Bog Walk: Silent tunnel, soft river

THE WALK along the train line to the tunnel near Bog Walk, St Catherine, takes The Sunday Gleaner on by far its most beautiful trek in its journeys along memory line.

The beauty lies not only at the entrance to the tunnel with the Rio Cobre below, the hillside above and the opening in the rock directly ahead, but also the sound.

Soft-spoken, the Rio Cobre makes it way before the water cascades from a mini-dam in which plants grow abundantly and dry bamboo stalks accept the halt in their passage downriver.

The entrance to the tunnel is some 15 to 20 minutes walk from where the line crosses the road and, once the houses close to the road have been left behind, it is a trip involving road, river and rail. For the road through the Bog Walk gorge cannot be ignored, the sound of traffic amplified naturally as it comes across and up the hill.

There is a number 4 outside the Bog Walk tunnel, which is just over a mile long. The Sunday Gleaner does not get very far into the tunnel, as it soon curves to the left and disappears into the darkness.

A few feet inside, though, it is cool, the tracks clear of overgrowth as there is no sunlight for plants to grow. And there is a steady breeze, coming from the light at the end of the Bog Walk tunnel heading up the funnel which once hummed with the passage of trains but now merely whispers in the wind.

- M.C.