Date: Jan 28, 2007 5:10 PM
Subject: Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
JAMESTOWN, ST. HELENA, U.K.
We arrived here at about 8:30 this morning. There are no docks large enough for our ship so we have to tender in using the ships tenders/lifeboats. First it had to be checked if we could tender in at all. There were large swells coming in.Swells are a little different then waves. They are caused by weather or other disturbance, some distance away. While at sea they are hardly noticed. Near shore they are almost like waves. They are less sharp but do cause the water to surge up and down.
We could clearly see huge splashes as they hit the rocks onshore. It meant that the tenders would rock and move up and down quite a bit when loading and unloading at the ship and especially at the shore. After some time it was decided we could tender in. Local officials took very little time to clear us, but now we have no donuts left.That’s all they really do, you know. They come aboard and eat everything in sight. In some places they get really piggy. Bunches
in uniforms or suits don’t just eat up all the donuts, they come to the dining rooms and slop down all the food they can stuff into their faces. Then leave with bags and bags full of booze and food.I thought this was going to be another one of those nothing islands no one had heard of. Just another place with nothing special like many, many other islands I have seen. We would just be stopping to separate days at sea, like some of the islands off Central America. But no. This one was really something to see.
From the ship it looks like one big brown barren rock, full of very sharp ridges and going straight up and down. The straight up and down part is correct. Once ashore this rock has only two real directions to travel. Up or down. We found no really flat areas. There is no airport but they expect one by 2010.
Getting to the island was a little dangerous. As expected, the tenders would really swing up and down. Maybe, as much as four of five feet, up then down. It was very difficult getting some of the older passengers off. They were pretty much lifting them on and off, one at a time.
Once ashore we climbed aboard small busses and vans. We were on a small bus which held about 20 people on padded benches. There was enough leg room but no luxury vehicles, these. None had air conditioning or fancy upholstery. Just bare bones. Ours was a small noisy Diesel, as were all like this one. They did have the power to haul us up the always steep hills.
Once above the shore level we could see many green and beautiful hills and valleys. The farming was very sparse at best. There were houses spread around the island and some new ones being built, but they too were sparse. Maybe sparse is all that grew here? We did see dairy cows and Black Angus beef cattle. All were up and down sides of hills. When we did get up near the top of the island there were outstanding views of this very mountainous island. It was these beautiful and breathtaking views that mostly made the stop very worthwhile.
The roads were also breathtaking. They were all paved but rough. They were almost all about one and a quarter car widths wide. They ran right up to the edge of sharp cliffs and drop offs and had many switchbacks. They did have rock curbs at the very edges. Bobbi said that made them a little less scary then those in Colorado which had none. To make matters even worse, this was a U.K. possession and everyone drove on the wrong side of the road.
We made a few stops for pictures from some great lookouts. Our first point of interest was a two mile walk to Napoleon’s original grave. He was later moved to Paris. You had to walk steeply down a grassy trail. It was pretty but long. The biggest problem was the walk back. It was still pretty but steeply up hill. I did it very wisely. I sent Bobbi to take pictures. Who wants to march up and down a mountain to see a spot where no one now resided? Most never made it to the end before turning back. Bobbi says she did. She did cvetch a lot so maybe she really did. Okay, now I’ve seen the pictures. She has pictures of the little memorial. She must have really walked all the way and back. Or would she have given her camera to someone and asked them to take pictures? Hmmm. Naaaaaaaaa.
Another stop was to take a walk in an open field to see a couple of huge tortoises at the governors mansion. They were walking around quite a bit for turtles and they were very use to people. They let people pet their heads. Wow is this exciting or what? How many tortoises have I seen in zoos. I really needed this, but I suppose there weren’t many attractions on this island and they needed some place to call a point of interest.
We also stopped at what was supposed to be the house where the dead guy that didn’t live here anymore did live when he was alive and living here. Of course the house was not like it originally was. A billiards room was added to where the front of house where the original entrance was or not. Maybe it wasn’t even really his house. Who cares? It stunk from mold and mildew and from stuffing far too many people into a hot un air conditioned old relic.
On the way back we went through Jamestown. It is Sunday so nothing was open. They did open the post office so many were stopping to mail letters that would say ST. HELENA. More whoopee. Just what I wanted to do. I could understand sending letters postmarked from Hell, as we did in Grand Cayman. But ST. HELENA? I don’t think so. At my request or make it my insistence, we continued on to the dock. After all, it was now about 2:00 PM. Two hours past lunch time. I needed to get back to the ship.
As I said, it had been a good day and this place is well worth seeing, once. Another thing we noticed was how clean everything was. Not a piece of paper laying anywhere around the island. There were public washrooms strategically placed around the island. Every one we entered was spotless. The buildings were clean. Even the well worn vehicles we rode in were well cleaned.
We left at about 3:30 PM.
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