This nature-packed, green-list island halfway around the world is the ideal escape Giant whale sharks, oversized tortoises, thousands of square miles of ocean… Saint Helena is the very opposite of a mini break 16 May 2021 • 4:00pm Jamestown, the capital of Saint Helena, sits in a steep valley on the island's western side Credit: Uwe Moser/Istockphoto There are very few reasons to be bobbing around in a small boat in the middle of the ocean, in the rain, wearing only a swimming costume and snorkel. With not another boat in sight, all I can see are the looming, distant, coal-dark cliffs of Saint Helena, a British overseas territory in the middle of the South Atlantic.