Saint Helena contains six primary mountain bike trails. When you rent from us, we may transport you and the bikes to and from the trailheads. We'll provide you with online maps, so that you may follow the routes on your mobile phones as you ride. Each trail enjoys a connection to the island's unique history and geography: 1.BLUE HILL TRAIL (11km, loop, astounding views) (11 km) - Blue Hill is one of eight districts of the island of Saint Helena, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is sparsely populated and comprises the western third of the island. The district is entirely agricultural with no industrial activity. Terrain in the district is quite varied with steep ridges and a limited amount of flat ground, as befits the island's volcanic origin. Blue Hill's main settlement, with the location of the community centre, is Blue Hill Village. The district also includes the settlements of Barren Ground, Head o' Wain, and Thompson's Wood, together with a few scattered cottages. Blue Hill is the largest, most remote, most rural, least populated and least densely populated of the eight districts of Saint Helena. Its population has fluctuated from 177 in 1998 to 153 in 2008 and 174 in 2021. 2.BALCOMBE TRAIL (18 km, out and back, road, historic sites) (38 km) - Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe, commonly known as Betsy Balcombe, was born in 1802 as the second child of William and Jane Balcombe, née Cranston. Her father was Superintendent of Public Sales for the East India Company. Balcombe and her sister Jane, two years her senior, were educated in England. In 1814, the sisters returned to Saint Helena with their parents and two younger brothers. There they resided in a cottage called the Briars, which was the residence of Napoléon Bonaparte during the first three months of his exile in Saint Helena. In October 1815 Napoléon Bonaparte was exiled to Saint Helena by the British government. Because Napoleon's residence, Longwood House, had not yet been rehabilitated, he was housed in a pavilion near The Briars for the next two months. Although Balcombe was fearful of Bonaparte the first time they met, over time she and the emperor became friends. The French officers and servants were jealous of the young English girl, who addressed Napoleon as "Boney", without being reprimanded by him. Balcombe often visited Napoleon after he was removed to Longwood House. The European press recognised the relationship between the 47-year-old Napoleon and the teenage girl and wrote about a love story. In March 1818, the Balcombes left St Helena and went back to England. St Helena Governor Hudson Lowe disapproved of the friendship between the Balcombes and Napoleon, suspecting them of smuggling secret messages out of Longwood House. In May 1822, Betsy Balcombe married Edward Abell and had a daughter, but the marriage soon failed. Balcombe earned money by teaching music. In 1824 she made a visit with her family to New South Wales, Australia, but returned to England soon after. In 1830 she returned to New South Wales with her brother William and together they took up a land grant adjoining their father's property near Bungonia. Some years later she returned to London and in 1844 published a book, Recollections of Emperor Napoleon. After further travels in France and Algeria, Betsy Abell died in London, on 29 June 1871, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. 3.BENGUELA TRAIL (16 km, loop, long distance, varying terrain) The Benguela Current is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre. The current extends from roughly Cape Point in the south, to the position of the Angola-Benguela front in the north, at around 16°S. The current is driven by the prevailing south easterly trade winds. Inshore of the Benguela Current proper, the south easterly winds drive coastal upwelling, forming the Benguela Upwelling System. The cold, nutrient rich waters that upwell from around 200–300 m (656–984 ft) depth in turn fuel high rates of phytoplankton growth, and sustain the productive Benguela ecosystem. The climate of Saint Helena is tropical, marine and mild, tempered by the Benguela Current and trade winds that blow almost continuously. The climate varies noticeably across the island. Temperatures in Jamestown, on the north leeward shore, are in the range 21–28 °C (70–82 °F) in the summer (January to April) and 17–24 °C (63–75 °F) during the remainder of the year. The temperatures in the central areas are, on average, 5–6 °C (9.0–10.8 °F) lower. Jamestown also has a very low annual rainfall, while 750–1,000 mm (30–39 in) falls per year on the higher ground and the south coast, where it is also noticeably cloudier. There are weather recording stations in the Longwood and Blue Hill districts. 4.BATTERY TRAIL (10 km, loop, mix jeep/singletrack, varying terrain) When the East India Company settled Saint Helena in 1659, the tiny Fort of St. John was thought sufficient to defend St Helena. The island’s best defences were seen as the coast itself with its high cliffs and lack of safe landing places. But after the Dutch invasion of 1673, opinion changed. It was decided to build batteries all around the island. A memo from The East India Company from 1701 indicated that the forts were built mostly using labour provided by convicts and the enslaved. Materials were primarily local stone, but Portland and Purbeck stone brought out from England as ballast in sailing ships was often used in selective positions. Most of the batteries now visible on the island were built during the 18th Century and improved in the 19th. Few of them were actually built in Napoleon’s time. ‍Cox’s Battery‍ is sited on a precipice divided from Turks Cap by a ravine, and is accessible by a rough track along the ridge from Gregory’s Battery. Probably built by Governor Beatson, it was positioned for its guns to bear on Prosperous Bay, serving as a support for ‍Prosperous Bay Battery‍. Today Cox’s Battery is a ruin, but the loose stones to the breastwork indicate that it was a semicircular shape. It is as yet unknown who “Cox” refers to, as no one with that name exists in extant records. Some of the decay to forts following their disuse can be attributed to people seeking building materials, despite local superstitions claiming other reasons. 5.BOER TRAIL (16 km, loop, strenuous uphill – recommend shuttling, intense downhill - needs to be verified) From 1900 to 1902 St. Helena was required to house nearly 6,000 Boer prisoners-of-war. The first shipment of 514 prisoners arrived on the 10th April 1900, including General Pieter Arnoldus "Piet" Cronjé and his wife, a Colonel Schiel, and 21 other officers. General and Mrs. Cronjé were taken to Kent Cottage in Half Tree Hollow where they were to stay for the duration of their time on the island. The remaining prisoners were marched via Napoleon Street to Deadwood Plain, where they encountered a fence of barbed wire surrounding several hundred square metres containing canvas tents in which they were to be housed for the duration of their stay on the island. Another instalment of prisoners arrived two weeks later on 26th April. Between April 1900 and February 1902 around five and a half thousand Boer prisoners-of-war arrived on the island. In addition to General Cronjé the island also hosted another important Boer General: Ben Viljoen who had been ambushed and captured towards the end of the war. Viljoen arrived at St. Helena on 25th February 1902 and resided in a small house outside the Deadwood Plain Camp. Although a number of prisoners died, being buried at Knollcombes, the islanders and Boers developed a relationship of mutual respect and trust, and a few Boers choosing to remain on the island when the war ended in 1902. 6.BARGHASH LOOP (8 km, loop, trail still needs to be verified) Khalid bin Barghash briefly ruled Zanzibar from August 25th to August 27th 1896, seizing power after the sudden death of his cousin Hamad bin Thuwaini who many suspect was poisoned by Barghash. Britain refused to recognize his claim to the throne, preferring as Sultan Hamud bin Muhammed who was more favourable to British interests. In accordance with a treaty signed in 1886 a condition for accession to the sultanate was that the candidate obtain the permission of the British consul and Barghash had not fulfilled this requirement so the British sent an ultimatum to Barghash demanding that he surrender. He did not, barricading himself inside his heavily-fortified palace, which the British decided to take by force. Barghash managed to evade the British forces and was smuggled out of the country to German East Africa where he lived as a Sultan for 20 years. The British continued to pursue him and on 27th February 1917 Barghash was arrested in the Rufiji delta 250 miles from Dar es Salaam. Four months later, on 22nd June he was escorted with his entourage to exile in St. Helena. On arrival Barghash and his followers, seventeen of them, plus three political exiles from Kenya, were kept in military custody in the Jamestown Barracks. There is no information available on the prisoners; all newspapers and other records relating to Barghash were censored during that period. It is known that they did not mix much with the local population. The weather conditions and the lack of Muslims on the island did not suit Barghash. He requested to be moved to his relatives in Oman or to his property in Dar es Salaam, but this request was refused. However, in January 1921 it was decided to send Barghash and his entourage to the Seychelles, where there were already held in exile political prisoners from the Gold Coast, Uganda, Nyasaland, and Somaliland. Barghash and his entourage left St. Helena at the end of April 1921 after four years on the island. He died on the 15th of March 1927 in Mombasa age 53. One additional trail is available as a completely paved, long distance adventure: 7.BEKKER LOOP (45 km) - Briton Bernard Bekker is a fictional character from M. Michael Monarch's upcoming novel "Briton of the Century." Bekker lived on the island from his arrival with his mother as a toddler in 1902, to his departure to serve in the British Army (lying about his age) in the Great War. He did not return to the island until much later in life, to visit the graves of his departed parents. The reasons for Bekker's coming to the island, according to the story, are both complex and tragic. Bekker's mother was English, and his father was a Boer, who was taken prisoner in the Anglo-Boer War. Bekker's mother traveled with her son to the island in an attempt to locate her husband after she learned that many Boer POWs were taken there. In order to gain passage, she disguised herself as an English aristocrat humanitarian. After discovering her husband was not located on the island, as well as several other notices of ill tidings, she fell into a catatonic mute state for most of the remainder of her life. Her husband, who had actually been imprisoned in Ceylon, discovered her on the island many years later, whereupon she revived. Come enjoy these magnificent routes through one of Earth's most unique and captivating landscapes, and soak in the history woven into each tyre track.