Wow this was a fun and intense one. We all met up in Johannesburg South Africa to start the trip. The next morning we flew to St Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic. This was the most remote place Paul has ever been (even more than Antarctica). St Helena is a British island and has an  incredible history. First discovered by the Portuguese in the 1500s it was then taken over by the British East India   company as a safe port between Cape Town and the UK. Its most famous resident was Napoleon who was exiled   there after escaping his first exile. He actually died on the island and his Grave is there for everyone to see still now   in beautiful gardens.

  We dove everyday with Sub Tropic Adventures led by Anthony and Paul who were fantastic all the way through.   The diving was different to most places we have been with giant volcanic boulders and walls as well as lots of   wrecks.

 One of the highlights of the diving was all the endemic species we got to see from the St Helena Butterfly fish that encapsulated every dive site by there thousands to the endemic Scorpionfish and hogfish. The dive sites were littered with lots of lobster who unlike in Florida are not scared of humans and walk around with not a care in the World. The Mobula rays were another highlight. We were lucky enough to see them on almost every dive, and on one particular dive 7 of them stayed with us for over 30 mins coming in low over us and playing in our bubbles.

The wrecks were fantastic to see as well and they varied from smuggling boats to the RSS Darkdale which was an Oil Tanker sunk in the 2^nd World War in the harbor that was huge and would take lots of dives to see it all.

The island offered a very chilled and relaxed vibe with everyone knowing everyone and everything about everyone. We toured the island one day with Aarons tours who were excellent and Aarons knowledge was incredible. We got to see all the sites and also Jonathan the Giant Tortoise, the oldest living thing on land in the World.

After a week in St Helena we stressfully waited to see if the 1 flight a week would arrive so we could leave and make the rest of the trip. The flight frequently can not land due to weather conditions and this was a little concern the day we were leaving. However we made it off the rock and back to Johannesburg for another overnight and then onto Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe.  Victoria falls has an incredible awe around it with the noise of the falls being heard constantly from a few miles away. Some of the group took helicopter rides over the falls and other hiked the park early in the morning. 

That day we headed to Huwange National park to the beautiful Bonomi lodge. This offered us the chance for 3 days of safari including some incredible walks tracking and following Elephants. One of the highlights of the safari was the Rhino Project run by Imvelo. This project is focused on re-introducing Rhinos into the Huwange National Park. This project really caught the attention of our group and we were able to walk with the 2 Rhinos they have which was very special.

After the safari most of the group headed home with a few carrying on for a few days of extra Safari in South Africa.

This was a great trip and offered us the chance to experience some of the most untouched areas of the World. We will definitely do this again.

Diving St Helena (2024.Mar) from Dancing Shark Studio on Vimeo. This incredible video was shot on the trip by Karen Doby