Bucket List Alert! His name is Jonathan ❤️
Saint Helena Island is a British Overseas Territory part of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. It is a volcanic, isolated island in the South Atlantic Ocean located about 1,950 kms west of Africa and 4,000 kms east of South America.
The island isn’t very big at 16 km by 8 km and it is smaller than Easter Island. Saint Helena’s population is ~ 4,500 people, the capital is Jamestown, GMT / UTC is 00:00, and it uses the GBP (Pound Sterling) and the SHP (Saint Helena Pound) which is fixed at parity with the GBP.
As a Canadian, I do not need a Visa to travel there ~ if you do here’s info on getting an eVisa through the Saint Helena Government. For a short term entry permit I do need to produce the following at Immigration:
- pre-arranged accommodation booking
- proof of sufficient funds
- medical insurance which must cover evacuation to the value of £175,000.00
Saint Helena is known for 2 things:
- Saint Helena is where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 until his death six years later
- Jonathan (hatched c. 1832) is a Seychelles Giant Tortoise who was brought to Saint Helena in 1882 ~ Jonathan is the world’s oldest-known living land animal and is 194 years young in 2026 ~ I have a date with this handsome fella in May
The first thing I had to sort out was how to get to a small island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Easy … there are weekly flights from Johannesburg, South Africa to Jamestown, Saint Helena with Airlink. Flights are 4 hours and 45 minutes on an Embraer 190. The airport is St Helena Airport and it opened in 2016. Prior to 2016, folks had to take a ship for 4-5 days to visit the island.
Side Note ~ Flying from Johannesburg opened up a whole other trip for me too as Johannesburg is central to Mr. Nelson Mandela’s life and the Cradle of Humankind is located just outside of Johannesburg (think Mrs. Ples and Little Foot). A prime example of Travel Math!
There are many things to do on the island and my week will be very full.
- Hiking ~ there are 21 “Post Box Walks” which are graded trails leading to unique spots, featuring a post box with an ink stamp and visitor’s book at the end
- Saint Helena Golf Course
- Museum of Saint Helena
- The Castle
- Napoleon’s Grave (he’s no longer there)
- Plantation House ~ government house where Jonathan resides
- Distillery
- Beaches
Derek has rented me a car ~ driving is on the opposite side of the road (remember I’m now an expert) and there’s a lot of one lane roads. I’m going on a boat ride with Julian around the island and I’ll play a round of golf. Island bliss is ahead!
Happy Travels!
The feature picture of the island at the top of this post is from the Saint Helena Government website.
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Jackie is “Mom” to one amazing son, an IT professional and an obsessed traveller. She spends her time reading, golfing at Ladies League and implementing software projects. Jackie has travelled to 7 continents, 5 oceans and 102 countries and she is always planning the next destination and adventure!