Swift River Falls (Big Spring) Portland (Warisha Spring / Warsaw)

I am clueless as to the actual name of this waterfall or if it even has a name. The young man that gave me the tour said it's called Big Spring but I doubt that's the correct name. I recently found out about it, when one of my adventurer friends asked me if I knew it or have any information on how to find it. According to her the girl who posted it on Instagram refused to give info on it, claiming that she doesn't remember how to get there or have a contact for the person who gave her the tour. Few days later I insisted that we should go chase waterfalls and that was the target. I knew a community that Swift River flows through so on November 21, 2021 just a few days before my birthday we decided to search for it, like it was lost LMAO. We left Kingston earl-ish and headed for my favorite parish. Can you guess which one it is?...

YES!!! It's PORTLANDDDDDDDD!!!! Upon reaching the community that I was assuming the waterfall would be, we saw a young man walking. We stopped him and asked for directions, along with showing him the photo of what we were looking for. He said he saw a Youtube video of it and he knew where it was. However he said he was heading to work and we were in the wrong community. He told us to drive to the town of Hope Bay and turn right, across from Daryl Vaz's office. When we got there we stopped at a stall and asked 2 ladies we saw chatting. One of them said she knew where it was and she's heading in that direction, so we gave her a ride. She got off at The Swift River Watershed and told us to continue left to Chelsea.

When we eventually got to Chelsea we stopped at the swing bridge. The water looked enticing and the community looked familiar. So the natural thing to do was to call Kyle. He's my go to guy when I want to find waterfalls. He told me about  St. Peter's Waterfalls and  Nonsuch just to name a few. He confirmed that they were waterfalls in the area but they were not close by. There was no-one in sight to ask so we crossed the swing bridge in search of a waterfall. lol we walked for about 20 minutes before we decided to turn back

View from the swing bridge.

When we got back to the truck I saw two elderly men so I started enquiring about the waterfall. They seemed clueless but they told us to drive until the road comes to an end and ask for someone they call Driva. At the end of the road there was a guest house so I started asking there before looking for Driva. The owner knew where it was but he refused to be our tour guide he said my friend was wearing shorts and the entire hike was through cow pens. Now if you don't know what that means let me explain. Where they are cows they are ticks!!! Ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on their "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by feeding on the blood of anything they can get their hands on lol. Ticks can attach to any part of the human body but are often found in hard-to-see areas such as the groin, armpits, and scalp. Having ticks sucking your blood can be extremely dangerous and leads to sickness and death! My advice is to stay out of the cowpens. However you know me I am very persistent so I told the old man and went on my merry way. I eventually found Driva but he said he was getting ready to go somewhere. Any how I saw two young men working on a house and decided to try my luck. One of them knew where it was, I showed him the photo to be sure that we were on the same page, he confirmed and said he was the one who took that photo, he then asked why I didn't get his number from the person in the photo. But my friend explained to him that she refused by saying she doesn't remember where it was or have a contact for the person who gave her the tour. He laughed and said she was lying because she took his number and told him she'd be back. This I find funny smh if the young miss wanted to be paid for the info, she should've just said so. Trust me some adventures can really cost a lot of money and time so I do understand if she asked for compensation, for the information but she didn't and simply lied. He even told us that she fainted and for that reason he was scared to take anyone else there. I begged and pleaded my cause with the young man until the other guy that was working with him felt sorry for me and said they'll take us to the waterfall as soon as they finish working. While we were waiting the young man told us about the ticks and said we should get a bengal roach spray. My friends bought it and sprayed themself but there was no way I was going to use that on my skin. I used my mosquito repellent, I always walk with a repellent even if it's just a trip to the beach. After about an hour the wait was finally over and we were off to chase waterfalls.

Check out my Youtube video for a little preview https://bit.ly/3ik1KCN

Views of the mountains and Tobacco farm.

Swift River

I didn't manage to get a lot of footage because after we crossed the river the first time, we went into the cow pen and I was trying to pay attention to where I was walking. I couldn't afford to get ticks on me.

The air was cool and most of the trail was wet, as a result of all the cascades on the hillside. Be prepared to slip a lot, slide a lot, get dirty and wet!! This hike is not conveniently tailored for human traffic. This is raw, untouched Jamaica, AT YOUR OWN RISK. One hour and thirty minutes of crawling, creeping hiking uphill, down hill, crossing the same river many times, swimming and climbing over huge boulders.

I couldn't resist taking a selfie

One of the many smaller waterfalls along the journey

Nature is so beautiful

Do you see what I see?

This was where the hike got rough. We had to cross the river, again this time it was moving very swiftly. Yes, swift like its name. From this point we had to climb over huge boulders and swim upstream. It also started drizzling so we had to start moving faster. I wasn't going to come all this way only to turn back. Plus the tour guide said it wouldn't be good if the rain caught us in the mountains.

Guava

Climbing over some of these rocks felt like a suicide mission but the crystal clear water and the lush hills boasting every shape and shade of green gave me a sense of well-being. I saw Guava trees decorating one section of the river so I helped myself, after washing them in the river I devoured them and continued the journey.

When I finally blessed my eyes upon the waterfall I was instantly in a daze. It was so unique, I've never seen a waterfall like it before, it was just sitting on the edge of Swift River looking all enticing. I was in for a treat, this was definitely an early birthday gift! There were not one but two waterfalls colliding with Swift River. The waterfalls and Swift River formed a junction. I WAS IN WATERFALLS HEAVEN!

Swift river waterfall (Big Spring)

The second waterfall Shane, my tour guide, called it Warisha. I asked Kyle if he knew the names of these waterfalls and he said the one on the right is coming from a place called Warsaw so that's probably the name of it. I however did some research and there is actually a community by the name Warsaw in Portland. Warisha from Warsaw lol maybe one day I will visit Warsaw and enquire some more about the waterfall. However the second waterfall he did not have any information on

Warisha (Warsaw falls)

Swift River (Big Spring Waterfall)

I tried to capture as many photos as possible before my camera battery died. Somehow the night before it was fully charged but as I started using it, it was dying smh it seemed it was left on the entire time. My phone battery was fully charged thankfully so I used it to video even though I have the latest iPhone I do not like phone camera photos. We didn't get to explore the area as it was getting late and looked like it was going to rain. So not long after we had to retrace our steps back to where we parked.

Full directions and google pin location will be in my Portland itinerary for purchasing, coming soon but if you can't wait send me a

email:

tifaneygidarisingh@gmail.com or send me a DM on Instagram Sugardrops2311

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Until next time, walk well!