St. Helena, the small island in the middle of the South Atlantic, is one of the most remote places in the world. You can hardly go further away from the mainland, it is over 3,000 kilometers to South America, 1,900 kilometers to Africa. Napoleon, who was exiled to this island, made the rocky spot famous all over the world. The French general had to live here at the end of the world for six years after the defeat of Waterloo.
The island of the Saints
At Longwood House, the French honorary consul Michel Dancoisne-Martineau has been trying to keep the spirit of the emperor alive for more than three decades. And that although the bones of the great, small-sized general who died on St. Helena have long been resting in Paris, in the Invalides.
A large welcoming committee has met at the airport. When the plane arrives from Johannesburg, the Saints, as the islanders proudly call themselves, will be ready. They wave and shine in competition. Let the people in distant London laugh at the supposedly most nonsensical airport in the world. The approach is considered extremely dangerous, because treacherous winds push the runway high above the cliffs in the east of the island. A lot of responsibility for the airport fire brigade team. She secures every landing and controls the runway.
Weather reports from Huggy Bear
Life is tough on St. Helena. Most of the nearly 4,800 Saints work in the civil service of the British overseas territory. Fishing is an alternative way of making some money. Tuna from St. Helena, traditionally caught by fishing rod, not industrially with a net, could become an export hit thanks to the new flight connection. Because this is how the goods arrive fresh in South Africa. The mail ship used to take six days.
Whether by plane or ship: the forecast from the St. Helena weather station is eagerly awaited out there. And so Gary “Huggy Bear” Mercury lets the weather balloon, which is lavishly filled with hydrogen, rise every morning at exactly 11:15 am. The whole world relies on Huggy Bear’s reports.
The “Galapagos of the Atlantic”
Stedson Strout is a versatile man: in his youth he was a caretaker and coffee maker for the crew of the NASA relay station on the neighboring island of Ascension, 1,300 kilometers away! Now the self-taught naturalist is on St. Helena, because the island is known as the “Galapagos of the Atlantic” due to its biodiversity. That is why the botanist Professor Quentin Cronk is visiting. Together, the two want to discover new species between rocks that no human has ever stepped on.
The sound of St. Helena comes from Radio Saint FM. From the weather station to the grocery store to the bathing bay, the sounds of the station resound, which of course also delivers the news. It is about local politics, lost sunglasses and the daily specials in the takeaways.
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