The night we were driving around in the Blue Mountains was a harrowing experience! Yes the roads in the country in Jamaica are bad, but they’re nothing compared to roads in the Blue mountains! And if you have to do them in the dark it’s ten times worse.
I will try to give you the play by play of what you’ll see in the picture and video but you truly couldn’t understand it unless you were there.
We were staying at a really remote guest house high up on the mountain and the driveway coming in to the place is definitely only designed for experts who live here, as proven by US….who don’t. Driving up to the house was one thing, but trying to turn around so we could drive back down was an mishap that took 5 people to get out of.
It was close to midnight when I took this picture and we were just heading out to a party even higher up the mountain. It’s really hard to make it out in the photo because it’s at night, but this car is balancing on 2 wheels, one in the front and the opposite one in the back. There were five of us inside the car and when we got wedged in this position and it was clear we needed to get out, the car was actually weebling back and forth on the opposing wheels! It was a balancing act just getting out.
Once outside the car we could see the extent of our predicament. The front bumper was only inches away from a giant rock and behind us the slope and angle were so messed up that the car was immobile. The only way to get out was to have 4 of us lay on the hood and push off the big rock, the downward slope was enough that reverse just wouldn’t cut it!
So there we all were in our party clothes laying on a car and pushing with our legs. I desperately wish one of us was filming the whole ordeal!
Next, watch the video of how we handled the rest of the road LOL!
Had my friends known exactly how these roads were I’m sure they would have opted for renting a 4X4 instead of a Toyota. The problem was when they came up there were only the two of them. But once we arrived there were five of us, which added a lot of extra weight and caused us to bottom out every few feet. I’m shocked the car even had an undercarriage left by the time we were done with it!
In the video one of my friends was walking in front and pointing to all the possible places we could get stuck, and the three of us in the back seat were actually standing and leaning to the front to get the weight off the back LOL. What a freakin night it was. And we hadn’t even encountered the washed out mountain roads yet. I have no footage of that, it was too dark and I’m pretty sure I was having a stroke in the back seat.
[ad#in-post]
Comments
10 responses to “Blue Mountain Driving is No Joke!”
Yeah, the poor little Toyota was actually not bad with only two people… so unless I find some amazing deal like Eco did, I’ll likely try that adventure again, as all the 4x4s I found were outrageously expensive. If we have visitors, it just means two trips up the driveway each time. Raf told us a funny story that not long before we arrived he had another visitor that came in a Jeep and destroyed the side of it by driving too quickly down that same driveway. Ouch.
Just can’t win with that place! I destroyed myself trying to WALK up that road on a couple hours sleep at 6am LOL!!
I would like to go through and visit newcastle and other blue mountain areas,you guys really had to do some serious travel,gets me nervous thinking about going off the mountain,especially at night,i know the views had to be breathe taking though,the blue mtns. have a micro climate of their own,i sure you felt it,would love to experience it,the mountain air at night,hmmmmmm!wish we had the tradewinds in the US and CANADA,lol,i want to feel that jamaica breeze again,remember when the planes unloaded outside and you could feel the air hit you right when you come off.have a irie sunday JC,one love
That’s also one of my favorite memories about landing in JA. Back when I first started going in 2003 they didn’t have the boarding bridges at the airport yet so they would open the front and back doors of the plane, we had to walk out onto the tarmac. Well as soon as they open those doors the RUSH of humid air takes over immediately and your pants stick to your legs…the smell of Jamaican air. It’s something I won’t soon forget.
Thanks for the jog down memory lane 🙂
IRIE
Ooooooh…. you guys make it sounds much more worse than it really is…. There is a technique on how to turn. I would have loved to explain it to you but you never asked… Anyway, it’s part of the charm of Jamaica, no?
Its definitely part of the charm! And I loved watching you do it the right way the next day.
cmon,its not that bad!!
LOL Elon you were born there! Plus, I wasn’t really complaining….I was more laughing (after the fact) LOL
lol @ Raf… you weren’t there when we were in this situation… would have loved the tutorial on this one prior to the making of this video LMAO