- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Hollywell Park

Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer

Take your four wheel drive. Take a basket for mangoes too, if it's mango season. The road to Hollywell, located 3,700 feet above sea level, is laiden with fruit trees that grow in the wild along the winding road to the scenic nature reserve.

The Social Development Commission (SDC) is currently partnering with the Papine Development Area (PDA) to create community tourism in this zone of rural St. Andrew, so visitors' both local and overseas, are being welcomed with open arms.

Social development

Hollywell will be a major stopping point. SDC representative Deloris Wade says that the effort will bring employment, economic and social development to areas which are economically depressed.

The PDA includes Dallas, Constitution Hill, Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Content Gap, St. Peters, Irish Town and Woodford.

The communities support a farming population, among whom the young are being engaged by the SDC in training as tour guides and craftsman. Other community members are planning to throw their homes open as bed and breakfast stops for visitors.

This week, for the uninitiated, we feature Hollywell as a major attraction in the area. The Blue Mountains are one of the most popular regions for campers and outdoor enthusiasts, not only because of their famous coffee, but because of the breathtaking vistas. Hollywell represents the best of Blue Mountain camping life.

The Holywell Recreation Park, a designated picnic and mountain reserve, protects 300 acres (120 hectares) of woodland.

Plant life include dozens of fern species, impatiens, violets, nasturtiums, wild strawberries and raspberries. Pine trees, dogwood and soapwood are among the indigenous species.

GINGER LILLIES

Look out for red of ginger lilies. It is said that in 1985, botanists recorded that 41 per cent of the plants found in the park were found nowhere else in the world.

Hollywell is a paradise for bird watchers. Thirty endemic birds are found in the park, a large portion of a total of 256 indigenous species of birds.

If you are lucky, you will see the streamer-tail hummingbird or doctor bird with its long, narrow, black feathered tail resembling a 19th-century coat-tail worn by doctors.

Look out too for ring-tail pigeons, black billed, red billed and yellow billed streamer tail parrots, Jamaican woodpeckers, Jamaican todies and solitaires, and more.

Yellow snakes

At nights, you might be lucky to see the Coney. Not so pleasant might be the sight of yellow snakes (although they are harmless) and non-poisonous lizards and frogs.

Hollywell features five scenic trails leading which provide the visitors with a view of different species of trees and shrubs. The trails are the Oately Mountain Trail, 1.5 hours long, the Waterfall Shelter Trail; and the Fairy Glade Trail.

You may bring your own tents, but accommodations at Hollywell include five self-contained cabins. Meals are available upon request. The nightly rent is cheap.

On your way to Hollywell, make sure to schedule time for visits to other local attractions, local craft centres, bars and rest stops. Do not hesitate to enlist the services of local guides. They have been formally trained. Locals hope that community tourism in rural St. Andrew will help the area to prosper.