The Untouched Black Sands Jamaican Picnic Hike
October 5, 2010 by Barbara Walker
Filed under Featured Offers
The Parish of St Mary, with its fabled black sands is one of Jamaica’s smallest parishes and surprisingly one of Jamaica’s least touched by tourism. Our accompanied picnic ramble along Robins Bay is one of our own personal favorites, as is the refreshing delicacies offered at afternoon-tea at the Green Castle estate.
You will be driven from Port Antonio to St Mary’s, which takes just over an hour in the car. On arrival your hiking guide will lead you along the gently rolling hills to the beach. The path is partly shady, through some wooded areas, so a hat is advised for the open paths where there are vistas of an old ruined plantation and its church.
A picnic lunch is provided on the beach according to your dietary requirements, but generally consists of roast chicken in home-baked rolls, quiche or cheese sandwiches, with vegetable crudités, fruit muffins, homemade granola energy bars, banana bread and coconut water or fruit juice.
It is then onto Green Castle, a colourful 3-acre guest house filled with beautiful tropical flowers, shrubs and a diversity of local fruit trees. Here you will enjoy the delights of a Jamaican-style Afternoon Tea with cake, sandwiches and tarts sitting on the farmhouse veranda with Susan Crum Ewing. She is famous across the island for hot pepper jelly and is a keen gardener who will give a tour of her organic gardens after tea, perfect to help walk-off any lingering calories for those that feel guilty!
Price per person is US$ 177.00 that includes return transportation, hiking guide, packed lunch with beverages and the afternoon tea with garden tour with the hosts Mrs. Susan Crum Ewing.
