So I'm opting for the next best thing - surfing Google Earth. My friend Helen recently left for a two month archaeological dig on St Helena in the South Atlantic, and it's given me really itchy feet. I'm also reading a book at the moment about a guy who travels to the remaining territories in the British Empire - pretty much entirely tiny, remote, inaccessible rocks such as Tristan da Cuhna, Pitcairn Island, Diego Garcia and of, course, the Falklands.It makes me want to go more and more. You can keep yer Ibiza and yer Thailand - give me an archipelago 1000 miles from the nearest inhabitants anyday.
The pic is of Jamestown, the capital of St Helena. I've misappropriated it from Google earth; it's taken by a guy called Peter Balwin - a photographer who has had the very great fortune to visit St Helena, Tristan, Ascension Island, Gower Island and all the other most remote parts of the Atlantic. One day, one day.....
Too bad you can't go. I have been twice. My wife is from Saint Helena. Your friend working on the Boer war graves?
ReplyDeleteGuy
she's certainly out there digging up some war graves - imagine they're the same ones! All to do with the airport construction. Oh to make it out there prior to it being built...
ReplyDeleteHi Tattie & Guy
ReplyDeleteShe's working on the graves of first generation slaves that were buried in Rupert's Valley after trade ships were captured during the British campaign to abolish the slave trade, much of which was totally dependant on St Helena's strategic positioning in the mid-South Atlantic.
My wife (Christine nee Newman) is also from St Helena and we returned here in 2006 to settle with our young family. St Helena can best be described as the planet's "Garden of Eden" and I must admit it is the only place I have ever truly felt "at home".
I sincerely hope that you do get the opportunity to visit one day soon, and especially before the airport comes ~ travelling on the RMS St Helena is half the experience of visiting the Island ~ do look me up if you do.
In the meantime, you can always visit "virtually" via the St Helena Online Web Portal where I also moderate.
All the best
Rob
Hi Rob - thanks for the tip - will definitely check out the portal. Thanks also for filling me in on the background to Helen's trip. All this makes me even more keen to make it over. It surely says something that both you and Guy stumbled across my blog entry - fate perhaps?! Or maybe I'm getting a bit overly romantic about the whole thing. My girlfriend is up for leaving tomorrow if we could - I suggested building a raft out of washing up bottles and setting off down the Thames, but it hindsight a bit more planning might be in order.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, if you do happen to meet any of the archeological team - in particular a very smiley Ayr lass - tell her Tony and the rest of the gang in London say hi and can't wait for her to get back...
Hi Tony
ReplyDeleteI do know a few of the guys and girls working on the dig, so will keep my eye out for Helen and pass the message on if I happen to meet her.
All the best
Rob
You're a legend, thanks! Enjoy your paradise until i make it over... (This message sent from an office block in the east end of london - jealous?). All the best. T.
ReplyDeleteBumped into Paula last night, who is working on the dig with Helen but has been here pretty well since it started (plus her step-mother is also a Saint) and whom I got to know socially a couple of months back, anyway, she said that she would pass on the message to Helen and also introduce me to her if she gets the chance.
ReplyDeleteApparently they are working a 6 day week at the moment, just trying to get through it all in time, but Paula did say that they are planning on an evening out tomorrow if I fancied going for a drink after work, so who knows...
Not in the slightest bit jealous, having traded in our view of the twin stacks at the Mars Bar factory in Slough from our 3-bed mid-terraced house in Windsor for an Ocean view from our 5-bed detached bungalow sat on a quarter of an acre of land ~ there's really no comparison, is there...?
All the best
Rob
PS Sorry if that sounds as if I'm rubbing salt into an open wound, it's really not my intention to do so, just trying to create even more of a desire for you to visit the Island... :) Perhaps next year your Blogg might read "I managed to make up for last year by visiting a true slice of Paradise!"
Hi Tony
ReplyDeleteFinally met Helen last night, lovely lass that she is, out with her dig buddies at Bayside.
She was quite excited to hear that you had posted up a blogg about her being here and that I had found it on the net, so said that she'd look it up and post something too.
All the best
Rob
hey Rob - that's brilliant! I feels so good to be using the internet for something useful for a change - am sure Helen was surprised when she found out! She's a great girl for sure, am sure she's bringing a little extra sunshine to your neck of the woods....
ReplyDeleteand don't worry about rubbing any salt in any wounds - am winding myself up something rotten as it is and as you say, the more the fires can be stoked, the more likely I am to do something about it (as Helen will testify I am better at dreaming than acting). She did introduce me to the world at large when I went to New Zealand with her in 2001 - the compensation for my "well-planned in every aspect except saving the money" abandoned round the world trip, which was to take in the Falklands, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and the Faroes amongst others. There's just something about islands....
Have been reading an excellent book by Simon Winchester called Outposts which is further increasing my desire to get on the boat - highly recommended, although whether you as a resident would agree with his view of St Helena is obviously subjective. He's extremely complimentary, however.
Take care, am glad that the world is still big enough to allow for adventure, but connected enough to allow us to now have a mutual acquaintance in common! (Must admit that I am, of course, horribly disappointed that you have the internet over there now!!)
Hi Tony
ReplyDeleteSurprised? An understatement! Particularly with a total stranger walking up to her, saying hello, and adding that I'd been talking to her old flatmate in London via the internet...
The Falklands? Yes, another place to pay a visit although, having lived and worked there for 6 years, my personal view is that it's not as beautiful as St Helena.
The RMS St Helena? A MUST! Do come before the airport does and the RMS is decommissioned. Travelling on the RMS is the start of the adventure, which anyone who has sailed on the Island's ship will probably tell you. Once on board youn are part way here, as the crew are predominantly "Saint" and the ambience on the ship is therefore similarly so.
My recommendation?
If you really want to visit the Falklands too, then look on the RMS St Helena site for a package that would take you from the UK to Ascension, down to the Falklands, back to Ascension, then on to St Helena, and finally off to Namibia or South Africa before flying back to the UK.
It would probably be quite expensive mind, but then it would be a "lifetime" experience...
All the best
Rob
PS Have you managed to visit the Island "virtually" at www.sthelenaonline.com yet?
te he....hello everyone! just wanteed to say hello, and that i was indeed, very suprised to get a message from london in the bayside last friday! just a quick message to say that, tony, you should definately try and come over some time soon...its absolutely beautiful and the people are so friendly! i was actually worried about the rms more than anything else, but you get strangely adicted to deck games and pre-dinner quizzes. the excavation is going really well...and we have retrieved some unique evidence that we weren't expecting at all (grave goods etc). having an amazing time....and time is going far too quickly!
ReplyDelete