Africa: To infinity and beyond

I ARRIVED on St Helena exactly 189 years to the day after Napoleon landed on the remote South Atlantic island as a prisoner of the British, following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Sometimes described as “one big volcanic pudding”, St Helena is one of the remotest spots on Earth – 1,200 miles from the nearest African mainland (Angola, to the west) and some 1,800 miles from the next land mass east, Brazil. There is no airport, and only one ship servicing the island.

Officially a British Dependent Territory, St Helena is in reality a colony, comprising a huge lumbering bureaucracy of expats fussing over the lives of the Saints. The island has 3,000 or so inhabitants.

It took me seven days to get there aboard the 7,000-ton Royal Mail Ship St Helena, one of the two remaining true passenger-cargo ships in the world. The ship carries 128 passengers, 65 crew and all of St Helena’s needs, apart from fuel. It also acts as the single link between the thousands of Saints working in the UK, Ascension Island and the Falklands, and their families back home.

The ship is managed and marketed by Andrew Weir Shipping. Until earlier this year it sailed from Portland to Ascension Island, St Helena and Cape Town, with calls at Tenerife and Vigo. While this trip took two weeks, it was always possible (and still is) to join the ship at Ascension by hitching a lift on an RAF Tristar from Brize Norton, or by flying to Cape Town and picking up the ship for a week’s cruise to the island.

However, in order to boost cargo traffic and provide a more frequent link to the island, the RMS is now based in Cape Town for an experimental period, sailing via Lüderitz and Walvis Bay in Namibia to St Helena, before taking a dog leg to Ascension and returning to the island a week later. It is now possible to fly to Walvis Bay via Cape Town or the Namibian capital Windhoek, join a three-day cruise, spend a week on the island and then return to Walvis Bay. The whole journey can now be done in 17 days, opening the trip up to a much wider market of younger travellers with high disposable incomes but limited time. A St Helena and Namibia package is also possible.

Andrew Weir’s captain Bill Langworthy said: “The new schedule offers around 200 standard options ranging in duration from eight to 46 days. We are also happy to work with clients who want a slightly different approach.”

The combination of St Helena and Namibia offers an unusual and interesting holiday experience. The contrast between the two is extraordinary – a small remote island and a vast empty country now linked by one ship. 

Despite its severe rocky exterior, St Helena’s interior is tropical, lush and varied. The island has no snakes, poisonous spiders or malaria to bother the visitor, the weather is tropical, with warm summers and mild temperate winters and everyone speaks English. There is very little crime and it took me a day or two to get out of the habit of locking my car – I ended up leaving the keys in the ignition.

While the coastal strip – including capital Jamestown – is semi-desert, the interior, with its narrow, winding roads consists of a series of lush ridges and valleys and tropical forests clinging to the mountain sides. One moment you are in the Lake District; the next a romantic tropical oasis.

Napoleon was, of course, St Helena’s most famous temporary inhabitant and his house at Longwood is now a well-preserved museum owned and run by the French Government. The house, his tomb and The Briars, where he stayed until Longwood was ready for him, are popular with tourists. There are varied and well-signposted walks; you can take a leisurely tour around the island on Colin Corker’s 1929 open top Chevrolet charabanc, or a walking tour with the knowledgeable Basil George.

For naturalists there is an abundance of flowers and birds including the endemic wire bird. Fishing and snorkelling are also offered and a round on the nine-hole St Helena Golf Course – possibly the most remote in the world – is an experience not to be missed.

A word, however, on accommodation. St Helena is new to tourism and its hotels and restaurants have a little to learn about modern expectations. Visitors may feel a bit dictated to when it comes to meal times and drinking hours.

The main hotel in Jamestown is The Consulate (£51 per person full-board) which has spacious en-suite rooms and a good dining room, although the owners are rigid about dining times. In fact only Anne’s Place, an informal restaurant near the harbour, will willingly serve meals ‘on spec’ without pre-ordering. There are a number of good bed and breakfasts costing around £20 a night – The Harlan, right above St James’ Harbour, served an excellent breakfast on a terrace perched high above the Atlantic.

However, the majority of visitors seemed happy because the island is beautiful, its hosts are friendly and fellow tourists thin on the ground.

St Helena is unforgettable and, with the right approach to sustainable development, will be one to watch.