In February of 2017 I asked people in anticipation of my autumn trip to Tristan da Cunha to mail me postcards so that I might receive them when I arrived on the island. Although I did not travel to Tristan on the Agulhas II (I travelled on the Edinburgh) there were twenty-seven articles of mail waiting for me when I checked in at the post office. Four additional articles for me travelled on board the Edinburgh.

What a surprise to find a package in the mail from Renée Green, from my Tristanian host family, containing seven additional postcards that had arrived since my departure from the island three years ago this month. She had been saving them for me. Judging from the postmark on one of them, which was mailed in August 2017, merely one month before I departed for the island, it may not have even arrived on Tristan until 2018. Renée is stuck in Manchester, UK, with her son Dylan, unable to get back home via Cape Town. This past summer Mark and I were going to visit Renée, Dylan, plus Renée’s daughters Kimmy and Janice who are studying in Manchester. The worldwide pandemic put an end to all international travel.

Renée sent the cards along and I have included the postmarks and stamps. What still surprises me is how broad my blog reaches. I don’t use any of the most popular blog forums or social media sites yet if people are interested enough in travel to Tristan da Cunha, they will find me. Some of the people who wrote me did in fact get a postcard mailed from Tristan, yet I am sorry to say that the blog followers who I don’t know who mailed their postcards too late, didn’t. That’s why I sent out my postcard callout on February 1–mail to Tristan does indeed take many months.