Ascension Island

 It has been very peaceful here over the quiet Easter weekend. Communications have been tricky as one buys an hour of Wi-fi from The Saints Club for £5 which runs out awfully quickly with slow connections! I should have paid £70 for a week perhaps - it would probably have been cheaper!.

Without transport we have been a bit confined to Georgetown, exploring the Museum and Fort, the old Exiles Club (closed) with its deep-set verandahs to maintain a cool interior. The clock tower above it stands eternally at 11:47 and was erected to avoid having to fire the cannon every hour!  It is said that time hangs so heavy on those stationed here that when the new clock struck every quarter hour, it is said to have elicited groans of “Oh Gawd!” from the Exiles Club Members.

We walked a hot road up to the US Army base, where we found hot dogs and pizzas, and a lively bar with cheap beers. On an island riven with the stress of infrequent supplies of fresh vegetables, the Volcano Club is currently the only place we could get a salad.  The British and US military bases independently stock produce, but don’t seem to share it, much to the annoyance of islanders. A hydroponic farm produces some fresh vegetables, but we met its manager who is struggling with a blight that has swept through the tomatoes and other produce, and getting irate customers desperate for their vegetables.

Ascension really is one of the most remote places on earth.  There’s a monthly air service from South Africa via St Helena, with the next one due on the 14th April. Military flights arrive from Florida or Brize Norton every two weeks but no longer carry any civilian passengers. A ship comes every month, but the last one had technical problems, and the cargo of fresh vegetables was on the verge of being sold off in St Helena when a cruise ship was commandeered to deliver it next week. So the island’s few shops are very low on stock.  There are two places to eat out on the two bases, but each offer only burgers or pizza (although I did get fish n chips at the US Volcano Club).

Finally on Easter Monday I made contact with Serena, who runs a little shop and BnB up at Two Boats village, and managed to rent her car.  As always it’s a great liberation to be able to set off to explore by road and we were soon grinding  in first gear up the steep single track hairpins of Green Mountain. Suddenly the cooler air was refreshed with scents of eucalyptus, and the smell of moist earth and ferns.

Lush rainforest vegetation has been established since the 19th century initiative of Sir Joseph Hooker and Charles Darwin which planted the mountain to change its microclimate to a wetter one.  We passed the Residency of the Island Administrator, and then up to The Red Lion, an abandoned social club with a fine clock tower perched high above the island.  I found a shady bench at a deserted cottage called "Cronks", overlooking the amazing view down to the harbour and settled down to try a bit of sketching while Mark and Justin headed off for a couple of hours of adventure on Elliot’s Trail round the mountain through various tunnels.

Georgetown from Green Mountain

Ascension Island

That evening we met the Nature Comservancy team just before 9pm and, after an excellent video about the wildlife of Ascension, we walked through the brightest moonlight to the silver sands where huge turtles were hauling themselves slowly out of the surf, digging great pits in the sand and then laboriously laying hundreds of eggs.  We watched one 200kg female finish laying her brood, then carefully covering the hole with sand using her back flippers, before disguising the whole site with her powerful front flippers.  The little hatchlings will emerge in 60 days and struggle to the sea, from which perhaps one in a thousand will survive to adulthood to return to the place of their birth.   They aren’t mature until about 20 years old, and until that time circulate on the currents of the Atlantic, finally returning the 1200 miles from Brazil when they are ready to mate at the full moon.  No one as yet understands how they navigate, although like many animals they do detect magnetic lines of force.

There are the remains of turtle pens which are flooded at high tide, with low stone walls to prevent the turtles from escaping.  A narrow gauge railway still has trolleys which transported the turtles to waiting ships, which used to stock up with live turtles to provide fresh food on voyages.