Ascension Island by air for the trip home

Chasing sunshine into darkness of time zone we were treated to a shepherds delight red sunset at our sky top window on the Southern World. Air travel, it’s not like sailing. The Captain announced our decent for Ascension Island.

Steamy heat in the customs cage to say goodbye to our Wave Ruler mates.  Load those bags on the minibus, let’s get checked in the one and only Island Hotel. Hotel Obesidon, A Cape Verdi like place, sport fishermen and navy flags with an American air base. Watch out for the bugs, lights out and mosquito nets down.

Life on Ascension Island.  07.55.50 S  14.24.50 W

First stop the British Army Naafi for the old Spar Shop some summer shoes, port and starboard laces, sun tan cream and Schweppes lemonade.

Ascension, a gem of all things Earth. Wild volcanic lava fields, wicked red strewn Mars landscape. Golly, it’s more real than that. This is a home of NASA, radar and every generation of satellite dish from Noah and the Ark. Dish holes dug in the Earth to impress James Bond sets and long wave aerials stretching beyond the galaxy. BBC Earth station a dishy picture beamed direct for Alexander Palace.

Baron red dust mountains by the dozen with a mighty contrast to Green Mountain, like it says on the can, covered with all things green. Wild Banana trees lined the road of lush vegetation for a chalk and cheese relationship of nature between equator wonder and volcanic desolation where the prickly cactus defended the edge zone.

Water too deep for coral reefs and Nemo fish but yellow sand beaches a delight with an abundance of salt water marine friends to dazzle the windows of the scuba goggles loaned to us by the hotel.  Comfortless Bay,  famous in modern day for the cable ashore that brought first Trans Atlantic phones for the Eastern Telegraph Company. Who are they then? Our history lesson on the beach was the joint venture between Eastern telegraph and Marconi to form today’s Cable and Wireless Company. 

Time to find Brown Owl Cheryl, set for the Friday Girl Guide meeting, badge exchange and ceremonial, we are not finished with One Hundred Centenary year specials yet.

Sunset to a great day on this Mid Atlantic Island that should be a must stop for any Paradise hunter. Darkness for us was not Ice berg watch but beach watch. We joined up with the conservation teams to count turtles. Egg laying season for the big green monsters to dig sand and lay eggs.

A long way from our Ice Berg rescue by the Royal Navy, time to chill in the heat and recover our Southern Ocean adventure ready for the days home.