ST HELENA, SOUTH ATLANTIC
6 December 2006- Wednesday
A visit to St. Helena
What a great day! Started out slow as we have been at sea for 2 full days and we are not due to arrive at James Bay to anchor for visit to the Island in St Helena until noon. The program that they put in your room every evening said that the tour of the island would begin at 1 pm. Awake in anticipation at 6 am and eating breakfast at 7. A short stroll on deck under mostly cloudy sky and can see rain several miles away, but there are also patches of blue sky. Back to the cabin to re-read the tour book about the island to be sure I don't miss anything (I did, but it's always a reason to come back). About 10 am look at the tv channel that shows the ship's position and find we are 34 miles from St Helena, but the bridge camera doesn't show anything on the horizon (it's a low grade black and white image). I decide to go up on deck and lo and behold there's the island in front of us. I stayed in my great spot in front of the ship until we dropped anchor 2 hours later. ( I may regret that because I didn't put on my sun block and we are 15 degrees below the equator). As we came around the north side of the island noticed there was a ship at anchor in James Bay. No, it didn't have antennae- it was the Royal Mail Ship St Helena out of Londaon. It stops at St Helena once a month to resupply the island and take off the mail- then it goes up to Ascension Island to rotate the Saint workers and then it comes back to St Helena and then to CapeTown. Famished, so wolfed down lunch and was 15 minutes early for the excursion which left right after I got there- found Jane in the crowd so we did our mini-van tour together. Our driver, Jeffrey, was a Saint (that's what the natives call themselves) and was a dark skinned man with a delightful English accent. He says he's a jack-of-all-trades when he's rarely driving tourists. Lamented that there is a lot of work on the island but the population of 7 thousand is down by 2000 young people who have left the island for better jobs in England, South Africa, etc.
St Helena is the top of a mountain in the middle of the South Atlantic and only 3% is above water. It's surrounded by sheer 2-3000 feet cliffs and the only entrance into the interior is from the bay that leads down to Jamestown. There is no coral reef to protect the shore and it looks inhospitable- I guess that's why the British decided to exile Napoleon to this island. We have to land by ship's tenders because there is no port. We go 100 at a time and are ushered into minibus, then mini school bus, then minivan and finally into taxis to tour the island. Well, first impressions are deceiving- the only street leads uphill and we head into the interior on narrow but well paved roads- I'm next to driver and Jane's got the door so I can take pictures through the windshield. The interior of the island is lush green and has a pine forest that was planted to provide spars for sailing ships which stopped coming when the Suez Canal was opened in 1867. But when Napoleon arrived at his prison in 1815 the bay was full of East India (British company) ships. He spent 1 night in town, and 2 months at a house outside of town called the Briars while his residence at Longwood was being prepared. He was allowed to have his own staff of followers and died about 6 years later- probably of arsenic poisoning by either the British, one of his aides or on orders of the new king of France. His autopsy report says he died of a perforated stomach ulcer secondary to cancer. (They showed a great French movie last night that I never heard of before- Monsieur N. that gave another scenario)
First stop was Napolean's gravesite which is a 15 minute downhill walk to a picket iron fence surrounding a slab of concrete. Napoleon's body isn't here- The French were allowed to take him back to Paris in 1840 where his Tomb is in the chapel of Les Invalides, a hospital built for French veterans. The French bought and maintain his gravesite as well as Longwood House which was his prison. The 20 minute walk back up was invigorating to say the least. Next, a lightening tour of Longwood. Wish I had time to look at all the stuff, but we are trying to get back to town before the shops, post office, etc close at 4. Then Sandy Bay for the scenery, other scenic spots and then back to the top of Jacob's Ladder- a staircase of 699 steps from Jamestown up to a settlement called Half Tree Hollow. Some of the healthier tourists walk down- I take the minivan down a narrow, paved, well maintained mountain road which drops us at the post office at 4:15, but they are keeping the post office open for the tourists. Send 10 postcards which may be illegible as I was pressed for time. Photographed the interesting things on the way to the wharf and was the last one on a 5:30 pm tender. What did I miss? the new museum of the Island near the wharf.
Shower, dinner at 6:15, a lot of the conversation about the fact that 4 of us 7 are Trivia buffs. Peach flambe dessert. and then on the front deck where I started out this am and watched them haul in the anchor. It's really dark when they turn off the lights, blow the ship's horn 3 times, and leave the lights of St Helena behind under a star filled sky.
What a great day!
A visit to St. Helena
What a great day! Started out slow as we have been at sea for 2 full days and we are not due to arrive at James Bay to anchor for visit to the Island in St Helena until noon. The program that they put in your room every evening said that the tour of the island would begin at 1 pm. Awake in anticipation at 6 am and eating breakfast at 7. A short stroll on deck under mostly cloudy sky and can see rain several miles away, but there are also patches of blue sky. Back to the cabin to re-read the tour book about the island to be sure I don't miss anything (I did, but it's always a reason to come back). About 10 am look at the tv channel that shows the ship's position and find we are 34 miles from St Helena, but the bridge camera doesn't show anything on the horizon (it's a low grade black and white image). I decide to go up on deck and lo and behold there's the island in front of us. I stayed in my great spot in front of the ship until we dropped anchor 2 hours later. ( I may regret that because I didn't put on my sun block and we are 15 degrees below the equator). As we came around the north side of the island noticed there was a ship at anchor in James Bay. No, it didn't have antennae- it was the Royal Mail Ship St Helena out of Londaon. It stops at St Helena once a month to resupply the island and take off the mail- then it goes up to Ascension Island to rotate the Saint workers and then it comes back to St Helena and then to CapeTown. Famished, so wolfed down lunch and was 15 minutes early for the excursion which left right after I got there- found Jane in the crowd so we did our mini-van tour together. Our driver, Jeffrey, was a Saint (that's what the natives call themselves) and was a dark skinned man with a delightful English accent. He says he's a jack-of-all-trades when he's rarely driving tourists. Lamented that there is a lot of work on the island but the population of 7 thousand is down by 2000 young people who have left the island for better jobs in England, South Africa, etc.
St Helena is the top of a mountain in the middle of the South Atlantic and only 3% is above water. It's surrounded by sheer 2-3000 feet cliffs and the only entrance into the interior is from the bay that leads down to Jamestown. There is no coral reef to protect the shore and it looks inhospitable- I guess that's why the British decided to exile Napoleon to this island. We have to land by ship's tenders because there is no port. We go 100 at a time and are ushered into minibus, then mini school bus, then minivan and finally into taxis to tour the island. Well, first impressions are deceiving- the only street leads uphill and we head into the interior on narrow but well paved roads- I'm next to driver and Jane's got the door so I can take pictures through the windshield. The interior of the island is lush green and has a pine forest that was planted to provide spars for sailing ships which stopped coming when the Suez Canal was opened in 1867. But when Napoleon arrived at his prison in 1815 the bay was full of East India (British company) ships. He spent 1 night in town, and 2 months at a house outside of town called the Briars while his residence at Longwood was being prepared. He was allowed to have his own staff of followers and died about 6 years later- probably of arsenic poisoning by either the British, one of his aides or on orders of the new king of France. His autopsy report says he died of a perforated stomach ulcer secondary to cancer. (They showed a great French movie last night that I never heard of before- Monsieur N. that gave another scenario)
First stop was Napolean's gravesite which is a 15 minute downhill walk to a picket iron fence surrounding a slab of concrete. Napoleon's body isn't here- The French were allowed to take him back to Paris in 1840 where his Tomb is in the chapel of Les Invalides, a hospital built for French veterans. The French bought and maintain his gravesite as well as Longwood House which was his prison. The 20 minute walk back up was invigorating to say the least. Next, a lightening tour of Longwood. Wish I had time to look at all the stuff, but we are trying to get back to town before the shops, post office, etc close at 4. Then Sandy Bay for the scenery, other scenic spots and then back to the top of Jacob's Ladder- a staircase of 699 steps from Jamestown up to a settlement called Half Tree Hollow. Some of the healthier tourists walk down- I take the minivan down a narrow, paved, well maintained mountain road which drops us at the post office at 4:15, but they are keeping the post office open for the tourists. Send 10 postcards which may be illegible as I was pressed for time. Photographed the interesting things on the way to the wharf and was the last one on a 5:30 pm tender. What did I miss? the new museum of the Island near the wharf.
Shower, dinner at 6:15, a lot of the conversation about the fact that 4 of us 7 are Trivia buffs. Peach flambe dessert. and then on the front deck where I started out this am and watched them haul in the anchor. It's really dark when they turn off the lights, blow the ship's horn 3 times, and leave the lights of St Helena behind under a star filled sky.
What a great day!
posted by DT at 7:10 AM
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