G&B: Mar/Apr 2023: Remote Atlantic Islands

Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble

Day 26 - Full day tour of Ascension Island

Friday 21st April 2023

This is part two of the story for today. Although it was still only just after breakfast, part one (on the previous page) is devoted to the very early morning sight of frigate birds (predominantly) that I saw close to Boatswain Bird Island. Now it was time to sail the short distance along the coast to Georgetown, where we would be disembarking for our tour today.

This is not how I imagined the island would look. The rock formations and colours are really beautiful.

Getting close to Georgetown.

Three of the hard-working members of the expedition team. Hans, Sara and Chris.

Me, doing my preparations for going ashore to spy island!

Disclaimer for all to read and sign.

Officials coming over to begin landing formalities.

One team approaches and comes on board.

Another team inspects the ship's hull.

Some officials stay on their boat to keep an eye on things.

Black triggerfish, or simply “blackfish” as the Ascension locals call them.

Formalities completed, the expedition team sets off to help us get ashore.

The schedule for today. (It all worked pretty much according to plan).

After two and a half days at sea, it was good to be in a zodiac heading for land once again.

There is no harbour as we know it. This is where we "swung" ashore!

Looking back to the ship after setting foot on the land.

The "visitor centre" was somewhat underwhelming.

We all had to pass inspection in one of the warehouses before being allowed any further.

Finally, we were escorted on a short walk to the Georgetown turtle ponds, close to a beach.
This poor baby turtle seems to have got squashed.

The beach looked nice, but it was out of bounds to us.

The turtle ponds (no turtles!)

Inside this bucket were at least four baby turtles.

A local guide gave a talk as we waited for everybody from the ship to arrive. Then we were all led over to the waiting fleet of minibuses and other vehicles to begin the road tour. It was hot and the buses were a bit past their best. There was no air-conditioning and windows could have been cleaner (as can be seen in the distortion of several photos I took from mine) but I wasn't complaining... well not a lot anyway.

This is the route we took, starting from Georgetown (on the left and not actually marked, but it's adjacent to Long Beach). We drove south towards the US base near Cat Hill, then across towards Green Mountain. We returned to Georgetown via Two Boats, with a detour to Comfortless Cove and the Bonetta Cemetery, stopping again for some good views of Georgetown from the Jubilee View Picnic Area.

Not so much a fully fledged airforce base, the U.S. Space Force is a small division of the U.S. Air Force and there aren't that many personnel stationed here now, but it is capable of being ramped up at short notice should the need arise.

The base commander was a very friendly, welcoming man and gave a nice talk.

We didn't visit the nearby Royal Air Force base. It wasn't clear whether it was even open to visitors, but we assumed not.

It was lovely to be in the fresh mountain air after the heat of the coast. The ride up here, however, was not for the faint-hearted and I was fervently hoping that the brakes on the rather old minibus had been serviced recently!

The Red Lion, completed in 1863, was assumed to be the barracks for non-commissioned officers who worked on the mountain farm. It continued to house farm workers until the 1990s when the mountain farm was permanently closed. It has since been renovated and the ground floor of the building serves as a display area, with the first floor housing a lecture theatre and classroom facility.

A white tern, known locally on Ascension as Fairy terns.

A local guide gave us an interesting talk about the Green Mountain National Park.

We were lucky to see this land crab, which is generally nocturnal.

Going back down the same way we came up.

Most buildings here look like they could do with a lick of paint. This included the Two Boats Club building.

It was really hot, once again. Drinks were free, although there was quite a long queue for them.

The buffet lunch wasn't bad. Nothing special, but it was nice to have some fresh ingredients.

It was too hot to play!

The guides had the right idea to sit on the shady side of the building. I got chatting to a couple of them and they are all from St Helena working on 12 month contracts which are usually extended. They are only allowed to stay on the island whilst they have paid employment. As part of the deal they get free flights between the two islands (although there is only one flight per month in each direction!).

Historically one and two upturned boats were set up as shelters for travellers on their journey down to the coast from Green Mountain. The boats were carefully positioned where they provided shelter from the afternoon sun on the way back from Green Mountain - (shelter was not required on the journey up the mountain in the morning when temperatures were cooler).

With the development of the village at Two Boats the two boats there disappeared and only the one boat at One Boat remains. More recently, it has become customary when sports people depart the island, that they leave their trophies inside the shelter. Curious.

From here, we took the detour towards Comfortless Cove and the Bonetta Cemetery.

I couldn't get enough of the weird landscape, littered with modern infrastructure and equipment.

Keeping an eye on our ship in the distance.

Comfortless Cove - One of the few beaches that are safe to swim from.

More black triggerfish.

One the way back to Georgetown (and not far from One Boat) is this garish looking rock on a plinth. It is covered in multi-coloured paints. There is a long standing tradition that if you are leaving the island and are keen not to return, you have to paint the rock, unseen, and at night. Given the freshness of the paint in this picture, a number of people have obviously recently left hoping not to return.