Left: Almost everyone has travelled across the famous bridge at some time.   Right: You can get almost anything you want at the Bog Walk gorge. - Norman Grindley/Deputy chief Photographer

The car zipped across the bridge at what seemed like lightning speed, causing an elderly woman holding two large mangoes and a handful of guineps to have to dart out of the way to avoid being hit. "Hee hee, whoi! Granny you can move though!"

Two boys who were sitting on a nearby concrete post chuckled heartily as they watched the woman run. "You a laugh? I gwine fix you business!" She raised her fist at them and the boys sobered up. "You nuh have no behaviour! If a never you mother I woulda tun you over!" the woman continued to glare at the boys who were now near tears. But as a car approached her from behind, the woman quickly spun around. "Guinep and mango!" she shouted, and the car flashed by her. "I gwine tell Ms. Rosie seh unnu out yah a idle! In fact, git up and find you yard!' As she shouted, the boys scampered off.

This is the Bog Walk gorge in St. Catherine, Flat Bridge to be exact. It's one of the most popular spots in the country and the people who live there have great stories to tell. Most, if not all Jamaicans, have at some time passed through the area, but not many have ever stopped to get to know the residents who have helped to make the place as popular as it is today.

When photographer Norman Grindley and I got to the bridge, it was about 11 o'clock in the morning, and the vendors who line the road on either side of the bridge every day were well into their business day. We met Ms. Inez, a 70-something-year-old woman wearing a straw hat and a skirt that reached her ankles. The frames of the glasses that she wore low on her nose, must have been more than an inch thick, and seemed to be weighing her face down. She was clutching a red mango in her hand. "Yes man, as cock crow we come out here and sell. Anywhere di likkle shilling deh, we haffi deh right deh," she chuckled loudly as another car whizzed by her. "We been doing dis fi years, so we get fi know many people. Dem come and buy di mango and di guinep dem and sometime we sell ackee. Dem get fi know we now, so dem come and know seh dem get di best goods right here," she said.

Idle pickney

Ms. Inez stopped talking and her eyes focused on something across the road. Two young boys carrying home-made fishing rods were running into the bushes.

"But what is dis a pressure mi soul case? Nuh fi Junie bwoy dem dat gone inna di bush? Dem deh idle pickney dem won't tan inna di yard!"

By now, Ms. Inez was so peeved, she seemed to have forgotten that I was standing there. In a fit, she stormed off in the opposite direction, mumbling something about having to "tell Junie bout dis."

A few other women who were sitting on wooden benches nearby, chuckled. "Bwoy Ms. Inex nuh easy. A weh she gawn now?" one of them chuckled before jumping to her feet and grabbing a mango. She ran over to a car that had stopped at the roadside.

We decided to go and see what the boys who had gone into the bushes were up to.

Junior and Daniel were sitting on a giant stone holding the fishing rods, the lines of which were in the calm water that looked green.

Famous bridge

"Yes man. Is fishing we do fi pass di time. I love fishing. More time we haffi thief out and come afta school, but we haffi find a way to come out here," said Junior, the younger of the lads. The boys said they both lived in the hills overlooking the famous bridge. "I feel very good to live right here. Everybody who going to St. Ann or somewhere else have to pass right here. We see everybody!" Daniel boasted.

Just then the boys' faces turned pale. They seemed to have heard something that I didn't, because they both jumped up at the same time, pulled their lines out of the water, grabbed some dead fish that were on the ground beside them and took off into the bushes. I later realised that they heard the angry voice of their mother calling for them to come home.

Back at the bridge, we caught up with Ms. Inez again, who was now relaxing in the shade of a wooden stall.

"This place, Flat Bridge is a strange place. A lot of people say dem fraid to pass over di bridge, others say dem see mermaid inna di water, all kinda sinting bredda. I have seen many goings and comings in dis place. But one thing though, even though people afraid to come over it, dis place is a blessed place. It make many of us able to eat a food, and it is an enjoyment for the tourists to come and take dem pictures," she grinned.

"Dem say dat a rock over there is shaped like something that is very important," said Ms. Inez. She was getting red in the face and said little more, opting only to add that she once had to 'clap' her grandson when she found him staring at the rock for an alarming period of time. "That is another thing that attract a lot of people. So you see? That is another thing dat draw people to di place. If is not one thing is another, Flat Bridge have something for everybody!"