Canoe Valley is an ecological treasure

On Thursday, March 21, in his budget presentation, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said he would table the Jamaica Omnibus Protected Areas Policy Green Paper for the declaration of the protection of five areas, under the Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act.

One of the areas is Canoe Valley, which straddles the parishes of Clarendon and Manchester, from the Milk River district in Clarendon to Alligator Pond in Manchester. The region is principally a limestone forest, and a watershed consisting of surface and subterranean water sources. The biodiversity of the region is rich as it has a great variety of plants and creatures.

There are cotton (ceiba) trees, logwood, palms, cacti, acacia, etc. Near to the coast, reeds and other aquatic plants thrive in the brackish water, at points. Crocodiles, a few manatees (sea cows), egrets, Jamaican turkey buzzards (John crows), crabs, eels, and a variety of fishes teem in that ecosystem. God’s Well, Alligator Hole and Gut River are some of the best-known geographical features in the region.

God’s Well is a wide sinkhole that drops many feet. The green water therein can be seen from among the trees. The sight is not for the faint of heart. It is said that a few manatees live in Alligator Hole, a serene body of swamp water, in which there is no alligator. Overlooking the hole, in which canoeing takes place, is an interpretative centre that is chock-full of information about the place.

At Gut River, “healing” water seeps from the rocks beneath the road to create a little bathing ‘pool’ whose water flows to the nearby sea giving visitors to the area a riparian/marine experience. The very inviting crystal-clear water comes from the limestone hills that go way back.

To be in Canoe Valley is to be in the bosom of nature, but it is even more alluring from above. One of the ‘look-out’ spots is at ‘Neaseberry Bottom’ in the Cocoa Walk/Morley Hill area, some miles away from Cross Keys, which is actually a misnomer for ‘across the cays’, the Alligator Pond Cays, which are slightly visible from the hills.

The view is a kaleidoscope of other worldly beauty that no one word can adequately describe. From several hundred feet above sea level, a lush expanse of vegetation goes down and out to where it seems as if it touches the sea that curves in the east into Long Bay, and is framed by Farquhar Beach, which is actually in Clarendon.

Looking as if it is rising from the sea, with white-looking cliffs, is Round Hill – the piece de resistance of the entire panorama, also in Clarendon. It looks like a huge pyramid with its apex truncated. The mineral waters at Milk River are believed to be flowing from this standout of nature, behind which the plains of Vere appear to stretch into oblivion.

The road stretching through Canoe Valley is called the ‘Sea Road’, because of its proximity to the coast. It too can be seen from Neaseberry Hill on a clear day.It is one of the loneliest roads in all of Jamaica, and though it is a bypass, vehicular traffic is rare, not to mention pedestrian.

Being constantly overgrown by grass and weeds, the road is very narrow, and is susceptible to erosion and water damage during the rainy season. The last time The Gleaner visited there was a section that was almost impassable.

There are a few dwellings, as well as several ruins of concrete structures, near to the Alligator Pond end, where there is a high dune of shimmering black sand. A man who once lived there took The Gleaner team to a sandy spot where his house once stood. Even the foundation is now covered with black sand. The space, mostly devoid of human life, is widely regarded a “strange” place, where Tainos ancestral “energy” is strong, and it is pitch dark at nights.

The region got its name, it is said, from the days of the Tainos, who would make canoes from the massive silk cotton trees that grew in abundance. It was Taino territory, and there have been media reports of people removing Taino artifacts including petroglyphs (rock carvings) with modern technology. There are also stories about petrographs (rock art) being in caves, some of which are visible from the road.

There is hardly any sign of serious pollution and solid waste disposal in Canoe Valley. Manmade objects are strewn at points, but where in Jamaica are they not?It is an interesting and mesmerising place, especially the breath-taking views from Neasebery Hill, and the less carbon footprint in the space, the better, for it is truly a national treasure to protect and preserve.