The Adventures of Dan and Tan: 9th February – Ocho Rios-Nine Mile, Jamaica

Up early to do the first of our four tours. A pilgrimage via a Jeep to Bob Marley’s house and final resting place. Whilst we don’t mind a bit of Bob (and we can’t get away from it in Jamaica) we wouldn’t say we’re huge fans, but when in Jamaica, it was just one of those things that you had to do!

Gene, our driver picked up at 8.30am and we drove through the roads for around 90 minutes to Nine Mile which is Bob’s final resting place. Half the fun of this tour is the journey. Jamaica is not set up for cars on the roads and many of the roads are so thin that only one car can cross. We quickly got used to Gene beeping the horn every time that he approached a corner or a bend in the road to warn other drivers. The drivers themselves are also mad and we had a number of cars and enormous trucks overtake us at high speed. In the end it was just better not to look than scare yourself to death.

We drove through Fern Gully and the beautiful green hilly countryside of Jamaica.

First on the way up to Bob’s we saw a man in the middle of the road on stilts with leaves and branches called “Jack and Beanstalk”. Basically, if you found it amusing, the jeep slowed down and we threw money off the back of it onto the road.

We stopped briefly for a traditional Jamaican patty, sort of like a pasty with meat pie filling at a bar too. This is the closest thing we have come to that resembles a meat pie since we travelled through Belize. Mmmm.... pies!!

Next we saw a young fellow named Calvin. Calvin stood in the middle of the road doing a handstand. Once we had driven past him he ran at high speed seeking money. He ran for so long that some of the people took pity on the poor kid and threw money on the road. Gene then drove off then pretended to stop for something about 100m up the road to make Calvin chase the car again. Whilst it seems nasty, geez it was funny. We think we’ll be seeing Calvin in the Olympics soon. Track and Field no doubt.

Next stop though Gene said it was to take photo’s overlooking the hills. Personally we thought it was so we could stop where his friend was so he could offer us drugs on the side of the road. No takers in this group. Back on the bus and Gene outgunned the kids on the street for a short while. Being fast they hung on the back of the jeep trying to get money off us.

Gene had warned us that approaching Bob Marley’s residence many people would offer us drugs. He wasn’t wrong. We had a man hanging off the back of our jeep trying to sell us drugs, people who we couldn’t see but stuck their hands under the gate and through holes in the wall trying to sell drugs.

Yesterday we thought we had only been offered more drugs in Amsterdam, today Jamaica overtook that country.

We finally made it inside Bob’s house. Our guide Juto said “don’t drink and drive man, smoke and fly”. It was quite acceptable to smoke drugs on this tour. Juto had the craziest laugh and told us all about Bob’s history.

We got to stand next to his bed and Dan laid his head on the rock that had inspired so many of his songs.

We also met the man who had given Bob his first guitar when he was three years old. Lastly we went to the Mausoleum where he rests in a tall above ground marble tomb with his guitar, soccer ball and extremely large spliff. Bob we think, would be quite happy. We also saw many of his platinum records (and cassette’s hehehe).