St Helena
This island is located slap bang in the Middle of the Atlantic ocean half way between africa and south america. The closest other inhabited island is ascension about 700 miles away , and that’s a military base. Then next closed city would be Walvis Bay in South West Africa or Namibia. There is a ship that goes to the island once a month called the Mail Ship RMS St Helena and that leaves from Cape Town.
Some interesting Facts about the island - Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled and died on this island.
Galileo and Darwin and Captain Blithe have all been on the island. If you find the mango tree in the James Town gardens , if you eat that mango it was the same tree that Captain Blithe Planted all those years ago.
If you look at many of the fence posts and walls as well as door stoppers around James Town , you will notice that they are Canon Balls.
The Oldest Resident on the island is 124 Years old , a Madagascar Giant Tortoise called Johnathan.
Locals on the island are called Saints
If you listen to the radio station , The Song Stair Way to Heaven is played at least twice a day , all in sympathy for the odd tourist to tries to Walk up Jacobs 699 Stairs . The stairs are taller than normal stairs , and curve in an arc to conform to the gradient of the side of the Cliff.
I have climbed the stairs 5 times , one for each time i visited the island.
As a tourist a special insurance must be taken in case you die on the island and have to be shipped back frozen to Cape Town. Insurance cove .
Not many of the many Cars ( Strangely enough , latest models and makes ) have been out of Third Gear , The roads are short switch backs .
If you visit the island , everyone knows and will greet you accordingly and be very friendly. They are not going to harm you , its just how the Saints are. So be nice and friendly back.
There are a few people who have been born on the island and have never stepped off the island to this day.
The island used to be covered in thick forests , now been replanted and starting to grow.
There is no Harbour , your ship has to anchor just outside Jamestown and then you ferry to shore on a smaller boat. Sometimes when there is a swell , you have to grab hold of ropes and swing onto the shore as the boat is picked up and thrown around by the waves.
There are no cows on the island , so no fresh milk . Long life milk
At its peek a few years ago there was about 300 to 600 Tourists A YEAR visiting the island , many of those visiting people where and still are yachts people ( Yotties ) who are making the Crossing and have sailed from Cape Town , The island is a half way stop , its about 14 days sail from Cape Town then about 12 days to Fortaleza Brazil ( Entrance to the Amazon )
The indian Mynas that one sees on the island are invasive species and were introduced by farmers to help get rid of the ticks that the cows had , that was before the cows were all eaten and now they Mynhas are noisy nuisances…
There is a whole generation of working class migrant Saints who work on Cruise ships , or in England or Cape Town , the older folk stay on the island and when the kids leave school they work over seas
There are about 2000 permanent residents on the island.
There is hardly any flat land on the island , It mainly steep hills and gorges. But there is a flat area where the new airport was built.
The new airport was both a success and a disaster , there are terrible cross winds that make comercial lights very treacherous when landing and taking off. And if a plane comes to the island it cannot be diverted to another airport , it has to land…
Only one town on the island , called JamesTown
The island is a British Sovereign state , an independent colony so to speak.
Cetshwayo , Sharka zulus rival was exiled to this island with many Boer prisoners of war. The british used the island as a prison colony.
Strangely enough the French have strong interests in this island and have invested and done most of the cliff support structures around the Cliffs of James Town.
Rocks would roll down the cliffs on either side of Jamestown and break and demolish buildings. The Baptist church lost a whole section of wall.
If arrested for drunken behaviour on the island the police will sometimes buy you breakfast…
Internet is available on the island but e-mails are stored and released once a day and received once a day to the Satellites above. So e-mails take 24 hours to reach their destination …
All the cats on the island are descendants of old ship cats on the square riggers.
There are two newspaper on the island . The St Helena Herald and the St Helena times. Both are released once a week and its so awesome to get back copies and read the crime report for the week. Mrs Dobson was asked to turnher music down as Mrs Henderson could not get her afternoon nap. Yep that’s the crime on the island.
