here! To starboard!’ shouts Captain Craig Yon,
pointing into the choppy Atlantic swell. Pulling
on a snorkel, I drop into the water with a splash.
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hazy with plankton, dazzlingly blue. But then,
something materialises from the depths.
A mouth. A gigantic mouth. A gaping, cavernous
mouth, large enough to swallow a car and
swimming straight towards me.
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I haul myself back into the boat to tell
Captain Craig about my Moby Dick moment.
He’s unimpressed. Last week, he tells me with
a grin, he saw a school of 30 in this very spot,
," 2&'1 2'+# ,#62 +-,2& " .0- 7 ,"
myself face-to-face with a humpback whale.
Quite why the tiny island of St Helena has
become such a favourite breeding ground
remains mysterious. It almost certainly has
something to do with the island’s astonishing
isolation. Before 2017, St Helena could only be
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Town. Africa is the nearest landmass if you
discount the similarly pint-sized Ascension
Island, 800 miles away. Another dot in the ocean,
Tristan da Cunha, lies 1,500 miles to the south,
while South America is a mighty 2,500 miles to
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The Oldest St Helenian
St Helena’s most senior
citizen is Jonathan
(pictured above), a giant
Seychelles tortoise, who
was given as a gi to the
Governor in 1882. He was
thought to be around 50
when he arrived, which
puts him at about 188 now
- and makes him, as far as
we know, the oldest living
land animal on the planet.
St Helena is surrounded
by volcanic cli s, but the
interior is surprisingly
lush. Previous pages:
Overlooking Sandy Bay
on the south coast