Bye, for now ....

It was with a great deal of sadness (and over a week of farewells) that Fran and I departed St Helena on Monday. Unfortunately the main conservation job did not pay sufficient to offset rapidly rising costs on the island (10% inflation, a 100% increase in utilities, introduction of a 20% import duty). These same costs ensure that most Saints (with an average annual wage about 1/5th of what we were earning) are unlikely to be able to raise themselves above poverty (or very close to it). It was a surreal experience - as we were packing the Government announced the signing of a contract to build the airport - something that is likely to change the way of life on the island. We are so pleased that we managed to see St Helena when we did, and look forward to returning in a few years time and seeing all our friends. And just maybe we might be able to fly there (or maybe not - the promise of an airport on St Helena has been raised several times in the past 20 years!).

The five days on the rocking boat did allow for me to (nearly) catch up on my photos. Here are a few of the recent ones.

Now if this Cape Town hotel room would just stop swaying ...

Great Stone Top - the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere

Drying St Helena coffee - one of the most expensive in the world

part of the last remaining canopy formed by endemic gumwood trees at Peak Dale. This site is also the last home of several insects that require such a canopy. Worryingly, this canopy is provided by about 20 old trees.

Masked boobies are recolonising St Helena (here near the Asses Ears) - one of the few times that a seabird species has recolonised a settled island!

A rare sight - 11 wirebird in flight (a 12th straggler was cropped from the frame)

Vanessa Thomas and Andrew Darlow with the collection of seed from endangered endemic plants that they have gathered over the past three years

One of the earlier conservation efforts - the great wall - built to keep goats from the last large stand of gumwood trees. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful and the area is now a barren area of eroded clays locally known as Crown Waste

Members of the Deadwood Syndicate inspect their cattle before ear-tagging the calves

Fran negotiating a steep narrow portion of track on the way to Lots Wife's Ponds

One of the few joys in the world when you nest in the open and have to sit on an egg for a few weeks is the freedom to crap in a complete circle

Fran and Mike on Little Stone Top