Boy, you people are strange."
He walked about 20 feet away and removed an elastic band from his hair. He flashed his locks from side to side and the picked up a small tin of water. The water was coming straight from the hill. He poured the water on to his head and flashed his locks some more. "Rastafari!" he shouted.
"I doing some work on I house, so I just come hold a cool off," he said. The man then had a drink of the water before turning back to us.
We asked him where we were, but all he told us was that we were in the Blue Mountains. Some help that was. We asked him if anyone besides him lived in this part of the Blue Mountains. "Well, you have one and two bredrin about the place. Most a dem a farmer who nuh really deh bout right now," he said. Whenever nobody was speaking, there was silence. The kind of silence you only get when there's a power cut in the city. I mentioned this to the dreadlocked man who told us that his name was Bill. "Yes man. Di quietness good for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]meditation[/COLOR][/COLOR]. Is only when you come into the hills like this dat you can get the real consciousness. We nuh have the stress dat town man have," he said.
Peace and quiet
I asked Bill if he leaves the mountain often. "Well, everything I need is right here. I have [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]clean [COLOR=orange! important]air[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], food, clean water and peace and quiet. When I turn on I radio from time to time and hear what really going on in town, I haffi laugh. Plenty people will tell I that there is life for I in town, but I say the life for I is up here in the mountains," said Bill.
"I nuh need dem technology and dirty water fi drink. I have life good up here among the bredrin," said he.
I asked him about all the abandoned vehicles that we saw around the place.
"Well, those are really what the farmer man dem used to use one time. Some of them still running, but the others just stay there and dry rot over time. Nobody not going to get nuh wrecker man come up here come collect them, so dem haffi just stay," he chuckled.
It was strange, but in this lonely place with this unassuming man, it was easy to understand the appeal of the simple life up there in the mountains. After a few more minutes of chatting with the chap, we attempted to get our vehicle started. It worked and Bill told us that it was time for him to get back to work. We said our goodbyes and we headed back down the hill and away from the serenity of the Blue Mountains. robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com
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published: Thursday | February 7, 2008
The scenery is spectacular! - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Photographer[/COLOR][/COLOR]
It was a strange place. Looked more like a utility vehicle graveyard than a place where people actually lived. It was somewhere high in the Blue Mountains that the vehicle in which photographer Norman Grindley and I were travelling came to an unexpected and abrupt halt. "Shhh," was the only sound coming from the engine that, by now, must have needed a break.
All around us were trees, dirt and various parts of vehicles that had come this way before. Nobody was in sight. The discarded remnants of the vehicles, mainly green Land Rovers, the kind that were popular more than 30 years ago, gave the place an eerie feel. What had become of their drivers? Were we about to meet the same fate?
The vehicles looked to me like animal carcasses after they had served as meals for hungry vultures and as I glanced over at our now motionless vehicle, I wondered whether we had unwittingly stumbled upon the Bermuda Triangle for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]SUVs[/COLOR][/COLOR].
Hair-raising squeal
It is like a vehicle graveyard!
The journey to the place we now found ourselves stranded was not an easy one. More than once, I anticipated rolling down the hill in the direction from which we had come. It was a steep climb and it started to seem natural that so many vehicles had come here and managed to get no farther.
"Squeak!" What I believed was an animal, but to this day I remain unsure, let out a [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]hair[/COLOR][/COLOR]-raising squeal.
Then, a ruffle in the bushes nearby. Something was walking towards us. Was this the creature that devoured the drivers of the other vehicles? I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the impact. "Unu lost?" Not what I was expecting to hear. I opened one eye and saw a short, shirtless man with dreadlocks looking at us quizzically. "Is where unu was going?" he asked. To be honest, we weren't heading anywhere in particular, so we told him this and he laughed. The kind of laugh that said, "Boy, you people are strange."
He walked about 20 feet away and removed an elastic band from his hair. He flashed his locks from side to side and the picked up a small tin of water. The water was coming straight from the hill. He poured the water on to his head and flashed his locks some more. "Rastafari!" he shouted.
"I doing some work on I house, so I just come hold a cool off," he said. The man then had a drink of the water before turning back to us.
We asked him where we were, but all he told us was that we were in the Blue Mountains. Some help that was. We asked him if anyone besides him lived in this part of the Blue Mountains. "Well, you have one and two bredrin about the place. Most a dem a farmer who nuh really deh bout right now," he said. Whenever nobody was speaking, there was silence. The kind of silence you only get when there's a power cut in the city. I mentioned this to the dreadlocked man who told us that his name was Bill. "Yes man. Di quietness good for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]meditation[/COLOR][/COLOR]. Is only when you come into the hills like this dat you can get the real consciousness. We nuh have the stress dat town man have," he said.
Peace and quiet
I asked Bill if he leaves the mountain often. "Well, everything I need is right here. I have [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]clean [COLOR=orange! important]air[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], food, clean water and peace and quiet. When I turn on I radio from time to time and hear what really going on in town, I haffi laugh. Plenty people will tell I that there is life for I in town, but I say the life for I is up here in the mountains," said Bill.
"I nuh need dem technology and dirty water fi drink. I have life good up here among the bredrin," said he.
I asked him about all the abandoned vehicles that we saw around the place.
"Well, those are really what the farmer man dem used to use one time. Some of them still running, but the others just stay there and dry rot over time. Nobody not going to get nuh wrecker man come up here come collect them, so dem haffi just stay," he chuckled.
It was strange, but in this lonely place with this unassuming man, it was easy to understand the appeal of the simple life up there in the mountains. After a few more minutes of chatting with the chap, we attempted to get our vehicle started. It worked and Bill told us that it was time for him to get back to work. We said our goodbyes and we headed back down the hill and away from the serenity of the Blue Mountains. robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com
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E-mail this story
Print this Page
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