IT’S SLOW GOOD
Carrie Anderson loves the locals in subtropical paradise Saint Helena
With his short legs and tough exterior, he’s arguably Saint Helena’s biggest celebrity. No, not the vertically challenged Napoleon, who died here in exile – I’m talking about 191-year-old living legend Jonathan the tortoise.
It’s quite the honour to meet the world’s oldest living land animal. He is a national treasure – and one of many gems on this remote, south Atlantic island.
We had arrived here two days earlier on Airlink’s inaugural midweek flight from Johannesburg, adding to its weekly Saturday service. The adventure starts immediately, landing on a dramatic clifftop runway before embarking on a 30-minute drive to capital Jamestown, the rocky, arid landscape giving way to a lush green valley as we wind around the mountain roads.
Saint Helena is as rich in history as it is in scenery. And it’s not long before we catch a glimpse of Briars Pavilion, where a certain emperor – the subject of Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster – spent his first few months after being deported here in 1815, and before moving into Longwood House.
Both are now French-owned, along with Napoleon’s tomb.
The island’s Honorary French Consul,
Michel Dancoisne-martineau, is caretaker of the sites and takes us on a tour of the properties. He explains how Longwood House has been restored to the state it was in back in 1821, the year of Napoleon’s death, and it is open to the public as a museum. Longwood House was chosen for Napoleon because of the high ground it sits upon, and a lack of woodland meant there were few places to hide if he ever tried to escape.
“Do you know more about Napoleon than Ridley Scott?” Michel asks with a grin.
He leads us around the house and gardens, talking us through the emperor’s
time there, before inviting us for lunch – a classic island dish of plo, or pilau – in a dining room where a sentry box used to be situated. Down the corridor are two bedrooms where visitors who want an even more immersive Napoleonic experience can stay ( from £350 a night).
Visitors can also enjoy a three-course meal with wine for five people for £500 or Constantia wine-tasting with canapes for £300.
We complete the hat-trick of Napoleonic sites by visiting his tomb a short drive away in the Sane Valley. It’s a little green slice of heaven surrounded by Norfolk pine and monkey puzzle trees, with distant rocky peaks in view.
To get closer to them, a 4x4 tour with Aaron Legg and his partner Julie, of Aaron’s Adventure Tours, takes us to the spectacular Horse Point and Bryan’s Rock viewpoint, near the imposing
Barn rock formation.
Then there’s Sandy Bay, a tropical-looking valley that collides with the spiky remains of one of the island’s two volcanoes, leading down to the black sands of Sandy Bay Beach.
Aaron and Julie talk us through life on the island, its history, geology and wildlife. Along the way we spot birds including the small but eye-catching Madagascar red fody and the endemic but critically endangered wirebird, named after its long, thin legs.
We see a team from the National Trust catch and ring adult wirebirds, and watch as the creatures are weighed and measured before being released back to protect their ground nests.
Nature and wildlife are key themes throughout our stay on Saint Helena, and “Saints” are clearly working hard to protect both.
This is evident at the Millennium Forest project, launched in 2000, which aims to restore forests of native plants and trees to the island, including scrubwood, boxwood, tea plants, ebony and hair grass. Visitors can even buy and plant a tree for £10.
I join guide Stedson Stroud MBE for a conservation walk along the Blue Point trail, one of the island’s easiest Post Box hike routes.
He rediscovered two endemic trees believed to be long extinct and, combining his passions for flora and fauna and walking, talks me through the plants we pass as we take in the views, even finding some trail snacks in the form of berries.
Hikers are spoilt for choice here with 21 Post Box Walks, varying from around a mile to 7.5 miles, and family-friendly to highly challenging. At the end of each one you’ll find a “post box” – it might be a wooden box or a plastic tube with a sign on it – containing a visitors’ book plus a stamp you can use as a souvenir.
Saint Helena has an equally rich marine life. We head out with Craig Yon from Dive St Helena, who tells us that visiting divers have rated the island’s Long Ledge dive site as one of the world’s top 10. It’s perhaps no surprise then that Blue Planet III will be filming later this year, hoping to capture one of the most well-known marine animals found here – the whale shark.
We arrive a little too early in the season to spot any but are
Jonathan the tortoise is one of many gems on this spectacular island
treated to an acrobatic display by bottlenose dolphins.
We also enjoy a snorkel among the fish in the warm waters around the wreck of the SS Papanui, a New Zealand passenger cargo ship that caught fire and was run aground in 1911 to save those onboard.
Speaking of fires, if you’re keen to get your lungs burning then look no further than Jacob’s Ladder in Jamestown – a set of 699 steps rising 600ft.
A cable railway built in 1829, it was originally used to transport soil and plant-based rubbish to farmers. See if you can beat the fastest-recorded ascent of five minutes 16.78 seconds, set by Scotsman Graham Doig in 2013, and grab a certificate (£5) at the museum.
It’s hard to pick a highlight on Saint Helena but a personal one is an e-bike tour of the island with Martin Henry, of E-connect tours.
Whether you have Tour de France-level fitness or your home exercise bike has become a laundry rack, it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the scenery while negotiating the mountain roads with minimal effort.
While Saint Helena has plenty to offer the adventurer, it would be remiss not to mention its people. Friendly and welcoming wherever we go, this is a place where everyone has time to stop for a chat.
And with the island only getting a stable connection to the internet via a submarine cable in October, you won’t find locals wandering around with their noses buried in smartphones just yet.
Visiting Jonathan the tortoise and his slightly younger pals at Plantation House (the antiquesfilled home of the governor, and well worth a visit), it makes me wonder if this is partly why he is so iconic – and has reached such a ripe old age.
Maybe we all need to take a lettuce leaf out of Jonathan’s book… come to Saint Helena, slow down and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
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We complete a hat-trick of Napoleonic sites by visiting his tomb