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Published: February 1st 2009
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Welcome to St. Helena, a British territory in the heart of the South Atlantic. She's a quirky little place alright, an isolated volcanic lump created by the Mid-Atlantic Rift... and home to a few fun facts!
St. Helena:
- claims to be Britain's second oldest colony
- is home to the world's most expensive coffee - made from the Green-tipped Bourbon bean imported from Mocha of Yemen
- was the site of Napolean Bonaparte's exile and subsequent death
- is home to Tungi spirit, a noxious alcohol distilled from prickly pears
- has no airport - visitors, goods, and mail must arrive/depart by ship
- possesses the world's longest continuous straight set of stairs, Jacob's Ladder (699 steps)
- is home to Jonathon, the world's oldest tortoise (estimated to be over 127 years old)
- is over 2000 km from any major landmass
We have arrived here for a 24-hour stopover while on our Trans-Atlantic yacht race (more on this in the next blog). With such little time to experience St. Helena, we attempted a cultural blitz! Tungi shots were downed, coffee slurped, old-fashioned letters to Mom written, stamped and loaded onto the mail ship, and stairs conquered!
Without
a doubt, Jacob's Ladder was a special treat and my favourite part of the stop. The Ladder was named after a mythical ladder to heaven described in the book of Genesis - but the real version on St. Helena just leads up to a nice view. Does that qualify as irony? In any case, I suppose if you dehydrated yourself thoroughly before climbing, you could induce a more spiritual journey.
Not much to report, but I just wanted to be the first to write about St. Helena on Travelblog! I'm just a little disappointed I couldn't stay longer on this fabulous and friendly island.
Oh, and by the way, there were once
700 steps, but 1 got covered up during repairs.
Cheerio!
Note: Photo credits given to CR (Cody) and ZW (Zach). Photos with no credit listed were taken by yours truly.
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armistice
non-member comment
it might make sense to drink the coffee to get up the stairs, and drink the Tungi to get the courage to slide down the rail. where are the rail slide photos?! -armistice