Another snippet from my St Helenian adventure is all about how one spent the leisure hours on a small island in the middle of the South Atlantic. The great thing when I was there was that my working day really did finish by 4 p.m. (all preparation for our work with teachers had been done back in the UK so it wasn’t like being at home where I would invariably be in school to some ridiculous hour). I managed plenty of reading while I was there as well as the ship! Weekends on the island were also free-no planning to do etc. With the nature of the isolation you had to find things to do -I did have an ambition to play cricket on the island but their season had finished-so dashing my hope of being an international cricketer-that came later! I obviously visited all the historical sites on the island sometimes two or three times. I took part in a couple of Hash Trails-this involves running following a trail marked by flour but with many false ones and dead ends. You end up drinking beer at the end it has been called by people “a drinking club with a running problem”. This was good fun and a great social activity.
We often joined a group that did hikes across to various parts of the island and had a picnic. We followed old fishing paths that were not marked on the map. It was on one of these walks where we met JJ a charismatic Geordie (he was engineer) who liked to make the walks more adventurous by carrying some ropes with him so we could climb. Some snippets from my journal
“………the six of us walked along a precarious and slippery ridge till we reached the end of the peninsula. We took it turns to go down to a rock platform fractionally above sea level. Great fun dropping down and climbing back up. Stetson suggested we go back over the top. Slightly apprehensive I followed closely up a steep incline that involved some serious scrambling. Soaking with sweat and aching limbs we eventually met up with the others…………..An exhilarating day, I felt I had rediscovered a missing fragment of my youth!”
“………we had walked out and around Turks Cap (a rock formation that looked like a gigantic hat-I did have a picture of it in a past blog)…. we slid down on the rope to the beach and spent time climbing the rocks as the sea would crash around you. We made our way out to Barnes Rock but even JJ thought it was too dangerous to proceed because the waves were so large (No RNLI or mountain rescue here). There had been one precarious moment when I dangled precariously over the foaming ocean below …….” The pictures below between the quiz questions is JJ by the sea and me on High Hill!
Yesterday’s Cake Quiz Answers
a) Ice cream is the filling in Baked Alaska b) The ancient Greeks started the tradition of candles on birthday cakes c) Marie Antoinette allegedly said “Let them eat cake” d) Miss Havisham let the wedding cake to decay e) Easter is the time for Simnel cake
Today’s Quiz (thought we would do famous mountaineers as I mentioned climbing in the blog)
a) Who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the summit of Everest in 1953? b) Who made the first solo climb of Everest without oxygen? c) Who disappeared on Everest in 1924? (there are two answers-one will do!) d) Which well known British climber died this year- he was 89? e) What is the name given to the Nepalese group of famed climbers?