Your guide wakes you up at 2am. Disoriented and sleepy, you follow them through the forest, with sparks of fireflies dancing in the darkness. The first part of the 12km round-trip hike up the 2256m Blue Mountain Peak from Penlyne Castle, 37km northeast of Kingston, is a tough slog up scree-covered switchbacks referred to as Jacob’s Ladder. You pause for a breather halfway up, at Portland Gap, then climb higher through the woodlands as the temperature drops.
You emerge in a clearing around 5:30am, and gradually the peak comes into view: a flat-topped hump, marked by a scaffolding pyramid. As the rays of the rising sun illuminate the sea of greenery beneath you and the Caribbean Sea beyond, you swear that you can see the faint outline of Cuba, 144km away.
After a brief celebratory drink, you set off back down the mountain, able to appreciate several distinct ecosystems now that you can see them – stunted elfin forest with hirsute soapwood and rodwood no more than 2.5m high (an adaptation to the cold), followed by cloud forest festooned with moss, dotted with wild strawberries, and dripping with filaments of ‘Old Man’s Beard’ lichen. Further down, you encounter bamboo and primordial giant tree ferns. Your guide will point out the Blue Mountain coffee plants growing on the steep lopes, and you’ll be greeted at your lodgings with the breakfast of champions, accompanied by the tastiest cup of joe.
