A game of Saints

for Dad and Cam, who might understand some of the following.

Mike has been involved in that most gentlemanly of endeavours - cricket. On Saint Helena its the second most popular sport after soccer and is played by about 10% of adults (males only, woman play volleyball). The island only has one playing pitch in use - Francis Field - whose steep cliffs have already killed one player (in the 1800's). There, a rather battered plastic mat sits in the middle of an outfield that wouldn't look out of place as a golf rough. Its a great game to be involved in and there are very few non-saints that play. However, it is played island-style. Back-chat and barracking are common. Bowlers value speed over any sense of direction and practice is unheard of. Batsman sneer at the thought of having throwdowns before their innings. Some do wear helmets though. Fielding has that added element of spice with not knowing if the ball is going to jump off a piece of rock or grass clump and hit dead centre. Matches are played in all weather, including tropical downpours. Mike got bought in as a replacement (the other replacement had broken down) for Western B (the B doesn't signify anything apart from that there used to be more than 1 Western team - for example Longwood C are top of the table at the moment) and when they heard that he used to be a wicket keeper they immediately gave him a place on the team. Mike "neglected" to mention that he hadn't played serious cricket for something over 20 years (but then the previous keeper used to give away about 40 runs in extras per game, apparently). After scoring a duck batting at 8 in the first game he was promoted to 6 (go figure: the first 3 shots must have looked really good in the grandstand) where he top scored for the team (13 not out - we didn't get many runs) he was then promoted to his permanent position of number 4. There he has had a chequered career and is better known for his tenacity and finding imaginative ways to get out just as he's getting his eye in. He is facing some seriously fast bowlers though. His keeping is going better (now that he has a pair of gloves that fits - his next quest is to find a pair that fit and ALSO have some grip remaining) and he even manages to get the odd catch which make the rest of the team happy (catching on St Helena is a bit of a have a go affair). Hasn't got a stumping yet, but that's only a matter of time. The team has now raised itself off the bottom of the table in the wooden spoon race and this weekend even bet one of the better teams (by 20 runs - 3 of which were Mike's - though he does put in that his partnership was worth 30 runs). Below are a few photos of Saint Helena cricket, and the all-important after barbecue.

Francis Plain cricket field, with High Knoll Fort on hill. Yes, it's raining (again).

Our captain Anty Leo heading out. We're hoping for a captain's knock, failing that, a miracle. Note the rain (again)

Eddie Duff (real name Gavin Ellick, go figure) scoring (and keeping out of the rain).

Spectators. Not our team. They lost.

The all-important barbecue. Damien chief cook and bottlewasher (and opponent) assists head chef Eddie/Gavin (I think it had stopped raining by now).

Moving rapidly on ...

To try and get this blog up to date, here are some of the other things we've done since we arrived:

We had a great, but hot, trip out through the bad lands of the Crown Wastes to collect seed from Tea Plant (Frankenia portulacifolia). Like most endemic Saint Helena plants, there were only a few plants and very very few seedlings

Photo: Tea Plant (Frankenia portulacifolia) at Gill Point, Great Stone Top in background


We had some fun taking photos of some of the amazing eroded clay marls in the Crown Wastes near Bradley's Garage:

Photo: Samphire (Suaeda helensis) on eroded clay marls of the Crown Wastes. King and Queen Rocks in background.




We also went to a fun meal at Anne's Place (one of the few local eateries) as part of a big Leo family get-together. Lots of fun and a huge range of different people. Here's some of them getting ready to chow down:

Photo: Leo family clan at Anne's Place buffet


We also were on the radio talking about the work we do out here. Luckily it wasn't live - but the nerves were bad enough anyway. We had to record the same programme twice - for the 2 radio stations here. As there are 2 radio stations and 2 newspapers everyone does everything twice, including buying the 2 different papers that have 95% exactly the same stories, but the Independent one has interesting exposes - and enjoys poking fun at the government.

Photo: Fran and Isabel Peters about to record the environment radio show at Radio St Helena. Gotta love the 1950's decor


The radio station is near one of the last two adult bastard gumwood trees that George Benjamin planted outside his house following its rediscovery at Horse Pasture (where it has now died). There are false gumwood planted nearby so the mesh is to prevent hybridisation between the two. It does mean however that lots of time is spent catching ladybirds to keep the insect pests inside the tent under control.

Photo: bastard gumwood (Commidendrum rotundifolium) under protective netting at George Benjamin's house, Pounceys.


We also visited one of the better preserved cannon emplacements above Jamestown:

Photo: 12.5 pounder cannon at Sampsons Batterie looking towards upper Jamestown

seriously steep - and then some

One of our first walks was following local Saint Stedson Stroud. Stedson has been responsible for the discovery for two extinct plants (boxwood and bastard gumwood) on St Helena and for finding an extinct fern on Ascension. Being a Saint his ancestry includes mountain goat (and we mean that in a positive way!!) - a feature that he displayed during the day. The day started off well with the opportunity to get some good moody photographs of scrubwood (Commidendrum rugosum) one of the commoner endemic Saint Helena plants - if you can call a species that totals probably below 1000 individuals as common!

                              Photo: Commidendrum robustum scrubwood

So off we started off on the walk that Stedson described as "a bit of a walk".

We passed the site of his boxwood (Mellisia begonifolia) discovery:

                                Photo: Stedson Stroud with the last wild plants of boxwood Mellisia begonifolia on St Helena



The scenery was amazing, but starting to get worryingly steep:

Now, try and picture this: walking on rough ballbearings scattered on a 30-50 degree slope that drops ever steeper either into a deep deep gully or over 300 m coastal cliffs straight into the sea. You keep thinking - or more accurately - NOT thinking "Don't look down. Don't look down. Just relax" and all the calming mantras one can think of, plus singing songs in your head to take to displace the gathering fear. Then Stedson informed us "That's the easier part, it gets a bit steeper now". We did try it ....



 ... and then thought discretion is the better part of valour and headed up a still very steep slope back up 400 m to the ridge. Our boss, Jamie, with many reservations, continued to follow Stedson. Here's a photo as they approach the bad bit (look closely, you can see them both):

We eventually reunited with Stedson and Jamie. Jamie had a few choice words to say about the route (mostly - actually, all, unrepeatable). Even Stedson admitted it wasn't quite what he remembered. Just sooo glad we took our own path!




Stedson wants us to go on a walk to look for an unusual plant he saw a few years back. He describes it as "a bit of a mission". We're thinking about it.

For the first week we didn't have any transport so on our time off we had to explore nearby. Luckily there's lots to see nearby. Jamestown has a huge collection of old ruins, older ruins, and piles of rocks that were once ruins. They've all got their own history. This day we headed out to the point by the "harbour" (exposed bay more like) where there are some old canon batteries, fortifications and some 1950's prisons that were built to house three Bahrain prisoners after a failed coup attempt. St Helena has a looooong history of being used as a prison, some claim its still being used as one! These photos are where they had these three guys incarcerated. They were finally released in 1961

 

we also went and looked at some of the endangered wirebird (a dotterel). They're cute .....

unfortunately the same can not be said for some of our workmates!

Though their nearest and dearest probably/possibly disagree

The journey (so far ...)

We had a great day in Cape Town doing last minute shopping for the things you might need when you're on a small remote island in the middle of (nearly) nowhere. Unfortunately we couldn't find vegemite, unfortunately we could find marmite. So Fran was happy, Mike not so happy. Finally left Cape Town a day behind schedule due to strong winds. Here's a photo of the tug working hard to keep us on course

Met some great Saints (local's name for Saint Helenians) on the bus out to the RMS Saint Helena (affectionately known as the RMS) and met them outside the on-board bar, waiting for it to open. Then followed five days of pretty much eating and drinking ourselves into oblivion. A jaunty little tune was played before each meal and before long we were as well trained as Pavlov's dogs and started salivating and heading for the diner as soon as the first notes were played. Recreation consisted of talking and drinking, playing very English deck games (Quoits??) and drinking, or just drinking and drinking interspersed with some snoozes broken by occasional bouts of sleep. We tried to keep the first beer to the right side of the yard arm, and some times we even managed to do that. I did take a photograph on the boat:

 
Which says it all really.



And then ...




as were were viewing our ever-expanding waistlines with disbelief



and wondering if there is a Saint Helena Chapter of Alcoholocs Amonymous (hic)



We arrived off of Jamestown in the early light of dawn



                                  it wasn't a particularly inviting first view:

But at least it was land, and the possibility of OTHER kinds of beer other than Windhoek Lager or Castle (unfortunately, we were sadly mistaken)

Photo: Fran with Saint Eddie (right) and Saint Eric (left) on first sighting of the island


Next up: some stuff on the island

Hot and bothered

After battling check-in staff over the trifling 30kg or more that we were overweight (our baggage, not us) we managed to resmuggle about 20kg back into our hand luggage. Which made us very nervous each time we had to move to another plane. it also meant that during our 11 hour stop-over in Abu Dhabi that we had to carry it all with us ... in 40 degree heat. We lasted about an hour before hailing a taxi (it said it was on the sign on the rusty roof - the absence of a working fare meter, doors that worked and most windows made us think that taxi was a fairly optimistic term for it). This photo is evidence that we were there

Ummm, welcome?

Welcome to The Banzai Chicken Blog. We meant to set this up when we arrived on the island, and well ... that was now two months ago. Despite this initial setback we have now managed to get something up on screen. We hope you enjoy reading about what we're doing (or not doing if my sore back doesn't get better) and seeing some of the photos from around here.

In case you're wondering. We named the post after the two chickens that we have here - when there is food in the offering they get airborne with excitement and come screaming in at knee height