Sure, Negril might offer a seven-mile beach but can that seven miles offer the solitude and peace of mind you’re trying to find on a vacation to Jamaica?
Everyone knows I’m a HUGE advocate for getting away from tourist traps so when I found this stretch of beach I think a little piece of my soul died and went to heaven. Did you know there is one place in Jamaica where you can walk a beach for at least seven miles and never run into another human being? But wait, I did run into three human beings in that seven miles. One was an old rasta picking up shells and the other two were joggers. Aside from that, not a single soul. Not even a goat, but I’ve heard there’s a possibility of running into a crocodile or two.
Way down south where the nearest town is Black River, there’s a stretch of beach that’s not hard to find. It’s Parottee Beach which is the main beach in the area. But did you know that if you keep walking you can literally KEEP ON WALKING? That’s what I did one day while staying at and reviewing S&B Sunset Gardens bed and breakfast. After breakfast my mission was to set out on a beach walk and see how far I could go. It ended up being much farther than I ever thought possible.
This map shows the two points I walked between but in real life, Google maps indicated that it’s at least six or seven miles:
And this video shows just how expansive the beach is and the natural beauty you can find along the way. It’s unbelievable.
After reaching the farthest point before turning around I wondered if I could have actually continued and reached Treasure Beach. My guess is that I probably could if I had packed a lunch and some taxi fare to get back.
Maybe those pictures look like regular old beach photos to you but what I compared it to was this: In Canada I’m from a prairie province. Once I had to make a six hour drive from my city to another, through two of the prairie provinces. During that six hours I could have taken twenty pictures along the way and they would have all looked the same even though I had driven over 600 kilometers. The difference here is that this beach stretch is much more inspiring than 600 kilometers of flat prairie!
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The ONE thing I ran into during this walk that completely turned me off was a giant pile of garbage and the reason it turned me off so badly is because directly in front of the garbage pile, off in the distance in the sea…..is Pelican Bar. I’m not insinuating anything but it was rather coincidental that this spot was the nearest beach spot to Pelican Bar and there happened to be a big pile of empty beverage bottles. Just sayin’. I did this walk in February of 2017 so maybe someone has cleaned up their act and cleaned up the trash pile by now. Who knows? But I would hate to think a Jamaican tourism icon that gets so much press and attention is not doing their part to keep the island clean and beautiful.
But anyway, if you’re ever down south in Jamaica and you’d like to free your soul a little, you should kick off your flip flops, grab a bottle of water and your camera, and do this walk. It is one of the most gorgeous and peaceful activities I’ve ever done here so I thought I’d pay it forward and pass it on.
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