Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival 2011 - Part 1

ADVENTURES

2011 JAMAICA

FAT TYRE FESTIVAL

WORDS/PHOTOS Ian Hylands

I've been to a plethora of places in my life, and been on many adventures, traveling a lot of miles to go on great rides. Usually however I yearn to go somewhere new after I've been to the same place once or twice. I have this constant desire for a new experience. Not so with Jamaica. I've been to the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival 4 times now, and I'm excited about going again. Something about the place, and more importantly the people, keeps me coming back. Over the years I've had the pleasure of riding there with some good old friends, and some great new friends. Cam McCaul, Kyle Ebbett, Katrina Strand, Kathy Pruitt, Thomas Vanderham, Seb Kemp, Katy Holden, and those are just the names you might know. There are many others as well, Mike, Marty, Marshall, Jamie, Brad, Ben, Wayne, Andrew, and of course my friends in Jamaica, Andy, Jon, Grant, Martin, Norval, Everton, and many many more. They're as much a part of the reason I keep going back as anything else. I think it's the innate pleasure that I find in being with friends in a wonderful place, and watching new friends find out for the first time what it's all about.







This year we switched things up a bit and rode to Scotchies for some awesome Jerk lunch after our Murphy Hill ride on the first day, and as always a nice cold Red Stripe beer. I think my love of Jamaica also has a lot to do with the food. After lunch we headed to Hamilton Mountain for our afternoon ride, and as per usual I didn't bring a camera. It could be the long ride up that would really suck with in the heat with a camera bag, or the awesome ride down that's just too much fun to want to stop, but either way I didn't bring my camera. The day's riding ended at Norval's place on the beach for dinner, always a great time with awesome food cooked up fresh!






Morning comes early on day 2 of the festival, it's time to head out towards Robin's Bay for a fun packed day full of adventure.






After a few laps and some fun with the local kids we headed up to the very top of Pimento Hill, and one of my favorite trails in Jamaica. It starts with a bit of a push but the reward is more than worth it...






















Days packed full of riding that end at a beach, fresh fish and chicken cooked by our Rasta friends, and usually enjoyed with a fair bit of Red Stripe and Appleton Rum. Nights spent sitting around talking and laughing before passing out into a deep sleep, charging the batteries for another day of the same. The second days riding ended with an amazing lunch prepared by Natty Grant and his crew at the black sand beach. Cold beer sipped while floating in the warm ocean, it's the kind of thing that just takes all the stress away. Then a relatively short ride down the road to River Lodge, showers and dinner...

You can check out Part 2 here.