Jamestown, St. Helena / Thu Mar 21

Today we're anchored off Jamestown, St. Helena which is a small (10 miles x 6 miles), volcanic island that's part of the British Overseas Territory which includes Ascension (more about that in the next post) and Tristan da Cunha islands.

St. Helena is located approximately 1,100 miles directly west of Luanda, Angola, Africa and about 2,000 miles east of Brazil - basically in the middle of nowhere. Population is 4,500. The island is famous because it's the place of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile and death.

When our ship's Captain came on the PA system the other day, he described these islands and what they had to offer. He ended his comments by hoping that we enjoyed our time on these two rocks in the middle of the ocean! LOL!

We truly enjoyed our time today! We went on a ship tour that took us around most of this scenic island. Again, the pictures cannot convey the landscape's beauty.

Jamestown is wedged between two very high peaks. We drove around most of the island on curvy roads with the rock walls on one side and a severe drop on the other.

Our first stop was at Napolean's tomb. Napoleon was exiled here from 1815 until his death in 1821. The tomb is empty now because he was buried here then exhumed in 1840 and brought back to France. The empty tomb is in a very pastoral, peaceful spot.

We then went to Longwood House which was Napolean's residence during his exile on this island.

Our driver then took us to a place where we could see the airport's landing strip in the distance. The construction of the runway was finished in 2015 and the airport opened in 2016. Food and supplies are flown in from Cape Town every 3 1/2 weeks. There are two commercial flights each week from Cape Town. Earlier in the week there were only 8 people who flew in on a plane with 70 seats. One of them was a comedian who came on the ship as an entertainer.

On the way to our next stop we passed a golf course. The condition of the course was dubious but there were a couple of people playing and they didn't seem to mind the goat that was on the course!

The club house

Our next stop was the Plantation House which is where the governor lives. Perhaps the more famous resident is Jonathan the tortoise who is about 187 years old - the oldest land vertebra in the world.

After seeing Jonathan we headed back toward town. We stopped at Ladder Hill Fort which is at the top of Jacob's Ladder. The ladder is all that remains of a two car inclined plane which was built there in 1829 to carry cargo between Jamestown and the fort. It's incredibly steep - 924 feet long with 699 steps. There's a Red Cross station at the top for those who have a problem with the walk up!

We passed on climbing the stairs and headed into town to look around. There are a few shops, a hotel and the Castle which are government offices located in a former fort called the Castle.