Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter Four
Exploring Saint Helena.
Napoleon Bonaparte's house and grave site.
Herman meets a girl.
Injury at sea.
A moonbow and waterspout.
We enter the dreaded doldrums.
Abundance of freshwater and cold showers.
Arrival at Fernando de Noronha.
We rowed across to the landing stage which was a dock made of old, cement blocks and
stones. There being no place to safely land the dinghy because of the swell, we were thrown
a rope from a friendly local who was very obviously interested in Paula, who was now all
dressed up and looking positively smashing. One by one we pulled ourselves up and swung
ashore. We made our way over to the customs and immigration office situated on the wharf
and were soon chatting to the friendly, dark-skinned officers. We were amused to hear what
sounded like broad, cockney accents welcoming us and asking for our documents. Later, we
would find out that the English had colonized this island in the past and had interbred with
the local population, hence the English accents. St. Helena once had a large sisal plantation,
but it had become redundant with the advent of nylon and polyester ropes which replaced
the old-fashioned and easily rotting sisal ropes and twines.
St. Helena is also known as Napoleon Bonaparte's final home after he was forced into exile.
We took a strenuous hike up the mountain to visit this famous house, and even met Jonathan,
the old tortoise that had been alive during Bonaparte's stay. We visited his grave site in an
adjoining forest, which had an imposing, wrought iron fence around the immediate grave.
Apparently, Bonaparte would come and sit and think for hours in this forest. However, his
body had been removed and returned to Paris.
St. Helena was a charming, little place that almost seemed a slice out of history. The modern
world had passed it by, and the inhabitants were delightfully unaware of this. One of the loc-
als, who was confined to a wheel chair, made one-of-a-kind, little candle holders from old
bottles that he would cut in half and smooth off. He fashioned some copper around these
bottles, and they had became highly sought after, known amongst the sailors even back in
South Africa as must-have objet d'art. It was fashionable to take scrap copper and old bottles
to St. Helena for this enterprising local. As a gift, I bought my friends one each, and they
hung them up in the cockpit in the evening, casting the boat in a soft, yellow glow.
