Walvis Bay, Namibia to Jamestown, St. Helena

April 16 – Today we are in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Walvis is the Afrikaans word for whale, so in English it’s Whale Bay. It is pronounced almost like you would if it was a German word. The W becomes a V and the V becomes an F. So it’s "vall’-fish buy" because the A in bay pronounced as like the A in alert.

We’re only in port from 10AM to 6PM so since we have scheduled a 7-hour tour we won’t get to wander around much. The tour is titled Namib Desert Adventure and we hope it is. As we pulled into port and docked a Namibian band was playing on the dock. They had 5 marimbas, two tenor and one each second tenor, baritone and bass. They also had one man playing maraca like shakers, three different types of drums, an instrument that has a handle with a flat cylindrical drum on top that when you turn the handle it makes a rattling sound and another playing some form of a triangle. The played and sang very lively music. It was a good sound. Every now and then five of them would play flutes made from kudu horns of various sizes. This produced a very unusual, but pretty sound. They were still playing when we left the ship.

After we left the ship we had to walk past the pier and out of the port gate to reach our transportation. There were 15 4x4 vehicles of various shapes and sizes waiting to take us out to the desert. Some of the vehicles were fairly large Land Rovers and they were putting 5 people in them, counting the driver. I selected an Isuzu extended cab pick-up truck (left) at the back of the line. Everyone seemed to want to be at the front. As it wound up, Diana and I were the only passengers in the truck. She sat in the front so she could hear the driver’s comments and I had the back seat all to myself. It was great.

Some short discussion of the geography of Namibia will probably be helpful in understanding what we’re seeing. In Namibia the desert runs right up to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s weird to see that much water with virtually no vegetation anywhere except in developed areas. The annual rainfall here is 11-15mm, that’s about half an inch. Not much rain for sure. Namibia is home to the world’s second greatest canyon complex, next to the USA’s Grand Canyon, the Fish River Canyon. It’s in the south near the South African border. In the extreme northeast of the country there’s a region unlike any other in the country called the Caprivi Strip. It’s an area of fertile woodlands and the origin of several very important rivers, among them two of the most powerful rivers in Africa, the Zambezi and Okavango. The arid coastline is divided into two areas the Skeleton Coast here in the north and the Diamond Coast in the south. The Skeleton Coast is named for the many shipwrecks that line the shore. The Diamond Coast gets its name from the large diamond mines in that area. Walvis Bay is in the center of coastal Namibia and is considered to be on the Skeleton Coast. The country has a huge diamond mine and there are areas where diamonds can be found on the surface. They also have the world’s largest open pit uranium mine, the Rossing Mine.

The coastal strip of Namibia has a very unique ecosystem. As noted before, most years it receives less than ½ inch of rain. However there are many plants that survive in the coastal areas of the desert. Almost every evening the contrast of temperatures between the desert sand and the Atlantic Ocean causes a thick layer of low clouds to develop and move inland. Much like the Marine Layer in Southern California but much closer to the ground. This cloud layer increases the humidity and the dew can often be very significant in the early morning. The local plants, insects and animals have adapted to this situation in various ways. The climate for humans is very pleasant most of the year. For 9-10 months they have a prevailing southwesterly wind that comes over the land from the very cold Atlantic Ocean. In the early morning and evening this breeze is almost cold. When we were near the port there was the usual heavy cloud cover which gave way to clear skies very quickly just before our 10AM arrival at the pier. The day was clear and sunny as we headed out into the desert but the breeze from the ocean kept us very comfortable all day long. Just as we were boarding the ship to leave, about 5:30PM, the sun was close to setting and the breeze got very damp and much cooler. Most of the Floridians waiting to board the ship were calling it cold. Coastal California has this same phenomenon near the beach but not nearly as extreme as here because we get a lot more rain during our rainy season and we have long term contracts on much of the watershed in the Sierra Nevada, much to the dismay of the residents of Northern California. Most of the interior of the country, except for the Caprivi Strip is desert of one sort or another, with vast areas of huge dunes.

The history of Namibia is just as unique. In 1487 Portuguese explorers Diego Cao and Bartolomeu Diaz reached southern Africa. The year before Cao had planted a cross at Cape Cross in Namibia. Because the coastline is so arid and inhospitable early explorers landed but totally ignored the area and this shunning lasted through the colonial era that saw the continent carved up into European overseas territories. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that Germany saw the strategic and commercial value of the area and established a colony. In 1920, after WWI the League of Nations turned Namibia over to South African control. There was a strong independence movement in the country but South Africa opposed it, especially after new methods of extraction made the long known about gems in the area commercially viable. In March of 1990 Namibia became independent due to the democratization of South Africa. Oddly, South Africa retained control of Walvis Bay because when the Germans took control of what was then known as South West Africa, the British had been ceded the enclave of Walvis Bay. Several years later, after Nelson Mandela won the first post-apartheid elections, Walvis Bay was returned to Namibian control.

Well, back to the present. The 15 4x4s split into three convoys of 5 vehicles each. Our driver, Peter took up the second position in our group. Peter (left with Diana at the Musical Rocks) is a 49-year-old Afrikaaner born in South Africa. He has been in Namibia for over 20 years working at a number of different sites. He worked at the diamond mines, in the capital city of Windhoek, in the Caprivi Strip on the Zambezi River and now in Walvis Bay at the large fish processing plant. He’s has some sort of management postion with the company but we didn’t get any details. Today is Saturday and he is driving a vehicle owned by a friend for this tour. His face is weathered and has those squint lines around the eyes that people who spend their lives in the desert outdoors have. He is very at home in the desert environment.

Historical Note: When I was in college and before I got married I spent a lot of time exploring the deserts of the Southwestern US, mostly in the winter and spring. Way too hot the rest of the year. I was always fascinated by the variety of life you could fine both flora and fauna. The PR problem that the desert has is that you have to get up close and personal before you see it. In fact, you’ve got to get out and walk very slowly or stand still to see much of it. Midday is the worst time to be there because most of the animals and plants are at their best late in the day to very early in them morning. This desert trip proved to be exactly the same. Large rock and sand features could be seen from the truck, but the animals and plants had to be observed on foot.

First we drove along a very well maintained, straight as an arrow, two-lane blacktop road north to the city of Swakopmund. Mund in German means mouth and the city is at the mouth of the Swakop River. The city was established very early in the German colonial period and has retained most of its colonial German buildings. We didn’t stop there but the drive through was pretty. The Swakop is a dry river 98% of the time. It only runs on the surface a couple of days a year when they get actual rain. However it runs underground the whole year. The residents have drilled a series of bore holes in the riverbed that tap the underground flow and divert it to use in the cities of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. Peter told us that when the river runs on the surface they loose most of the bore holes and collection equipment and have to go on strict water rationing until they can be redrilled and rebuilt.

After turning inland and driving for about 12 miles we turned onto a dirt road that began to test the ability of our 4x4. After traversing some hills and valleys we turned into the dry bed of the Swakop River and the going got much smoother.

Our first stop was at the Musical Rocks. It’s essentially a large pile of very square and rectangular rocks. We climbed up the pile to where the rocks were not in contact with the sand. Peter told us to take a smaller rock up with us and we were wondering why. When we got high enough so most of the rocks were suspended between other rocks he told us to hit the big rocks with the small ones we were carrying. The result was a tone exactly like the pealing of a metal bell. It was very surprising. The rocks have high iron content, not ferrous oxide or any sort of iron ore but actual iron apparently smelted by volcanic activity. This produces the metallic ringing when the rocks are struck. I’ve never seen a natural pile of rocks that was so square cornered. Of course, a spontaneous ‘rock concert’ broke out. Ouch, that pun hurt me as much as it hurt you!

We continued our trip along the riverbed until we encountered a large bramble of a very strange plant. Its stalk was longitudinally striped in green and white with what appeared to be inch long thorns every 3-4 inches along the stem. The thorn like structures are actually modified leaves. The plant does not have any real leaves. The main stem branches out at each set of ‘leaves’ to form another stem that has only the thorn like leaves and no additional stems. The stems wind around each other and form a mass very much like a wild berry bramble. At some of the stem junctions small bumpy balls form that then get a small flower like bloom with a yellow center (right). After the flower dies the ball grows to about grapefruit size when ‘ripe’ (left). Peter told us that they are not good to eat but contain a lot of moisture and in an emergency you can pick them, cut a hole in one end and drink the water they contain. He says it’s really bitter but is totally drinkable in an emergency. He says if you have to drink it for an extended period it becomes a very potent natural laxative. That’s not exactly how he put it but I know that some of my readers have very delicate sensibilities and I’m trying to keep them from fainting dead away. I wish I could remember what he called the plant, but I just can’t and neither can Diana. If it comes to me I’ll record it later.

Our next stop was at ”Moon Mountains" (right). It’s here that some conspiracy theorists say that Neil Armstrong was sent to fake his walk on the moon. Of course those same people maintain that the real moon is made of green cheese! The landscape is very lunar. I was struck by the variety of colors in the rock and sand. It reminded both Diana and myself of some of the desert landscape in the Southwest US, the Painted Desert or parts of Death Valley.

After leaving Moon Mountains we drove through a deep valley on the riverbed that was mainly grey but had a very dark black stripe twisting along about one tenth of the way from the top (left). Peter told us that it was a layer of dolerite running along the cliff. I’d heard of dolomite, geologists call it basalt rock, but never dolerite. Peter asked one of the guides who is a geologist and found out that dolomite is the same rock as dolerite but it has air bubbles in it that dolerite does not. The dark layer made the folds and curves of the rock layers much more visible. Clear evidence of a violent volcanic past.

In places the riverbed was very sandy but in the lowest spots there was sometimes a layer that looked like peeling paint. This layer was about one third to one half an inch thick. It forms when the river runs wet and it carries a slurry of very fine sand with it. This sand slurry settles in low areas and when it dries it breaks apart and peels up at the cracks just like peeling paint. In places it looked like a very poorly poured patio that was cracking and lifting. In some places this spread out over an area of several acres.

Our next stop was at Goanikontes Oasis (right), an abandoned farm, for a camp style lunch. They had set up a mess tent that contained the buffet tables with an area of picnic style tables spread out under the surrounding trees. It was a great lunch. They had some salads, various meats, veggie kabobs, bread (to make sandwiches) and two deserts. One was a small coconut custard type tart that was great. The other was about 4-5 inches long, one inch in diameter and roughly the shape of a cruller (kind of cylindrical but bumpy, in case you’ve never heard of a cruller). It was brown, very sweet and sticky to the touch. Peter told us that it is dough that has been braided and then deep-fried until it puffed up. While it is still hot it’s dipped into syrup that is allowed to seep into the hollow center. It’s sort of a cross between a Pennsylvania Dutch funnel cake and a Mexican churro but it is much sweeter than either. One other unique part of the oasis was the bathroom facilities. Both Diana and I agree that we have never been in better port-a-potties. They were clean, had no smell, running water and regular American style flush toilets. Amazing!!

Our next stop was to see one of the most unusual trees I’ve ever seen, the Welwitschia. The tree is one of those species that has male and female sexes. They are easy to tell apart as on feature is very different on each. First the general description. Both grow mainly underground. The roots and trunk are both deep in the sand. The only part visible is a large (about 20 inches across the long axis), bifurcated, oblong shaped, dark, cork-textured center. One large leaf grows from each side of this oblong structure. These are the only leaves this tree will ever have. They just continue to grow for the entire life of the tree, which can live to be 1,500 to 2,000 years old. The one we were standing around is 450 years old. Over the years the winds on the desert split the leaves into strips so it looks like the tree has several leaves but there are only two. Around the oblong structure the female plant has a series of tapered tubular growths on short stems (above left). The male plant (right) has stems with leaf like structures in exactly the same location. Very unique plants!

From there we continued our drive in and out of the riverbed through more lunar-like and volcanic landscape until we reached a large plain. It was flat for miles and had a very pale green cast when viewed at an extreme angle. Our convoy stopped and we walked out onto the flat surface. Here our guide informed us that we were in the most densely vegetated area in Namibia according to the research botanists who have studied the country. He said we were in the midst of a forest of plant life. Most everyone snickered at this assertion. With that he poured some water on a rock at his feet. I had noticed some lichen growing on one side of the rock and sure enough when it was dampened it started to swell up and assume a plant like shape. It was dark green and very easy to see. Nearby there was a small spot of orange material and when he put some water on it, it swelled up into a tiny tree shape. Still, these widely spaced lichen colonies did not represent a forest by any stretch of the imagination. Then he poured water on a wide area of what appeared to be sand and like magic little tan and grey plant like growths started to swell up (left). The green and orange lichen had been easy to see, but these lichen were colored like the sand on which they grew. It was astonishing to see how dense the lichen forest was. It was basically a carpet on the entire plain. This was why the earth had a pale green cast when viewed at an acute angle.

While the Welwitschia tree used its long roots and underground trunk to get water from the underground river, these lichen got their water by absorbing the almost daily dew that settles out of the overnight marine layer. They expand quickly when wet to absorb the water and the go flat again during the warm, dry days to retain the moisture. Peter told us he had several lichen coated rocks in his bathroom that thrive on just the moisture from taking showers. I picked up one small piece of quartz that had tiny green lichen on it and when I dropped some water on one side the lichen sprouted instantly. It was fun to watch it grow. This lichen forest is just over the coastal dunes from the ocean. So the dew here is very consistent for most of the year and when it’s not the lichen just hunker down and wait for it to return.

From here we went to the costal dune area (right). The dunes are huge. The Dune 7 area where we stopped had a series of dunes each taller than the next. The largest dune I saw was about 100 yards tall from the base. There are larger ones around but they are a bit further south. We got out of our trucks and climbed the dunes. The sand here is very fine and I was having trouble keeping it out of my cameras. The still camera is not so sensitive, but just a little dust on the recording head of the video camera and it’s goodbye Charlie. I was contented to climb part way up for a look around. Several people climbed up a dune that was about 40 feet high. The slope of the dune from the ridge was very steep so they went to the end of the dune and walked up the ridge. The long way up but much easier going than climbing the slope.

Once up there the guide coached them on the two ways to go down the slope. One way was to slide down on your belly or but. The other way was to take long, quick strides while leaning back into the slope. He emphasized that the leaning back was important because if you didn’t your center of gravity would be too far from the slope face and you’d go butt over teacups down the dune. One man, a friend of mine from Brazil, did it perfectly following the guide’s example exactly. Another man I don’t know well took two steps; started leaning forward and that was all she wrote. He cartwheeled several times before he finally stopped. His camera had been jammed into the sand several times and was in sad shape. He was unhurt except for a few small patches of rug burn.

After watching this exhibition, Diana decided to slide down on her butt. If she had a small piece of cardboard to sit on it would have been great. As it was, her butt would dig into the sand every few feet and she’d have to push off with her hands to get going again. She arrived at the bottom safely but sandy.

We left the desert and returned to Walvis Bay where we went to the lagoon to bird watch. It was late in the day and the marine layer of clouds was beginning to form. The light prevented me from getting any good still shots. The video works in much less light so I got some good movies. We saw cranes, flamingos, pelicans, some long and short legged wading birds and of course sea gulls. The lagoon is home to some 60,000 birds of various types.

After that it was back to the ship just in time to get the gangway up and sail away. It was a great day and one of the best tours we’ve had!

April 17 & 18 – Two days at sea, one of them the 25 hour type. I got caught up on my picture organization and email reports. On the 18th at about 3:30PM we crossed the Prime Meridian the home on 0 degrees longitude and Greenwich Mean Time. On the 17th we ate in the fancy restaurant onboard, the Pinnacle Grill. They have a great Porterhouse steak and an even better desert, the Chocolate Volcano. Yikes!! When we got back to the room our cabin steward, Wahied, had taken two bath towels and two washcloths and folded them into an elephant and placed them on our bed. It was very cute.

April 19 – Today we are in Jamestown, St. Helena (right). St. Helena is a British Overseas Territory, which means it belongs to the United Kingdom. It’s one of the last relics of the colonies in the South Atlantic Ocean. It’s about 1,200 miles west of Africa. The island is volcanic in origin and the surface is still very rugged and mountainous. In the southwest they rise as high as 2,700 feet. It’s a small island, only 47 square miles in area. The climate is very moderate with the yearly mean temperature at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Only about 3,500 people live on the island and of those, 1,500 live in Jamestown. They refer to themselves as ‘Saints’.

When Joao de Nova, a Portuguese navigator, discovered Saint Helena in 1502, it was uninhabited. In 1659 The English East India Company founded the first permanent settlement. The island’s main claim to fame is the final exile of Napoleon here from 1815 to 1821 when he died. His final residence was at the farmhouse of Longwood. The house is now a museum. His first tomb is also here but he was moved to Paris in 1860. We visited his tomb at the Les Invalides, a soldier’s hospital, while we were there last year.

Saint Helena does not have a proper harbor of any type so we anchored off Jamestown in James Bay and were ferried into town on the ship’s tenders. The island has no beaches at all. It is very rugged and most of the seaside is a sheer cliff. When we approached the island it looks very much like a peak of the Rocky Mountains sticking up out of the water. Jamestown itself is built in a very narrow and steep valley leading down to the ocean. Only the first two blocks of the city are wide enough to have more than one street running up the hill. After that the city is so narrow there is only one street going up the valley.

The ship hasn’t scheduled any tours here so Diana and I teamed up with one of our cruise escorts from CSI, Ellen Bethel to look for things to do. We caught the tender into Jamestown at about 10:30AM and made the 10-minute ride to the small pier about 2 blocks outside the city proper. When we arrived on the pier there were some taxis there and we teamed up with 8 other people to hire a Toyota van taxi for an island tour. The driver said that he would give us the full tour of all the sights in about three and a half hours for $20 each. This seemed more than fair so off we went.

When we reached the city and turned inland we had to pass through a small gate in a very old wall from the colonial period. The walls of the valley are so steep that they just put a wall across the mouth of the valley for fortifications. Pretty easy to defend. We drove up the main street through the city; it’s only about three quarters of a mile long. They we started up a very narrow road cut out of the rocky hillside. About half the passengers on the van were very nervous about the driving conditions but I thought the driver appeared very competent. The road twisted and turned up the face of the valley with many switchbacks and hairpin turns.

Our first stop was on the road above Napoleon’s first tomb (left). If you wanted to see the tomb you had to walk down into the valley about half a mile. The weather was very pleasant so the walk down was very nice. The little grass path was about as wide as a single lane driveway and mostly not too steep. The tomb itself is on a small flat piece of ground surrounded by gardens going up the hillside. The tomb itself is a cement slab surrounded by a wrought iron fence about 3 feet high. His body is no longer here but the tomb remains the same. It has no inscription on its surface and it did not have one when he was here. They never inscribed it because they could not agree what title to put on it: Emperor, General, etc. The island has a caretaker there to invite you to sign the visitor’s book in a small British style sentry box. A very pretty and quite spot.

The walk up was not really tough for Diana or me but, as I’ve said before, we are among the youngest people on the ship. I have to give proper due to the older people that make these treks. They struggle and puff but they keep right at it. It’s very inspiring.

The scenery on the walk is very nice. There are views across the valley to the green hills opposite. The flora is varied, with many types of trees and shrub, both broad leaf and needle types. There’s a form of lichen that grows on the trees, it’s very stringy and hair like and makes the trees look like they need a shave. When the sun shines on it from behind the lichen glows and creates a halo effect around the trees. Very pretty indeed.

Our next stop was at the Longwood house (right). This was originally a barn that had been converted in 1752 for the Lieutenant Governor of the island. It was further expanded and repaired when Napoleon was exiled here in 1815. Today it is a museum with furnishings and décor from the early 1800s. The walls and furnishings contain many artifacts related to Napoleon including a wax death mask. He was very young looking when he died in 1821. The gardens were designed by Napoleon and have been restored. They were very pretty.

While the exterior approach to the island looks very rocky and inhospitable, the interior is very lush and green. It continues to be very steep and hilly but the vegetation is lush. Trees, wildflowers, ferns and all sorts of plants thrive on the hillsides. Since we were traveling with the windows open on our van we could smell the flowers most of the time. It was a wonderful scent much like jasmine, orange blossoms or hyacinths. Our tour took us around the island to various viewpoints and sights. Absolutely beautiful.

Travel on the island consists of driving up one side of a mountainous ridge, crossing over and then driving down the other side across the valley floor and the repeat the entire process again. If you want to go to the coast you just go downhill and if you are traveling inland you are going uphill, there are no exceptions at all. We spent then next 30 minutes winding around the island stopping for photographs of scenery and buildings.

Next we stopped at Plantation House the residence of the island’s Governor. It was built in 1792 and modified in 1816 by Sir Hudson Lowe, the Governor at the time of Napoleon’s exile. The best-known resident of the Plantation is Jonathan the giant tortoise. He’s over 170 years old and has been on the island since 1882. He has plenty of company as Emma, David, Myrtle and Fredrika, also giant tortoises, live there with him. The governor was not in residence so we were allowed to wonder around the grounds to our heart’s content. Of course, everyone was interested in having a picture with Jonathan (right). The grounds are dotted with beautiful flowers. It’s obvious that a lot of time and attention are put into their maintenance.

We drove from the Plantation House down hill to the community of Halftree Hollow. Halftree Hollow is not well named from my point of view. It is situated on the mountain above Jamestown to the west at the edge of the seacoast about 650 feet above Jamestown is Ladder Hill Fort. The land there is not flat, it slopes toward the ocean cliffs, but it is certainly not a hollow at least in the American sense of the word. The fort gets it name from the staircase that comes up the mountain from Jamestown. The staircase, called Jacob’s ladder (left), which rises at a very steep angle, was used during the colonial period to carry supplies and ammunition up the hill and produce down the hill. It has 699 steps and is a pretty tough climb. It is steepest for the last 25% and that causes the stairs to have a much larger rise at the top than they do at the start or in the middle. So just when you are the most leg weary you have to take higher steps. There are handrails on both sides that allow you to use your arms to hoist yourself up to the next step. If these were not there the last quarter of the climb would be much harder indeed. From the top of Jacob’s ladder you have a wonderful view of the harbor and the city.

From there we went back into Jamestown proper (left). The driver dropped us off on the square at the top of Main Street. From there is was a nice downhill walk through town. Most of the buildings are very old but nicely maintained. The Market is a prefabricated cast-iron building that was shipped to the island in 1865. The Consulate Hotel, Solomon & Co, and Broadway House buildings are side by side on Main Street and are all buildings from the mid-1800s. There’s a children’s choir performing on the ship at 4:00PM and Diana wanted to get back to the ship to video some of it. I decided to have lunch in town and got two slices of very good pizza from the Spar grocery store deli counter, a diet 7up and a two inch in diameter chocolate coated ball the deli man described as a truffle.

I walked across the square to some benches outside the Tourist Office and sat down to eat. The locals are very friendly and everyone who when by greeted me. It was very nice. After I finished the pizza I started in on the truffle. When I bit into it I got quite a surprise. Inside the chocolate coating was a huge, and very potent, rum ball. Double Yikes!! A couple of these and someone would have to help me back to the tender. I was afraid that the birds who had gathered to see if I would drop any pizza crust crumbs would become drunk and get injured if I had any of the rum ball left over so I sacrificed for the good of nature and ate the whole thing. I’m sure if they knew of my sacrifice on behalf of the animal kingdom all the eco-freaks in the various environmental and animal rights groups would strike a coin in my honor.

At the ocean end of Main Street, just before you pass through the city wall is the Grand Parade. It’s a large square that is bordered on the east by St James’ Church, on the south by the old HM Prison, on the north by the Castle, Courthouse and Gardens and on the west by the city wall and gate.

St James’ Church dates from 1772. It was built on the site of an older Portuguese chapel. In 1843 a steeple was added but it was removed in 1979 when it became unsafe. There are old headstones preserved on the church grounds and inside that give insight into the island’s varied past. HM (His/Her Majesty’s) Prison was built in 1827 and is still in use today. Serious crime on the island is rare. Where could you hide? But as with any community various crimes of public order still occur and like Mayberry RFD you have to have somewhere for the town drunk to sleep it off.

The Castle is the Castle of St. John. It was built in 1659 when the English took possession of the island. It underwent modernization and improvement in the 1860’s as the result of termite damage. Funny thing is the termites, previously unknown on the island, came ashore in the wood from a salvaged Brazilian slave ship. It still serves as the island’s administrative center. The castle’s gardens showcase some of the islands endemic plants including the island ebony, which was thought to be extinct.

The Archway (left), as the gate in the city wall is called, bears the coat of arms of the English East India Company at its peak on the outside and the wirebird on the inside. There’s a sign attached to the archway that records the water level of a flood that occurred in April of 1878.

After my very pleasant sojourn in Jamestown I started back to the pier to catch the tender back to the ship. As I passed through the Archway I noticed a coffee shop (right) on the left. Actually it was a small building with a serving window like the beach vendors have on the California coast. There were several tables with umbrellas outside overlooking the ocean. I realized that I hadn’t gotten any St. Helena coins for souvenirs so I stopped to get a coffee. Well the pizza slices had been small and when I saw that they had a beef bun on sale for 1 Pound sixty Pence I got one with a bottle of water. In my change I got two 20 Pence coins from the island. All this came to about $4. The sandwich was much larger than I expected and came with horseradish sauce. It was very good and I was very full.

As I sat there munching on the beef bun I saw three small busses of children go by and figured they were the choir heading for the pier. As I walked the 600 yards along the water to the tender pier I saw one leaving for the ship. I figured if I could catch the next one out I wouldn’t miss much of the performance, if any. As I got on the next tender another small bus pulled up with some kids in white shirts, navy blue slacks and orange neckties. No discrimination here, both the boys and girls were in exactly the same outfits. There were too many to fit on the tender with us so they had to wait until we cast off and the next tender could come alongside. They have four tenders in operation so there’s always one waiting to pull up as the other leaves. I was pretty confident that I’d be there for the start of the concert.

I arrived at the Queen’s Lounge and settled in to video the concert. Diana had seen me come in and brought the camera over to me so she could just sit and enjoy the singing. They had four choirs in all, one from the high school, two from middle schools and one from a grammar school. For most of the show they came out and sang separately. Mostly songs about St. Helena or written by Saints. They were very good. They massed up to sing the final song. It had been written by a student a couple of years ago and it was about the things the kids wished were in the island’s future. They wanted one sandy beach, a zoo, an airport and a movie theater. Pretty simple things really, but tough if you don’t have any level ground or regular transportation other than by ship.

As the sun set, the view of the island from the ship got better and better. I had to rush down to the cabin to get dressed for dinner because I was hesitant to leave the outer decks. Might miss a good picture opp.

Well we’ve got one day at sea before we arrive at Ascension Island, a protectorate of St. Helena. I don’t think we’re going to get any extra hours before we get there.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005