Sunday
Dear Elsie
Yesterday after I posted the blog I was able to figure out why I couldn’t get the photos transferred. The little storage card had partially come out of my laptop, so after that got put properly back in and Mike had sent me clear instructions, I was back in business, so today I can catch up. I’ll probably use a stack of my precious 112 megs I have left, but this will be a good test.
Here are the flight and arrival photos I was keen for you to see….Walvis Bay refuelling
Above the sea…
Dramatic arrival at St. Helena
Last night in the cool of the day, Julian and I took a walk up up up the hill to Napoleon’s grave. The gate was locked but now we know where to go possibly tomorrow. Here are a few photos from that walk..
Sunset was quite spectacular… the display of stars from this speck in the ocean are quite remarkable. No light pollution here…
This morning we woke early and had a bite to eat before driving down to Jamestown. This is our rental car by the way.
While it looks quite spiffy from the outside, it has seen better days on the inside. Anyway, it suits our purpose & Julian drove successfully down the steep steep hill with hairpin bends at regular intervals. Fortunately it was about 7.30am and there was not too much traffic about. Funny story: don’t phone the Saint Helena police but Julian left his driver’s licence behind. He realised as we were checking in at Johannesburg. Fortunately, I have mine. When I took control of the rental car (Julian was busy getting his SIM card), I mentioned to Patrick Julian had forgotten his driver’s licence. Patrick said it was fine as long as he knew when it was issued. I remember going with Julian to the Fish Hoek licensing department some years ago so guessed it was about 2021. I put that date in. It was wrong. It was 2019, in fact, but Patrick had no qualms about this and off we set, Julian driving with no licence, hoping we won’t be stopped. Oh yes, while on the topic of the car, to return it, we leave it at the airport on Saturday, unlocked and the keys safely stored on the sunvisor. Crime is not an issue in these parts.
On our way down to Jamestown, the first thing I did was direct Julian the wrong way. But if you keep going down, all roads lead to the coast and as we neared it, I realised it was on the side where the author of Remote had her house. I directed Julian up the Maldivia road and sure enough, we found Villa le Breton. We spent a few minutes looking at the house and recalling the facts she wrote about it. It was a good tick off our to-do list. Her gate, the house and gardens…
Then it was into Jamestown central where we parked outside the Saint Helena bank and strolled through the town centre. This included a walk through Castle Gardens…
We eventually arrived at the sea front…looking each direction…
There is coffee shop nearby and we had coffee.
From there we looked at the ‘Castle’ which is the seat of power in Saint Helena. An old building to be sure, but not very big.
Across the square is the oldest church in the Southern Hemisphere, St James – an Anglican church…
Next to it is the pretty Saint Helena prison…
At 9.30am sharp we were settled inside the church for their Sunday service. As we walked in, we were joined by a lady I recognised from the flight yesterday and she asked if she could sit with us. Only too happy for her to do so, she introduced herself as Jane and said she was visiting StH for the first time as her late husband had ancestors who came from the island.
After church, we went back to her little rental apartment in town and had coffee with her. We exchanged numbers and hope to meet her in the next couple of days for a meal.
The famous Jacobs Ladder is very close to the central square and to our disappointment it is still closed. Possibly the inspector may come this week and it will be reopened.
We returned home in the heat of the day to let the temperature simmer while we stay indoors. It is a good opportunity to get this done and then do a little reading. Hence the very early blog.
Some other reflections, I’ve whatsapped to Mike, so they are worth capturing here: we are 2 hours ahead of South Africa, so I woke up early SA time and then went back to sleep for a while. When I woke up, it was overcast with the look of rain hanging in the air, so beautiful and cool. The island, in some ways, reminds me of Seychelles, both with the kind of people and hilly terrain & thick undergrowth. Julian and I have almost identical apartments, next to each other. I got a huge discount on the back of his booking, so that was helpful.
While yesterday I was all discombulated regarding the lack of internet, today I feel I have more control. I’m writing whatsapp messages off line, pressing send, then turning on data and once they are sent, I’m turning data off. Very effective for minimizing data usage.
This afternoon, Julian and I are going driving to see some of the forts. One of them High Fort Knoll is visible from our place, albeit camouflaged against the rock.
Psalm 94:14
For the Lord will not reject His people; He will never forsake His inheritance.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂