Pictures of Ascension Island
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 27 May 2014 04:17
We're at Nanny Quay marina and Holiday Village on the
island of Tortola in the BVIs. It's a lovely place to relax, if only we had the
time! We've had a hectic 2 weeks working on the boat, but more on that
later. One of the good things about Nanny Cay is that it has very good free
wifi, probably the best we have experienced from the boat, so we can send
pictures. The ones below are of Ascension island. It's quite a unique place in a
lot of respects.
Approaching the island it's volcanic nature
is pretty clear to see.
The anchorage is very open and subject to
swell. You have to anchor quite a long way out in deep
water where the swell has less effect.
There were just 2 boats when we arrived. Most give it a miss
due to it's reputation for swell and the problems that
causes when trying to go ashore. There is no sheltered dingy
dock and getting ashore without getting wet is not easy.
.
Little vegetation on this part of the island
and it all looked like it erupted just the other day.
There's little vegetation anywhere, except
for the highest peak shown here, Green Mountain,
which
is very green.
Barren hills and radio masts - just
some of the many masts on the island. Being in the middle of the
South Atlantic, it's a key communications
base and there are a lot of aerials of all shapes and
sizes.
Part of the very long runway in the American
base. British military planes land here and it became
one of the busiest airports in the World
during the Falkland's war. The runway was extended to
make
it long enough for the Space Shuttle to land
here.
Some of the geological structures are quite
amazing.
They don't look natural, but
are!
Looking down on the main settlement. The
dots off the coast to the right are the anchored
yachts,
just 3 of us. There is no protection other
than the island itself, so if the wind is from the south east
to
east you're okay, apart from the swell that
finds it's way round the island.
More aerials. The soil is all
cinders.
A moonscape with pockets of
green.
Feral donkeys roam the island, and
............
.............. the sea is teeming with black
trigger fish that devour anything that gets thrown into the
water.
When you arrive and drop anchor they are all
round the boat in no time picking off every bit of
growth,
so they do a good job keeping the boats
clean. The boat that had it's supplies (just bought from
the
small shop) washed off the jetty, saw them
being devoured by the fish within seconds.
The Ascension coat of arms on all the
government vehicles.
Buildings in the main settlement,
Georgetown. White on black cinders looked good
........
............. especially with the
church.
Up on Green Mountain they propagate the
endangered endemic plants. We got a lift up to the
top
of the mountain by the conservation
group and were able to do a couple of the excellent walks on the
island.
Looking down on the not-so green rest of the
island.
Up on the Mountain it's much more wet and
humid and it's often covered in cloud, but not today.
Back on one of the beaches and a turtle
hatchling starts it's journey down to the sea. Turtles
breed
on many of the beaches around the island.
(It's dark so we were using red light that doesn't
disorientate and confuse the
turtles).
The military supply ship from the UK. It's a
rare visitor and caused a lot of excitement on the
island.
The RMS St Helena is the regular supply ship
for normal goods and stops by every couple of weeks
or so.
Back on the mountain, showing how green it
is.
Looking down on the giant mole
hills!
The top of the mountain has a small bamboo
forest. It was planted to try
and keep the moisture in and stop it
evaporating too quickly. Catching
water and keeping it has always been one of
the main issues on the island.
In recent times these plates were built to
funnel the water down the hillside.
Now all the water is produced by
desalination plants. The old water reservoirs are
used to water the endangered plants they're
propagating.
Just shows how close the volcanic cones are
to the building. Good job the cones have been dormant
for a long
time!
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