St. Helena - The Heart of the South Atlantic. <br /> <br />For more than 500 years, the only way to reach the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena was by sea. That is about to change. <br /> <br />For more than 500 years, the only way to reach the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena was by sea. Travelling to the South Atlantic island by sailboat, after a nine-day voyage from Namibia, my family and I made landfall the way every person before us has: the way Napoleon Bonaparte did when he was sent into exile in 1815; the way modern-day Saints (as the local population is known) do when they venture home from work in the UK; and the way the occasional, intrepid visitor has always done. But we were one of the last travelers to do so. <br /> <br />In April, the first commercial plane landed at the island’s new airport, and the last working Royal Mail Ship, the St Helena, was slated for decommissioning. <br /> <br />Now, for the first time, visitors won’t risk being doused in the Atlantic swell when they reach for the ropes at the sea-washed Jamestown landing, trying to time their first step onto solid ground. <br /> <br />however, had expected the ropes at the landing – and even the strong arms of the Saints as they pulled me away from the swirling sea. I knew that the capital of Jamestown would be a crayon-colored English village wedged improbably into a volcanic cleft on a tropical island. I’d read that Napoleon Bonaparte had been the island’s most famous prisoner. <br /> <br />But knowing of a place and knowing a place are different things. Of all the islands I’ve visited, Saint Helena is the most wonderful and strange. Caught somewhere between today and a time that may never have existed, St Helena has a retirement home for donkeys who have been replaced by cars; it only got mobile phone service a few months ago; it has a tiny bit of France (literally) in its lush interior; and it’s home to an estimated 187-year-old giant tortoise called Jonathon who, I was told, was just given his first wish. <br /> <br />One legend says the ringer of the Bellstone is granted a wish. I wondered if Jonathon’s own wish was related to the Bellstone, and made a mental note to ask Peters. <br /> <br />Saint Helena transform from one of the world’s most important mid-ocean provisioning stops to an isolated and forgotten outpost, and then again into a community that’s once again ready to welcome the world.
