New flights have opened up one of the UK’s most distant outposts, bringing St Helena’s whale sharks, Napoleonic past and locals (known as Saints) that much closer to home
We were chugging along in Anthony’s boat, following St Helena’s north-west coast back to Jamestown, the island’s capital, and the seas were proving busy.
We watched as St Helena’s resident pod of pantropical spotted dolphins – all 300 to 400 of them – frolicked and porpoised purposefully across the waves. “I was confident they’d be here; they head this way each morning,” said Anthony. “But that’s a smaller pod than we sometimes see; some days we can see seven to eight hundred.”
They were an acrobatic bunch, some breaching high out of the water as they went. “Look at that little guy dancing,” pointed Anthony. A baby dolphin, just a few weeks old, kept leaping vertically out of the sea and exuberantly tail-dancing across the waves. “For some reason they always entertain us,” said Anthony. “It’s a real ‘Look at me!’”
There was no doubt that the whale shark and the dolphins were the highlight of the boat trip, but it would have been fascinating even without them. We had seen turtles, a ray and numerous sea birds – brown noddies, black noddies, masked boobies, sooty terns and fairy terns. But it wasn’t just the wildlife that was holding our attention; this was a good opportunity to see the island from the water and appreciate its rugged and forbidding exterior.
This story is from the June 2018 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
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This story is from the June 2018 edition of Wanderlust Travel Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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