A couple of days off so I head for Negril and one of my favourite bike
rides in Jamaica – the West End at sunrise. A leisurely pedal along Norman
Manley Boulevard, with its avenue of hotels that butt right up to the sand,
brings you to a bridge over the river that’s the gateway to the Great Morass. Turn
right at the roundabout, go past the shopping centres, and you’re on the
home run to rustic Jamaican charm, and a warm and easy feeling.
Sandy beach
turns to cliff top this side of town. Pick out your snorkelling spot; visualize
the days of pirates past from the lighthouse headland; pick up a hot and fresh
ackee and saltfish loaf from the Out of Town Pastry, wash it down with a
coconut water from a roadside stall and cycle round the goats that make the
tarmac their own.
After a fork
in the road is my secret find. Hide Awhile. So discreet is its façade that I
didn’t discover it until recently. No trees have been harmed in creating this
stylish and understated accommodation. A handful of enchanting abodes emerge
from a glade of tropical planting, to claim ocean views across a jagged,
natural limestone pavement.
Jamaica has
an omnipresent, mystical spirit that Bob Marley, Noel Coward, Ian Fleming, Laura Facey et al have drawn
on. The designer of Hide Awhile must have, too,
to envision such an address. Simple and inviting, clever and secretive is Hide Awhile. The perfect
place to escape with your lover or your creativity.
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