Jungle Mountain Biking Adventure Caribbean Island: St. Lucia City: Soufriere March 16, 2000 by Wayne & Karen Brown

We walk up to a fence with large stone posts and wooden gates. With the dense jungle behind the gates it looks like the entrance to Jurassic Park! The mountain biking center is in the overgrown ruins of an old sugar plantation. The sugar cane plantation was established in 1765 (before the American Revolutionary War), so that means these buildings are over 200 years old! It appears to have stopped being a working plantation about 100 years ago. Michael's crew has created over three miles of trails through what is mostly thick jungle on 350 acres.

Michael gave us each a new front suspension mountain bike to explore the plantation ruins. As we ride off Michael explains that after the sugar cane market died out, other plants were grown and harvested here for shipment to Europe and America. Many of the plants growing here were brought from other countries. The cocoa trees were brought from Africa. Bananas were brought from Brazil. Pineapples were brought from Hawaii. Coconuts and breadfruit were brought from the South Pacific islands.

Here in the valley floor, at the start of our ride, the trail is fairly flat. We peddle through narrow, rocky trails where the jungle plants sometimes brush against us as we zoom past. As we peddle up the valley the trail begins to get steeper and hilly. At a particularly steep and hilly downhill trail, Michael peddles ahead to show us a special expert trail that goes straight down a difficult section. I follow Michael and zoom down the steep, bumpy trail, and wipe out halfway down. I start over and make it all the way down on my second try.

Dr. Baynes is the next one down. She makes it all way down on her first try, but at the bottom makes a big mistake. Dr. Baynes brakes with her front brakes, instead of her back brakes. The front tire stops instantly, the back of the bike rises up and Dr. Baynes flips over the handlebars! Fortunately she is wearing a helmet, so she only was a few scrapes and bruises. After brushing herself off, she hops back on her bike. After seeing Dr. Baynes' flip, Karen decides to walk her bike down the hill. At the bottom of the hill we continue peddling along the trail.

We peddle across stone bridges criss-crossing a small river that runs down the center of the valley as we peddle deeper into the rainforest. We come to a clearing along an old stone road and find a waterfall and an inviting pool of water. The trail stops here and it is a great place to relax after hours of riding. We take off our shoes and jump into the cool water. We are near the end of our expedition, but have one more thing we want to show you. Check in tomorrow as we find out where chocolate comes from.

Anse Mamin is just north of Anse Chastanet.

Wayne and Karen stand inside one of the overgrown buildings of the old sugar cane plantation.

Wayne and Karen stand in the middle of a grove of cocoa trees and coconut trees.

Dr. Baynes peddles through a grove of banana plants. Notice the bunch of bananas hanging down to the left of Dr. Baynes' head.

Dr. Baynes after flipping her bike. Ouch!

We stop for a swim at a waterfall near the end of the trail.