Author Archives: Drew Whitworth

May 10 2024
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Daily Post, Transport

Struggling up Shy Road

Thursday 9th May 2024, 2.10pm (day 4,641)

Truck on Shy Road, 9/5/24

With the only relatively easy road out of Jamestown temporarily closed due to being covered in stones after Wednesday’s storm, there is a need to find alternatives. You’d think that being used in a very challenging transportation environment would have imposed a kind of evolutionary process on the local vehicles, a sort of natural selection if you like. But if it has, this truck hasn’t benefited: that’s not dust it’s raising. And look at the bend that is about to come.

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May 09 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The storm drains

Wednesday 8th May 2024, 9.50am (day 4,640)

Storm runoff, 8/5/24

Depending on how I count the days in transit, today could be reckoned the 50th day I have spent on St Helena across my three trips — and it was, certainly, the one with the worst weather. Jamestown, on average, gets 9-10mm of rain in the month of May, yet at least that amount fell today. It started overnight, and this morning there was already a dirty brown stream running down Main Street and debouching into the sea. It carried on, too, heavy showers every few minutes all day, really quite foul weather. And at points up in the hills, correspondents reckon there might have been some 100mm (4 inches) of rain through the day. Not normal…

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May 08 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Jonathan, revisited

Tuesday 7th May 2024, 12.05pm (day 4,639)

Jonathan again, 7/5/24

I took the morning off and came up to Plantation House, the residence of the Governor of St Helena, to do the tour, and like the other 7 people doing it with me, we stoically let ourselves be shown vaguely interesting items of furniture and portraits of the British royal family for 90 minutes or so in order that we could then get through to the real reason we were all there; to have the honour of meeting Jonathan, who at around 192 is the world’s oldest living land animal whose age is (more or less) known. And he did not seem at all bothered by his weekly dose of humans — seeming as interested in us as we were in him. I think he’s a complete dude, and could not resist making him the day’s image even though he’s appeared before. But he totally deserves his relative fame, if you ask me.

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May 07 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

On guard (sleepily)

Monday 6th May 2024, 4.55pm (day 4,638)

Standard cat guardian, 6/5/24

This creature generally seems to keep watch over the entrance to the Standard pub in Jamestown — though not very attentively, at least at this point in time. I like the colour co-ordination in evidence on this shot. The palate is certainly consistent between cat, walls and steps.

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May 06 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Heart-Shaped Waterfall, kinda

Sunday 5th May 2024, 11.00am (day 4,637)

Waterfall of sorts, 5/5/24

More greenery. It’s not much to look at here, but this was the sum total of the flow over the Heart-Shaped Waterfall on this May Sunday. However, at least it was flowing; usually it is wholly dry, but there was plenty of rain at the weekend which stimulated it into some kind of life. It’s a nice spot to walk to, at least, but close up it’s impossible to capture its drama in a single shot, unlike from a distance.

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May 06 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The avocado tree

Saturday 4th May 2024, 11.55am (day 4,636)

Avocados, 4/5/24

For various reasons St Helena is no agricultural paradise. Some types of fresh fruit and veg can be picked up fairly easily (tomatoes are currently easy to find, for example) but others are never seen. Potatoes, particularly. Ask for potatoes in a shop and you will either be laughed at or, as happened to me once, the shopkeeper will mutter, under his breath, “try me on Monday”, with a wink, as if you’ve asked for cocaine.

However, these beauties are currently growing happily on the tree in the courtyard outside my apartment. The landlord told me not to pick them off the tree, and I honestly haven’t. But they will, at some point, fall to the ground…. and at that point I consider them fair game.

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May 04 2024
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Daily Post, Transport

Jacob’s Ladder

Friday 3rd May 2024, 11.10am (day 4,635)

Jacob's Ladder, 3/5/24

Jacob’s Ladder has 699 steps, and rises 602 feet up from Jamestown to the fort above. It was originally built to transport goods, using carts and a mule-powered pulley system. Nowadays it sees traffic from the locals who breeze up and down it as if it were nothing more than a stairway at home, and the occasional visitor, like me, who thinks — yeah, OK, I really should give it a shot. But bear in mind there is only one escape point, at step 285: after that, you are committed. My time up this morning — 13 minutes and 45 seconds, not bad for an ageing geezer. But I am never going down it. Nope, not ever.

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May 03 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Web across the path

Thursday 2nd May 2024, 10.00am (day 4,634)

Cobweb, 2/5/24

There is nothing St Helena-specific about this shot, but on the other hand, this isn’t the kind of thing I would expect to see stretched across my path on my walk to work in Manchester. But here it was this morning, as I headed for my appointment at the local secondary school. Big bugger too: I was kinda glad the maker wasn’t at home; what you see in the centre is just the remains of its last meal, by the looks of things.

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May 01 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Setting up at the Yacht Club

Wednesday 1st May 2024, 4.55pm (day 4,633)

Yacht Club setup, 1/5/24

Believe me, the St Helena Yacht Club is not as posh a place as it sounds. But it is certainly the best place in town to watch the sun set over the Atlantic, and on Wednesday nights there is a regular food night of some description. In early 2023 it was Taco Night — nowadays it has morphed into Fish Night. Either way, I was there early, and the guy with the impressively pointy beard is still setting up.

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May 01 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Jamestown banyan tree

Tuesday 30th April 2024, 10.50am (day 4,632)

Banyan tree, 30/4/24

I’m no botanist but banyan trees aren’t difficult to identify, with their multiple trunks and more on the way. This is the blog’s second, after the one seen in Brisbane (with the wife) back in 2013.

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