Saturday
Dear Elsie
Today was the day I spent the morning out and about and the early afternoon I used Flight Radar to watch a plane creep over the ocean towards the island Julian and I will be visiting in two weeks time. God willing we will be on the plane and following the route I watched today. First! Where is Saint Helena Island compared to Africa and South America? Here:
It’s really the middle of nowhere. When they show it on a map, they usually group it together with other remote islands. St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. Car Hill is the upper pin and that’s Ascension Island which is closest to St Helena – a mere 1295km away.
Tristan da Cunha is south by quite some distance, so why they lump them all in one spot in the South Atlantic, I don’t know.
Anyway, to get to Saint Helena you need to fly to Johannesburg. From there you get on an Airlink flight and fly to Saint Helena but there is a technical stop to refuel at Walvis Bay. Then off you go…it takes 3 hours to fly from Walvis to Saint Helena.
I followed the plane today…
Gearing up to land…
And it’s landed.
This upcoming journey on 15th April has been consuming my thoughts and dreams. The book I’ve been reading was written before the airport was built. That’s when the ship docked at Jamestown. It was only when I woke in the middle of last night that I remembered we are flying in, so won’t be arriving in Jamestown. I then wondered where the airport is in relation to Jamestown. I googled it to find out. It was 2am, mind you. At this early morning hour I discovered, we will be staying about 16km from the airport which doesn’t sound bad, except Mike is not with us. I fell asleep again around 3am and dreamt that Mike had flown in with me and disembarked. For some reason, in my dream, Julian was on another plane coming behind the one I was on. Mike boarded that one and headed back to South Africa. When I woke up just after 6am I was very cross with my husband for not wanting to join us. We will get lost. Mike has assured me he will download as many maps of Saint Helena as possible. Apparently it is difficult to get lost on the island, but I disagree. Take a look at this for example…
Based on these obscure directions, I don’t know if we will get to Pear Tree Farm! Without Mike we may get very lost, so I have spent some time this afternoon printing hard copies of directions and have put them in a flip file. I think we will also be able to pick up maps in Jamestown. We want to drive to some of the forts, hike some of the mountains and visit the museums and graveyards. Plantation House (which I thought was in Jamestown) is on the way to Richard’s Travel Lodge which is close to the Heart Shaped Waterfall. We could combine those three things on Tuesday which is the only day Plantation House is open, I believe. It’s also home to Jonathan, the world’s oldest tortoise. Let’s hope he’s still alive.
So Mike stays behind because he doesn’t want to come. He just doesn’t. He can’t manufacture a desire to visit one of the remotest places on the planet, but he is fine with me and Julian going. We arrive to no internet. None at the airport. None at the Airbnb. We hope we can get SIM cards in Jamestown. But the prognosis is not good for internet for the week.
We’ll see what happens, but I’ve made good progress today and have a flip file ready for the trip.
Psalm 90:12
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂