Venture inland to find the real Jamaica: meet the ‘children of Nanny’, descended from runaway slaves; sip the sumptuous coffee of the famous Blue Mountains; or ride with a rasta through the karst hills of Cockpit Country.
Colonel Wallace Sterling has slipped into a soliloquy, eulogising Nanny — a warrior woman who knew every fold of these mountains, and how to remain camouflaged within them. She was a shape-shifter; a soldier whose weapon was the land. She’d slide behind a curtain of falls, withdraw into caves and disappear within the creeping, chokingly dense forests that nosedive down the John Crow Mountains and crash into the rushing Rio Grande. “That’s why we say we are Grande Nanny yoyo — we are all children of Grande Nanny.”
Vanishing into his house, the colonel leaves me outside, where the sun bakes a sweet sedation into the landscape. A kitten is lazily tracing infinity symbols between my legs when the colonel emerges with a Ghanaian kuficap, beat-up Nike trainers and a machete. It’s time to find Nanny. I follow him along an asphalt road that fades into a forested footpath, where the swelling greenery is so rampant epiphytes even sprout from overhead electrical wires.
“As a colonel, you’re the person that’s in charge,” he says with a one-tooth smile. For 21 years, the colonel has been the leader of semi-autonomous Moore Town — a community descended from the fearsome Windward Maroons, a group of West Africans who escaped slavery in the 17th century and fled to Jamaica’s mountainous interior. “Look around,” he urges. “All of this is surrounded by mountains, right? You can get ready protection for the community.”
この記事は National Geographic Traveller (UK) の July / August 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は National Geographic Traveller (UK) の July / August 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Dianne Whelan
THOUGH NOT A SEASONED HIKER TO BEGIN WITH, THE FILMMAKER BECAME THE FIRST PERSON TO COMPLETE THE WORLD'S LONGEST TRAIL NETWORK
NIGERIA
The country's many communities come together over hearty meals with plenty of heat
Katie Hale
A VOYAGE TO THE GREAT WHITE CONTINENT IS BOTH A DREAM COME TRUE AND A CALL TO ARMS, TO PROTECT OUR ICY POLES AND, IN TURN, OUR PLANET
WILTSHIRE
BEYOND THE MAIN ATTRACTION OF STONEHENGE, WILTSHIRE HAS EQUALLY IMPRESSIVE ANCIENT SITES, GIANT CHALK HORSES AND COSY PUBS IN HISTORIC VILLAGES
BATH
Thermal baths and Regency heritage have put this Somerset city firmly on the travel map - and this year the spotlight will be on former resident and literary great Jane Austen, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of her birth
GRANADA
In this Andalucian city, flamenco is an art form as well as a way of life not just for traditional dancers and singers but also for hip-hop stars, classical guitar legends and street artists
India's Golden Triangle
LINKING DELHI, THE TAJ MAHAL AND THE PINK CITY OF JAIPUR, WITH DETOURS FOR TEMPLES AND TIGERS, THIS IS THE PERFECT ROUTE FOR FIRST-TIMERS. WORDS: POOJA NAIK
FORGED BY FIRE
A SUBTROPICAL ISLAND IN THE ATLANTIC, MADEIRA HAS RUGGED VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS THAT RISE ABOVE THE CLOUDS, NATURAL SWIMMING POOLS DOWN AT SEA LEVEL AND MORE THAN 1,900 MILES OF HISTORIC AQUEDUCTS TRACING THE LANDSCAPES IN BETWEEN
ADRIFT IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
A KAYAKING EXPEDITION THROUGH NORWAY'S LOFOTEN ISLANDS OFFERS WHITE-SAND BEACHES, ROYAL ENCOUNTERS AND THE CHANCE TO CHANNEL YOUR INNER VIKING
the RETURN
ON A PRIVATE GAME RESERVE IN SOUTH AFRICA'S KWAZULU-NATAL PROVINCE, AN UNLIKELY CREATURE IS MAKING A TENTATIVE COMEBACK - AND VISITORS ARE OFFERED A GLIMPSE INTO THE CONSERVATION EFFORTS TO SAVE IT AND OTHER NATIVE WILDLIFE
