It’s a movie set. A museum. The World’s Most Remote Theme Park. An entire working Georgian era town, right here in 2010. As remote a place as you’ll find, with a beautiful interior and gorgeous, high views of a rocky coastline surrounded by an endless sea, yet where most of the people live in a bare, rocky, inhospitable wedge that affords the only place to come ashore.
An island with more cars than people. Where they may not have cell phone service, but you can buy Penn State brand Original Sea Salted Giant pretzels “made from an authentic American recipe.”
Where the hotel literature tells us, “Access to the island is limited to the number of calls made by the RMS St. Helena. As a result the hotel and guest related services on its own are not sustainable, and the hotel relies on the public bar for its survival.
“Unfortunately, this public service can at times be a bit uncomfortable for reidents in terms of activity and result in noise, especially when the ship is in port and on the weekends. We sincerely apologize for this….”
The Consulate Hotel will wash and iron not only your shirts,
trousers, briefs, socks and so on, but also, for 2 pounds 85, your house coat
or your combat suit.
Welcome to St. Helena (“Saint He LEE na”) Island, South Atlantic Ocean.
St. Helena happens to perch right on the fringe of the BBC’s satellite footprint, so since embarkation onto the RMS St. Helena at Walvis Bay, Namibia on Saturday (it’s Thursday late afternoon), for five entire days, we’re out of touch with the world. The gentleman in the TV lounge told us we might come around in the morning, when BBC World newscasts seem to come in better, but he doesn’t bother. You live this far from the rest of the world long enough, he says, you just don’t care.
A few low-rez photos to share, so we’ve bought an hour of internet to post a few things. We board the RMS St. Helena again tomorrow for a further 48 hours at sea. Next stop Monday morning, Ascension Island. I'll try to have more worked up by then. Cheers for now.
Jamestown, lower center.
Jamestown.
City Center.
Jacob's ladder, built to supply the fort at the top of the hill.
The Post Office.
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