WHY ST HELENA, ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST REMOTE ISLANDS, MAY BE OVERRUN IN 2016 ∧

By Mary Holland, Conde Naste Traveller, 30th December 2015{4}

Will the site of Napoleon’s exile become a tourist destination in 2016?

Some 122Km², St Helena is a tiny speck in the Atlantic Ocean with incredible history. It’s been nearly inaccessible - until now.

In the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,800 miles from the coast of South America and 1,200 miles from the southwest coast of Africa, sits a wildly beautiful volcanic island - a speck, if anything, on the world map. So far out is St Helena that it was chosen as the place of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile and death; so inaccessible is this island, the only way to reach it is by boat. Factually speaking, it is one of the most remote islands in the world.

But for an island that’s only 122Km² and home to around 4,200 inhabitants, one of St Helena’s biggest draws is its hard-to-reach location: You won’t find hordes of tourists swinging their selfie sticks or locals trying to sell you trinkets on every corner. Those hoping to make it to St Helena can board the RMS Saint Helena, a working Royal Mail ship that makes the five-and-a-half day voyage every three weeks from Cape Town, South Africa. This may be a novel experience for tourists, but the inconvenient schedule and long journey make it difficult for the Saints - an affectionate name for the locals - to travel.

Come February 2016, this may all change with the completion of an on-island airport financed by the U.K. government. Comair, a South African company that operates British Airways flights, has already announced that it will be launching one weekly flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, every Saturday morning on a Boeing 737-800 that can carry up to 120 passengers. After an hour of turnaround time, the plane will leave St Helena and make the five-hour journey back to Johannesburg. And while one weekly flight may not seem like a lot, on an island that has never seen a commercial airplane, it’s akin to sending a spaceship to the Saints.

What exactly draws travelers by the boatload to this British colony in the middle of nowhere? Relatively unspoiled landscapes and untouched nature, for one: Beneath the shadow of what amounts to a soaring, ruined cathedral of volcanic rock is a rugged paradise, one of sand dunes and lush green hills and a coastline where dolphins and whales are often spotted. St Helena draws nature lovers and avid birders alike. Diana’s Peak National Park, home to 60 known native species of plants - 45 of which exist nowhere else in the world - is utterly pristine. In addition, the island’s mountains and subtropical climates make for exceptional coffee-growing conditions, and although farms are not abundant, it produces some of the best (and most expensive) coffee in the world. Caffeine consumption and spectacular natural beauty aside, St Helena is heavy on the history: The island is Britain’s second-oldest remaining overseas territory (just behind Bermuda), with vestiges of the East India Company - you dock at Jamestown Bay - and Napoleon’s tenure here (his residences, the Briars and Longwood, and his tomb, though not his final resting place, remain).

Flights between St Helena and South Africa will undoubtedly make it easier for the outside world to come in, as well as provide the Saints with smoother transportation to and from the island. Locals and international companies are already gearing up for the expected surge in tourism, and more hotels are set to open in the foreseeable future: Mantis Collection, whose eco-conscious boutique hotels dot remote landscapes around the world, is reportedly developing a four-star hotel on the island.

With new flights, new technology, and new hotels soon to come, old traditions on St Helena may inevitably be lost: The RMS Saint Helena, which has become part of the fabric of the island, will make her final voyage next year. For many visitors, the journey was half of the adventure, and some may think that allowing more access to the island will result in St Helena losing part of her charm. We’ll see if the Saints go marching out as well.

See also: Fly here •Visitor Information

TOP OF THE LEAGUE

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Printed in the St Helena Sentinel, 29th October 2015{4}

St Helena in Lonely Planet’s Top 10 Destinations in the World

St Helena has been named one of the top ten places in the world for travellers to visit in 2016. After what Tom Hall from Lonely Planet called 14 million years in glorious geographic isolation the island is now being recognised as a great place for tourists.

Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel media company and produces thousands of internationally-recognised guidebooks. This latest award for St Helena is part of their book Best in Travel 2016. The list which St Helena is on includes other destinations such as West Iceland, Transylvania in Romania, Hawaii, and Costa Verde in Brazil.

Enterprise St Helena’s chief executive Niall O’Keeffe said they are delighted with the recognition. The Governor claimed that this underlines how St Helena continues to achieve tremendous success on a global scale with limited resources, and Councillor Lawson Henry paid tribute to everyone in tourism on St Helena.

There will be a formal award ceremony in London on Sunday. It will be attended by Niall O’Keeffe, Kedell Worboys, Chanelle Marais and a representative from the UK Foreign Office.

More at www.lonelyplanet.com/st-helena.

See also: Visitor Information

REMOTE ST HELENA ISLAND WELCOMES FIRST FLIGHT

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By Emma Weaver, The Guardian, 17th September 2015{4}

A new era arrives for the south Atlantic island of St Helena, one of the remotest places in the world, as it waves goodbye to the mail ship and welcomes its first flight

Jamestown, the capital of St Helena, viewed from James’ Bay

The first plane to land on one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world - so remote even Napoleon Bonaparte could not escape from it - touched down earlier this week.

After taking off from Johannesburg, the Beechcraft King Air 2000 travelled nearly 2,000km north-west to a dark speck of land that rises out of the Atlantic. Nothing but clouds normally pass above St Helena - which measures 17km by 10 and has a population of around 5,000 - but on 15thSeptember a twin-engine plane descended upon the tiny landmass. It was an unusual flight, to an unusual airport, in an unusual place.

St Helena is a British Overseas Territory that until now has been accessible only by the Royal Mail Ship St Helena (which offers journeys of between five days and nearly two months on its voyages between Cape Town, Ascension Island and the UK, among others). The recent test flight precedes the opening of St Helena airport in February 2016, one of the most significant developments in the island’s history.

The Beechcraft King Air 2000 plane lands at St Helena

The company contracted to construct the airport had never worked on a project of this scale, or of this type, before.

The set-up and mobilisation took a whole year, said Charles Schwarz, human relations manager for the Basil Read St Helena Airport Project. The isolation of the island and the logistics of getting every nut and bolt transported to the island by ship was challenging.

Transportation of materials was not the only obstacle to the construction. The geology of the island - which, as Charles Darwin put it rises abruptly like a huge black castle from the ocean - did not provide an obvious location for a runway, requiring 7.6 million metres³ of mountain to be blasted out and then land-filled in a neighbouring valley.

The RMS St Helena was built in 1989 specifically to supply the island

Most islanders are excited at the opportunities the airport will bring: quicker access to medical care, and quicker transportation for overseas islanders who take holiday time from work to journey home.

However, there is also disappointment at the loss of their ship, which will be decommissioned when the airport opens. The St Helena is the last working Royal Mail Ship and carries on a maritime tradition the island has had since its discovery in 1502.

Marlene Harris, assistant purser on the ship, has worked on board for 13 years. This ship is one-of-a-kind and will definitely be a loss to the island,she said. For some people, the ship is the holiday. They get on board and they experience St Helena through the workers, and through the food - including ‘Saint’ dishes such as stuffed tuna steaks, goat meat curry, and ‘bread and dance’ (or tomato paste sandwiches). They don’t want to fly; they want to do something special.

View of Half Tree Hollow from High Knoll Fort on St Helena

Pamela Ward Pearce, a St Helenian and recently-elected member of the island’s executive council, said the island has a lot to offer. The walking here provides some of the most starkly beautiful and spectacular landscapes, she says. And during certain months it’s possible to swim with whale sharks in the bay.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb - in the Alarm Forest district - and his final residence, Longwood House, offer tours, while the lack of light pollution allows for stunning views of the night sky.

With one flight successfully on the ground, St Helena will now prepare for the airport’s opening - and an expected increase in tourism. A 32-room hotel is planned (at the moment there are just a handful of guesthouses and B&Bs) but no company has been contracted to build it yet.

So far, British Airways Comair is the only airline set to operate the five-hour flight to St Helena from Johannesburg (at an estimated £600 return) on a Boeing 737-800. It will carry about 120 passengers and a small amount of cargo to and from the island every Saturday. In doing so, the little island in the middle of the South Atlantic will become a little less remote.

See also: Fly here •RMS St Helena