More nostalgia from me today-well we do have time to reflect! Today’s title refers to my wonderful journey nearly twenty two years ago now. Many of you will know I left home in August 1998 to spend three months working on the island of St. Helena. I think the Napoleon question a few days ago must of triggered that recollection.

It was certainly an adventure getting there. It all started at RAF Brize Norton where I waited for the RAF VC10 to fly us to Ascension Island. A strategically important airbase on a volcanic rock in the Atlantic. The island inhabitants seemed mainly spies (GCHQ had a presence there), astronomers  and people connected with air base. We had to wait 4 days for the ship RMS St. Helena (sadly no longer in service). The highlight for me on Ascension was to walk through a sooty tern colony a bit like David Attenborough (apparently it has 130,000 birds), I also saw frigate birds and black noddies. The four days were fairly hot. The ship then took 2 days sailing till we got to St. Helena. I will do more on that adventure in future blogs and obviously Napoleon’s shadow will feature in those blogs.

My obtuse quiz answers on mountains

a) Colorado is the state where Rocky Mountain High (written by John Denver and Mike Taylor is one of two official songs.  b) Mount Olympus is the home of the Greek Gods. c) The Misty Mountains first appeared in The Hobbit (and later Lord of the Rings) d) Reichenbach Falls is where Sherlock Holmes met his death  e) Dinas Emrys in Snowdonia is associated with the wizard Merlin (one of my favourite stories to tell is from here).

Today’s Quiz is all on Napoleon

a) Where was he born?     b)  How many years was he on St. Helena (to the nearest year)  c) What was his first rank in the French Army? d) Name the composer who wrote a famous piece of music connected to perhaps Napoleon’s most significant defeat e) What did one of Napoleon’s officers accidently discover on 15th July 1799 in Egypt?