Original subtitles

Before I was born, my mum and dad moved from the Caribbean to Britain. We had

exactly the same place in Bolton.

I loved our family holidays here. This is how I remember my mum doing it.

But this trip is much more.

This would have been a party room.

I'm off to discover how these magical islands of creative cultures, loved by

people all over the world.

I'll be welcomed into island life. Come early and stay late.

Leave all the bad vibes at the gate.

Pushed out of my comfort zone.

My back's gone.

On goes the hat.

To unearth some major surprises.

Annalise, hi. There's a pig in the kitchen.

And share what I find with the folks back home. It feels big. This is a real

Caribbean treasure.

As I uncover the energy.

Creativity. It looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. If you can, you do

Go! Here they come, here they come.

Of the closest place to paradise on Earth.

Look at that view.

What a wonderful day it's been.

Join me on my Caribbean adventure.

Jamaica is known throughout the world for the speed of its sprinters, its

-wateringly spicy food and the sweet sounds of reggae music.

It's no coincidence that this island is the number one Caribbean destination for

British travellers and it was home to my parents, Lynn and Norris, before they

emigrated to Britain in the early 1960s.

600 miles south of Miami, the island, or the rock as Jamaicans call it, is

nestled in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

The first leg of my adventure is taking me to the spectacular Blue Mountains,

which tower behind the city of Kingston and expand for over 30 miles.

I first came to Jamaica as a little boy with my family, and I've had some

amazing holidays here with my wife, Catherine.

But there are so many parts of this beautiful island that I haven't seen.

I'll be meeting descendants of rebel mountain communities who battled the

British.

And I'll be getting high.

Well, about three feet higher. Don't look down.

I'll be spending a night a hundred feet above the Caribbean Sea.

Wow, amazing.

And later, I'll be discovering what it takes to make a Caribbean classic love

the world over.

But first, I'm heading to what some people consider the home of the world's

finest coffee.

The parish of Portland is in the northeast, and right in the heart of the

mountain range is Devon's Coffee Farm.

Unfortunately, coffee doesn't agree with me, so I'm meeting up with someone

whose opinion I trust 100%. My big sister,

Judith.

She recently moved from the UK with her husband Carlton to this stunning part of

rural Jamaica.

Is that my big sis?

Little bro!

Nice to see you.

How are you?

Oh, still on tiptoe. You look well.

Yes, so do you. You're looking good, and you've got the coffee brewed already. I

have the coffee.

I'm just wondering, to paraphrase Mrs Merton, what is it about the lush beauty

of Portland that made you want to leave Bolton?

Bolton?

Bolton? Oh, it's coming home. I mean, look at it.

The fresh air, the fresh food, the sunshine.

Yeah. Everything.

The people. Fantastic. The people are amazing.

Yeah.

Now, Bolton is a place we're both very fond of, but Judith was born in Jamaica,

and when Mum followed Dad to England in 1962 as part of the Windrush generation,

she stayed behind with my grandparents.

But some weird statistic, I think, like...

A few hundred of the children of Windrush Generation parents made the

Hundreds of thousands were left behind. That's right.

And I'm talking to mum.

A lot of that's because they all thought they were coming back. They were just

going to go there for four or five years, make a bit of money. Five -year

Yeah. Yeah, most emigrants, that was the plan. Make some

money and then come back.

And obviously a lot of them got stuck.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, what made my mum stuck and dad stuck was me.

You, yeah.

I came upon the scene.

That's right.

With my parents' new life firmly established and no sign of returning to

Jamaica, a seven -year -old Judith was brought to England, where I met her for

the first time.

What was it like for you leaving Jamaica and Grandma?

To start again in Britain. It was traumatic on many levels.

The climate, the new family.

School was horrendous. And the food!

Yeah.

I'm sorry. Wow.

Did you think, I want to go home?

Yes. But then a part of me could see that mum

also suffered.

But I didn't know.

I didn't know you were pining. I didn't know all that. No, well, you wouldn't.

You're two years younger than me.

And, of course, you have to then, you know, get back on the horse, as it were,

and make the best of the opportunity that mum and dad had obviously

That they wanted and they worked for.

Exactly, and it worked, yeah. So we made the best of it. I think we all did.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we all did.

This farm is run by another family team.

Father and son, Conrad and Howard Thomas.

They've been in the business for over 30 years now. Their daily grind is all

about a commitment to sustainability and community and, of course, producing

great coffee.

So, Conrad, your coffee, I'm reliably informed, is amazing.

It is amazing. I've had a cup. So what makes coffee?

From the Blue Mountains. So special.

Coffee from the Blue Mountains is always special because of the altitude and the

soil and the way you take care of your coffee. It's just like a baby.

You get to take care of it. You get to prune it. The soil is very much

because the kind of plant coffee, you will have to taste the soil.

The climate is very much important.

Not too hot and not too cold. You don't want to get too much of one weather.

So you get a lot of rain and you get a lot of sun.

Conrad's going to show us how they create that perfect blend.

And it all starts with the coffee plant.

These are called the coffee berries.

So where's the bean then?

The bean is in the berry.

So the bean is inside that?

Yes. You just squeeze it, right?

There it is. Crushed it.

That's a coffee bean.

This is a coffee bean.

I had no idea it grew in a little pod like that. So you could taste one.

I could eat this now? You could just pop it open and just taste it.

Clive, it's sweet.

It's sweet?

It's sweet.

Too sweet.

This is as close as you can get to coffee. Yeah, because I don't drink it.

don't really drink it.

The beans are washed and left to dry in the mountain air for at least three

weeks before they're ready for roasting.

The coffee is going to show you like...

Two different kinds of roast.

One of them is going to be brown, one of them is going to be dark.

How long do you roast it for?

About half an hour. Half an hour.

And it goes brown.

And it goes brown. It looks like. All the grains are looking the same.

That is really powerful.

Roasting complete.

It's time for the grind.

There you go.

That's good.

Just imagine we're making this for Dad.

And he's sitting there. Yeah. And he's scowling.

He's scowling because he hasn't got his coffee yet. Yeah. Remember?

Yeah.

He's watching. He's watching. He's watching.

Because he wants to know that you do it the right way. Yeah.

That is beautiful.

Dad, it's coming.

Yeah. It's coming.

Yeah. Oh, it takes me back.

Yeah. Yeah. There it is.

The aroma is astonishing.

With the hard work done, Judith is going to taste the fruits of our labour.

Oh, yeah. That's lovely.

I won't put that in just yet.

A bit of condensed milk, buried Jamaican.

Mmm. Yeah? That's delicious.

Yeah, yeah. It's strong but not bitter.

Right. Yeah?

So, look. That is lovely. It's been great seeing you. Yeah, you too, little

So, I've just arrived.

What am I going to do in Jamaica? While you're here. What should I be doing?

What have I got to eat? What have I got to do?

You have to eat authentic jerk chicken pork.

You have to also do something cultural.

Okay. Learn about the history of Jamaica. Yeah, okay. You must do that.

you must just chill.

All right? And enjoy Jamaica. Which is why you're back.

That's it.

That's it. I'm back for my health.

Yeah. It's just amazing. Yeah, I can totally get that. And you know what? Mum

will kill me if I don't get a picture of her favourite son with one of her other

kids. Yeah, her favourite son.

He's so rude.

Mum? There you go. He's your favourite son.

Mum will love that.

For once, I'm taking my big sister's advice.

I'm heading back down the mountain to learn more of Jamaica's history.

This landscape isn't just famous for growing coffee. It was once the stomping

ground of the Maroons, African slaves who escaped from plantations here and

lived in groups in the elevated forests.

The Africans that were forcibly taken to Jamaica brought their traditions and

culture with them.

and a community of their descendants still live together today at the foot of

the Blue Mountains.

Charlestown is one of four official villages of the Jamaican Maroons, and

meeting their leader, Colonel Marcia Douglas.

You must be Marcia.

Akwaba. Akwaba.

I'm assuming that means... The former great -uncle of the Maroons. So good

morning, good afternoon, good evening. Akwaba.

So tell me about the maroons because they hold a special place in the history

Jamaica. They were living in the wilderness and was dangerous to

They were herders who tended cattle. The origin of that word maroon was formed

from the Spanish word simaroon, meaning wild and unruly or untamed.

So they were slaves under the Spanish.

The Spanish then set them free.

The British took over. The British wanted to keep them as slaves because

had a motion to produce as much sugar and sugar products as possible. And so

Moroni said, listen, enough is enough.

But it must have been really difficult living up here in the mountains,

a huge national army like the British.

The Maroons utilize what they have around them. So living in the mountains

wasn't a real problem for them. That was an advantage.

They were very good fighters, very smart, using different techniques and

tactics. The most famous leader of this rebellion was a fearless woman dubbed

Nanny of the Maroons.

She's a national hero in Jamaica and features on the $500 bill.

Her outstanding leadership and the military training she gave her people

largely credited with the success of the first Maroon War in 1739.

And eventually, the Maroons, they signed a treaty.

Yes, they did. With the British.

But Nani did not. But Nani didn't? No.

But that treaty meant that the Maroons kept their freedom.

Yes, and the Maroons were free to live in their own community. OK, well, what a

history.

Man, it is long and tall.

Beautiful history.

Yeah. That's a lovely way of putting it.

I'm keen to find out more about Maroon culture, and when the Colonel talked

about the history being long and tall, I didn't think she meant literally.

It's a picture.

Simone Harris is a fearless, out -and -proud queer performance artist in a

country that still criminalises the LGBTQ plus community.

She's actually a seventh -generation descendant of Nanny of the Maroons, and

her own way, she's following in her ancestors' footsteps.

Hi. Hi.

You must be Simone.

Hey, yeah. I'm Clive. Hi, Clive. Good to see you. Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Walking Tall, J .A.

Amazing. Tell me about the history of all this.

Well, we started this in 2019.

I received some funding from the British Council to run an arts program for the

queer community. I decided to do stilt walking because I was interested in how

the elevation could help you to build confidence, but also connect me to a

history of stilt walking. That is Maroon, a lost part of our culture here

Jamaica.

The skill of Moko Jambi can be traced back to West Africa.

Once in danger of dying out completely, it's part of a performance that can be

seen in carnival celebrations all over the Caribbean.

This is a way for us to honor the history that is truly ours.

Okay. We're going for a walk. Yeah, let's go for a walk. All right.

I'm trusting you. I'm trusting you. I've got you.

Thank you. Oh, dear.

Yeah. It looks really difficult.

In life, falling is, you know, failing, and we fail forward. You use the lessons

from falling to move forward.

And literally getting people in the queer community to walk.

Tall. Absolutely.

You know, who may feel, because of the wider society that Jamaica is, you know,

they may feel that they can't be proud of who they are. Exactly. They can't

out. I understand that I am a descendant from Nani of the Maroons, and she

would claim safe space for her people. I continue that tradition today with

Walking Tall. We're creating a safe space for the LGBTQ community and its

allies, right?

That's what we're doing, and we do it together, right? We're building a safe

space together.

So I'm going to take these off, but you're going to get onto your silk.

You're going to walk to us today. Adrian, you ready?

I thought this was a safe space.

Well, after a quick briefing from Adrian and getting fitted with my new legwear,

it's time to attempt standing up.

Adrian. All right. Okay.

So three.

Up, up, up.

Good. Breathe. Don't breathe back.

Right. Okay.

All right.

So what we're going to do is just breathe.

You're going to lift one leg, put it down.

Lift the other leg, put it down. Okay.

All right.

Good job.

Nice work.

Mm -hmm.

All right. All right.

Yes? Yeah?

I feel like a baby giraffe trying to walk for the first time.

Okay.

I'm here.

The next one.

Just match it.

Go ahead.

Don't look down.

I'm coming down. I'm coming down.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Safely back down to earth.

I'll be honest.

That was pretty scary.

You did great. And thank you for trying. And thank you for trusting us as much

as you could. It's been a pleasure.

Stay grounded.

Thank you. I will. Thank you.

After that, I think I'm ready for some R &R.

So I'm heading to the coast.

Boston Bay is easy to miss from the roads, but it's a hidden gem worth

out.

It's the birthplace of jerk cuisine, and some say the best surfing spot in

Jamaica.

It also offers something a bit different to the shiny, five -star, all

-inclusive hotels that dominate the island.

Great Huts is an eco -tourism resort perched on the cliffs overlooking the

and it's where I'll be staying tonight.

To find out more about the place, I'm meeting one of the co -founders.

Hi, you must be Paul H.

Yes, I am.

Welcome to Great Lakes. Thank you so much. Yeah, man.

This is amazing.

It is fantastic.

Yeah, a bit like your shirt. Oh, actually, I made it. You made it? Yes,

There are so many things I do. You're a man of many talents. I can't wait for a

full tour, man. And you're going to knock yourself out by what you see.

Okay, let's do it.

There are 21 individual rustic huts and lodges scattered across this stunning

clifftop. It was the vision of an American doctor, Paul Rhodes, who bought

land 20 years ago.

It was a beautiful place, yet it was a garbage dump.

It was a rubbish dump. Rubbish dump for the community, literally.

And it had this vision of creating this Afrocentric, eco -friendly place.

Right in the heart of the forest.

The bosom of nature. We are using mostly natural trees, bamboo,

board. We have the jungle. Look at the beautiful Queen of Sheena house.

I can see why she would live there with the vines hanging down.

It's amazing.

It's amazing. And so you'll see the stories of our African ancestry embedded

all over. Yeah, on the pots there, the seats.

There's a lion there.

And what is more African than the lion?

So we're talking about the story, the history, the heritage of Africa.

And we're also talking about preserving the natural environment.

But at the same time, you can relax, unwind, and chill.

And as we make our way through this natural jungle to the top of the cliffs,

can see exactly what he means.

Oh. Right here. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. It's the essence of paradise

on the edge of the Caribbean Sea. My Lord.

The waves are thunderous. The waves are crashing against the cliff, the jagged

cliff. That's incredible.

And on this cliff, we were once looking out to sea across

the Atlantic.

Longing. Longing, perhaps, to go back.

This view just captures everything.

Don't you want to jump into the sea?

I do want to jump into the sea. But not from this height.

Well, we have a place down there where you can actually jump. Yeah, I think

give that a minute.

But I am looking forward to spending a night in my beautifully appointed hut

overlooking the sea.

With nothing but the sound of the waves lulling me to sleep.

But before bed, I can't resist a dip on top of the cliff.

The sound of those waves, it's just so relaxing.

And this view.

Just so stunning.

It's Jamaica.

After a refreshing night's sleep above the ocean waves, I've woken up with only

one thing on my mind.

Food.

Jerk cooking originated right here in Boston Bay. The word jerk is said to

from the Spanish charqui, meaning dried meat.

This jerk stop is run by Tika Thompson and her partner Rome, and I'm here to

find out what it takes to make a really good jerk.

Hey. Hi.

Tika. Hi, it's good to see you. Surrounded by a lot of wood.

That's what we use in jerk. It's the main ingredient.

An amazing smoky flavor.

Our wood here is from pimento and sweet wood. And then that moves on to the

meat. We'll use maybe this one. That one? I'm not sure if you can manage that

one. Oh, Lord. That's a chunky one.

And we can put it right on the fire here.

Oh, it's hot. It's very hot.

You can feel the heat.

Fantastic. Right.

Okay.

While the wood is smoking outside, Tika is going to show me how to make their

marinade. And she's... Very modest about it.

You know I'm going to be biased and say always is the best.

But of course it's the best.

Well, tell me about the ingredients then.

Especially hot bonnet, hot pepper. Spicy.

Very spicy. I love it. We're going to use some fresh thyme. This is the

berry. Okay.

We're using the pimento wood outside. Wood outside, yeah. This is the berry

grows on the tree.

And then there's a bit of nutmeg. It gives it a little aroma. And then we

the garlic. And most important, the scallion. Spring onion, we would know it

back in the UK. Yes, here we call it scallion. Scallions, yeah.

You know, jerk is really popular in the UK. It's all original from Boston.

It started with the maroons.

They originally run away. They lived in the mountains. And they had to preserve

their food.

Because you catch a big boar, you catch a guinea pig, you're not going to eat it

all today.

But they learn about the spice.

They learn about how to cook it so it can be preserved.

Where did you get this recipe from?

My partner's grandma and granddad. They were Gurley and Aston. That's where the

name of the restaurant came from.

But how do you make yours? Just a little bit different from the...

Place next door.

We have a secret ingredient. Of course.

We know I can't tell you. You can't tell me. No.

All the ingredients, including the secret ones, are blended together and

for a couple of days.

Oh, yes.

Before being added to the meat.

Today, master jerk Orville is showing me how to marinate pork.

All right.

Which is the original cut of meat used for this cuisine.

So you're slowly dripping it in to the folds of the meat.

Okay.

Oh, this is going to be amazing. You don't want to move too fast because if

flies in your eye, you know. Oh, my Lord.

Looking very good. Looking good, Orville? What do you think? Looking

Looking good.

What?

Next, we transfer our marinated pork to the cooking pit.

There we go.

Boards made from the pimento tree are used to cover.

And the wood we chucked on the fire earlier has now created the hot charcoal

need to slowly cook up the meat.

OK. Got it. And then you go right ahead.

Just like that.

Prep is underway for the lunchtime rush.

And the kitchen is in full swing.

The restaurant is filling up with hungry customers.

And having been left for three hours, our jerk pork is ready.

That looks fantastic.

Yeah, yeah, and you've got some sausages there as well. Right.

Incredible.

Let's do it.

Now, let's see what the customers think of my jerk pork.

Here you go.

Enjoy.

Served with fried sweet plantain and red fruit.

So good.

I think it's a hit.

Finally. Right.

I get a chance to sit down and taste it for myself.

There it is.

Doesn't it look amazing? It looks incredible.

Yeah. You should try it and tell me how it tastes.

It's absolutely delicious.

Yeah. I think I did a pretty good job.

Yes, you did.

No, it's wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.

What do you think of my cooking?

You're cooking!

Really good.

Mmm.

This is so tasty.

Ah, the authentic taste of Jamaica.

Maybe I'm on my way to becoming a master jerk myself in the best possible way.

I knew this Jamaican adventure would take me to places beyond the...

usual family holidays I've experienced here.

And it's been a revelation, the deep dive into maroon culture, for instance,

the focus on my own family history.

And you know what?

There's plenty more to come.

If you enjoyed that, you can press the red button now to see all episodes of My

Caribbean Adventures, only on BBC iPlayer.