DI'S WHIRL AROUND MANDEVILLE

Diana MacIntyre-Pike, manager of Astra is unique among Jamaican hoteliers in that she urges her guests to travel around and experience the real Jamaica. Her Mandeville Town Tour - on the house for Astra guests - takes the following route: from Astra on Ward Avenue to Greenvale Road and then to Manchester High School; turn R up Perth Road and R again up Bloomfield hill to the former Bloomfield Guest house, once the site of Bill Laurie's popular Steak House, it recently changed hands. But whatever it becomes, the crest of the hill is still the best place to get a bird's eye view of the town centre.

From here through Grove Road to Newleigh Road and past Bishopís High School for girls, an Anglican institution now government funded, on the site of the old Newleigh hotel. On to DeCarteret School, a crumbling Victorian mansion, once the King Edward Hotel and now resembling more than ever the horror house in Hitchcock's Psycho. DC, founded over a century ago as an exclusive Anglican boy's school is now government aided and co-educational.

Turn R along DeCarteret Road and L into Godfrey Lands, a pastoral residential subdividsion. A short excursion along the Newport road reveals in the distance L Mayor Charlton's mansion, (see above) and on the hill ahead and R the West Indies College (see above); visitors welcome at both. A sign points the way to Roxborough, birthplace of Norman Washington Manley (see above). Back into town along Manchester Road you pass R a JDF camp and then L St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic school now government aided, and L St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church. Further on L is the Church Teacher's Training College once the site of the Manchester Hotel, then on your R the Methodist Church. Willogate Plaza on your L has a variety of shops.

Next stop the square where there is one way traffic clockwise around The Green now renamed Cecil Charlton Park after the ebullient former Mayor. Here you may meet Shut, one of several official greeters coached by Countrystyle Ltd. Another of the friendly people you may meet as you stroll on the Green is Denis Roberts, a photographer who has operated an open-air studio here for nearly 15 years. The Georgian Courthouse, north of the Green is usually swarming with litigants. It faces, across the Green, the market (busiest on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and St Mark's Parish Church. Just east of the Green on Hotel St is the Mandeville Hotel, probably the oldest in the island and dating from the late 1800s when everybody who was anybody tried to spend the summer there.

Manchester road leads north and downhill past the Mayor's parlour and offices of the Parish Council, the Library, and two hospitals.Tucked behind them is the SWA Craft Centre sponsored by the Women's Club of Mandeville where girls learn and practice home economics skills producing crochet, embroidery, cloth dolls and pastries for sale. At the junction with Caledonia road turn L for Manchester Shopping Centre (just about everything you need available here, including fast food), then R along New Green Road and R again into Ingleside with the Alcan Sports Club and executive residences complete with fireplaces. (Yes, it does sometimes get cold enough to use them.)

TOURS OUT OF MANDEVILLE

YS FALLS

Off the beaten track and approximately 24 miles or 30 minutes from Mandeville via Santa Cruz and Lacovia, are a refreshing contrast to crowded Dunns River. The owners do not advertise, do not accept large groups and there is not even a sign on the highway. YS estate is located just beyond Bamboo Avenue a short distance along an unpredictable country road. One of the leading racehorse stud farms in the island, YS also produces beef cattle and export papayas. The base for visiting the Falls is an extension of what used to be a tiny crossroads rum shop. There are picnic tables, bar, snack shop, grill, restrooms and a gift shop. You ride a tractor-drawn jitney to the falls over a stream and through the pastures with grazing cows and brood mares. The owners, the Browne family, are descended from the Marquis of Sligo, the colourful (and colourblind) Governor of Jamaica when slavery was abolished in 1834. The origin of the name YS is obscure. It has been suggested that it derives from the Gaelic "wyess" meaning winding which describes the course of the river.

Up at the falls you can relax on an emerald green lawn and just look, or you can climb to the top beside them. The dramatic three-tiered waterfall is most dramatic when the river is in spate and the brown water thunders and foams, misting you with spray as you climb. In dry weather the postcard pretty river sings a gentler song as it plunges and froths into green-blue pools. Swimming is permitted and there are lifeguards on duty. A sign posted at the base reports the condition of the river each day. Some of the flora at the falls, like the Cartwheel plant are extremely rare.

APPLETON RUM TOUR

The Appleton Estate has been producing sugar and rum since 1749. It is the largest of three sugar estates/factories owned by J. Wray and Nephew, the others being New Yarmouth in Clarendon and Holland, adjacent to Bamboo Avenue in St. Elizabeth. This billion dollar company began in 1825 as a popular Kingston rum shop. John Wray, owner of The Shakespeare Tavern at Parade in Kingston, made his fortune blending and selling rum. Just before his retirement in 1864 he took his fashionable nephew Colonel Charles Ward into the business. Ward expanded the scope of the company, acquiring sugar estates and import agencies. Today, J. Wray and Nephew is one of the island's leading exporters and its core business remains the production, blending and bottling of rum.

Appleton, located at the edge of the Cockpit Country where the Black River meets the St. Elizabeth plain, produces 16000 tons of sugar and 10,000,000 litres of rum annually. This white rum is then blended and bottled in their Kingston production plant.

The Rum Tour covers all aspects of production with an introductory video presentation followed by a visit to the distillery. En route you will see the 100 year old donkey driven cane mill and sample fresh cane juice, molasses, wet sugar, high wine and finally Appleton Rum, considered by some connoisseurs to be the finest in the world. Should you wish you can purchase all you want, plus other Appleton products like Mad Annie and Rum Cream in the gift shop which also features items made by St. Elizabeth craftsmen.

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Books:

Tour Jamaica, by Margaret Morris (Gleaner Company, 1988), describes an island of infinite variety with interesting and warmhearted people. Covering six regions, the book provides data on places of interest, local personalities, and historic and topical anecdotes. Featured are 19 recommended tours.