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Another 5 am start, bags packed for the trek back to Montego Bay. If we have any chance for the Quail-Dove, we've got to arrive at dawn wherever it's hiding. Two hours west we stop in the central intersection of Stewart Town, unload the breakfast supplies, and avail of the local bar's front patio. A Jamaican Crow sits nearby; another endemic down. Then what turns into a 3.2 mile hike takes us searching for the Dove.
Cockpit Country is a swath through the island's interior full of sinkholes. The steep hillsides rise up around them creating hollows. Considered the harshest landscape on the island, it was a holdout for the Maroons. Now it has the highest biodiversity on the island. The walk isn't easy. Pocked and moss-covered limestone make it slow-going searching for piles of leaves for foothold. Ferns abound. In spite of our two-hour effort, we never see the Quail-Dove. Towards the end Dwayne actually saw one. They are supposed to sit motionless; this one however vanished by the time we all got to the spot.
Giving up, we headed to Father Bull's on the water in Salt March (town) for another jerk chicken lunch. The water's various hues of blue looked so inviting. On through Montego Bay, mid- afternoon traffic at a standstill, eventually visiting the Rockland Bird Sanctuary where Streamertails and Grassquits can sit on your finger while drinking sugar water.
Our final dinner was back at the Mynt Retreat in their garden by candlelight and strings of lights. Good rum punch, a whole fish in brown sauce (spicy) with okra/peppers/carrot mixture. A bit cooler tonight, but such comfortable weather.
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