Monday March 31 - excursion to the Black River and Pelican Bar

Monday was our first big excursion day... we had a fantastic day taking a boat ride out on the Black River, then straight out to Pelican Bar before coming inland for an amazing dinner. In all, our outing was about 12 hours. A trip out to the Black River alone would not normally be so long, however D booked us with a private boat that would take us up the river further than the average pontoon boat can get to, and our captain was a conservationist himself, and therefore eternally patient with my desire to get good photos of any wildlife we might possibly encounter.

Our day started early, with a quick continental breakfast at the hotel before gathering up our gear for the day and loading up into the van. Though I tried to sleep in a little, I ended up waking early due to the sounds of birds just outside our room.  I wandered down to the restaurant for a cup of coffee and spotted a heron hanging out by the edge of the pool... of course I had to run and get a photo.

Our driver for the day was Ashton, an independent drir who greeted us with fresh fruit and tips on avoiding sunburns. (Put pure Aloe on your skin first, and then sunblock, and this is supposed to keep you from burning, and give you a deeper, longer lasting tan with no burning)

Our ride out to the meeting spot on the river was long and bumpy... the main road over to the Black River had a portion which was being repaved, so we took a detour up into the hills to get around the badly potholed road. Along the way, Ashton stopped to pull some leaves off of what seemed to be a laurel bush.. he passed them back to us and asked us what we thought they might be. We immediately recognized the smell as being allspice. Once we made it out to the black river, we all gathered up our gear, slathered on the fresh aloe (from a huge aloe plant Ashton brought for us), then sunblock, then were driven down the street to a pier to meet our captain for the day... Captain Dennis.

For the most part, I will let the photos speak for themselves on this blog post. Rest assured, this is just a hint of a sampling or what I managed to capture... I was extremely pleased with having been able to find 4 different crocodiles on this trip, along with an amazing amount of birds. As I said before, our captain was incredibly patient in allowing me time to concentrate on focusing and shooting, and he had a keen eye for spotting crocodiles and birds that I would have otherwise missed.

G and I in the front of the boat.  This is why I have a strangely shaped sunburn on my forearms, I was pretty much posed like this for the entire boat ride.

We headed up river, pausing long enough for Captain Dennis to point out the multitude of birds near the entrance to the river, and slowing down to creep up on some crocodiles hidden amongst the mangrove trees in the river.

A couple of egrets in the bushes near the riverbank.

One of the crocodiles we encountered... I call this one Charlie.

The mangrove trees along the riverbank of the Black River

Further up river than we've ever been before, the shoreline changes to limestone.  

D and two of my nieces, being cool.

The pontoon boats normally ride up the river about 20 minutes, pause for a beer break, and then head back down to the dock. Being in a much smaller and narrower boat, our captain was able to go further up the river, under a very low bridge (we all had to duck) and up to where the water turns from brackish to fresh, where we paused for a swimming break. Back down the river a bit, we stopped at Sister Lou's crab shack for some of the most amazing crab I've ever had.

Sister Lou serves Blue Crab in the shell... she takes the crab and boils it, then cleans the meat out of the crabs, mixes it with some kind of diced peppers, then puts it back in the shell to serve. One serving is 2 shells filled with crab, all for 400 Jamaican dollars (roughly $3.80 US) Our stop was meant to be a snack, however we lingered so long on the river that our stop at Sister Lou's ended up being lunch. We ordered a tray of crab backs, then went back and ordered a few more servings.

The view of Sister Lou's from the river

Lots of crab!

Our crew hanging out under the shelter waiting for the food

One service of crab.. D put a hot sauce on his (on the bottom)

Our boat for the day, parked at Sister Lou's... we actually went under the bridge in the background, we had to load up the front of the boat with passengers to get the bow low enough to get under the bridge.

On the way back down the river, Captain Dennis slowed in a few spots for me to get some more photos of crocodiles and birds, before heading out of the black river and out into the ocean to head out to the Pelican Bar. Our ride out was surprisingly choppy, and we all noticed the black rain clouds making their way across the island. We arrived at the Pelican Bar, grabbed a few Red Stripes, and generally hung out on the decks or out in the water. The bar is built out of driftwood and sits on a sand bar a few miles off the coast. The area around the bar itself is only a few feet deep, so G found enough confidence in her swimming to take her snorkel vest off and go diving for shells. After a bit of time, our captain came to point out the rain clouds and voiced his concern that we would get rained on soon, so we quickly gathered ourselves together and headed back to shore.

Here we are with Captain Dennis and his first mate, after a successful day of being on the river and the ocean.

Ashton drove down to meet us at the beach and we were not in the van more than one minute before the rain came pouring down in buckets. It was nearing dinner time, and Ashton recommended a local spot for us to stop at, so we headed just a bit up the road and were soon racing out of the van, dodging the huge rain drops, and piled into the little restaurant on the beach.

One of the reasons Ashton prefers this restaurant is because the customer is able to pick out the fish to eat. I don't mean pick out a type of fish off the menu... I mean they will bring the plate of fish out and you and you can pick which specific fish you want to eat. After a bit of conversation, and asking about ingredients and cooking methods (for my allergies), Ashton sized up our group and ordered dinner for us. We sat and watched the amazing thunder storm outside as we waited for our food... with every stunning flash of lightening we witnessed over the water, we all mentioned how grateful we were to have decided to come inland when we did.

We'll take the ugly one on the left.

Curried Conch - much better than it might sound. I expected the texture to be like squid, but it was much closer to scallops

Garlic Lobster.  Yum.  Just... Yum.

Brown Stewed Snapper (the ugly fish in the photo above)

Steamed Snapper.  Normally this would seem like a boring dish, however this snapper was incredibly flavorful... in fact I liked it better than the brown stewed snapper

Bammy... which I've never had before.  This looks like pancakes, but it is made out of shredded and flattened casava.  The texture was similar to an overcooked pancake, and I didn't really enjoy the flavor of it alone.  When I mixed it with some gravy from the brown stewed snapper, however, it was quite tastey

the outdoor seating area of the restaurant, which was rained out at the time

This is the building we sat in... our crew took up all the tables inside.

Cloggy's is the name of the restaurant.

The restaurant also has deck seating outside (which was also rained out at the time of our arrival)

this is the kitchen of Cloggy's... open fire, mostly cast iron and dutch oven.

Dinner was so amazingly good... we ate family style, diving into a little of everything and passing the platters of food around the two tables. The rain let up during our dinner and we were able to open the shades and enjoy the view of the beach as we finished up our food. Dinner being done, we piled into the van for the bumpy ride home.

I cannot say enough good things about our driver, Ashton, and our boat captain, Dennis. The conversations were fantastic, we learned a lot about Jamaican culture, and we all felt very well taken care of. They truly bent over backwards to make our experience amazing.