Ascension Island in the Atlantic. Ascension island
Ascension Island ( AscensionIsland)
it volcanic island located in the Atlantic Ocean 1600 km west of the African coast.
It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, from which it is located 1287 kilometers to the northwest. Main city and port - Georgetown (Georgetown).
The island was discovered by the Portuguese Juan di Nova in 1501, but he did not make any descriptions of the island. In 1503, on the day of the Ascension, the island was rediscovered by the navigator Alfonso d "Albuquerque, who gave the island the name it still bears. Dry and barren, it was of little interest to the sailors of the East India Fleet. The island remained uninhabited until 1815. when a small British garrison was stationed there.After Napoleon's death in 1821, the island became a supply base for ships that impede the slave trade on the West African coast. -See, it was decided to appoint an administrator.
There is no local population as such on the island. The inhabitants of the island are mostly civil servants and military personnel with families. The population for 2005 was 1,100, mostly from Saint Helena, as well as 150 from the United States and 200 from the United Kingdom.
How to get there
Ascension Island can be reached in two ways:
By plane of the British Air Force or Air Atlanta ( Air atlanta ) to the RAF Bryze Norton military airfield near Oxford, UK.
On the Royal Mail Ship Saint Helena ( Royal Mail Ship "Saint Helena "), which sails between Cape Town (South Africa) and St. Helena with a call to the bays of the Ascension Island and sometimes the Tristan da Cunha Islands. The ship departs once a month and takes on board 130 passengers.
Third point. ASCENSION ISLAND
The flight from Saint Helena to Ascension Island and back is called the "shuttle", and it differs from the Cape Town flight in the more measured atmosphere on board. Life is no longer seething, but lazily freezes. More games and doing nothing on deck. And so for two and a half days. It's great. How do they work there without me? It seems like nothing, we have adapted.
We left Saint Helena on October 12, and in the early morning of October 15, Ascension Island appeared on the course.
Here, as well as on the island of St. Helena, there is no berth for such a vessel, therefore "St. Helena" stops at the roadstead opposite the capital of the island - Georgetown. The containers are delivered to the shore on a platform one at a time, and a small ship comes to pick up the passengers. But first, all disembarkers are checked by the arriving doctor for measles. The doctor asks if you have measles and his assistant takes your temperature.
Disembarkation from this small vessel ashore is very difficult even with slight waves: the vessel now and then bounces off the berth for a couple of meters. Children are carried in their arms, and adults, with the help of a command, catching the moment, jump to the shore themselves. It is not for nothing that passengers are warned before disembarking from St. Helena that both hands must be free.
The first impression that Ascension Island leaves is rather harsh. But, unlike the island of St. Helena, there are wide sandy beaches.
On the island there is one hotel, Obsidian Hotel, large by local standards, with 17 rooms.
Ascension Island was discovered at about the same time as Saint Helena, in 1501 (two years later, the island received its current name), but unlike the latter, it remained uninhabited for another three hundred years. Interestingly, being uninhabited, the island served as something like a mail sorting center: passing ships left letters in a certain place on the island, which were picked up by other ships going in the right directions. The eastern end of the island, where this happened, is still called Letterbox ("letterbox"). But no traces of the box itself could be found. It remains unknown where exactly the letters were put to wait for the desired ship. It is assumed that the letters were sealed in bottles and simply left on the shore.
Sometimes ships came here to replenish food supplies and repair.
In 1815, with the arrival of Napoleon in exile on St. Helena, a military garrison was deployed on Ascension Island to prevent French ships from attacking St. Helena and Napoleon's flight to Europe. Initially, it was not planned that the military would remain for a long time on the island, practically devoid of fresh water sources. But this place turned out to be so convenient from a strategic point of view that after the death of Napoleon, the military did not leave: the base of the British naval forces settled on the island, which remained here until 1922.
In 1899, the first underwater telegraph cable was laid on Ascension Island, and soon the island became an important communication point between different parts of the world. Since 1922, Ascension Island has become a dependent territory of Saint Helena (which, in turn, is a dependent territory of Great Britain). At the same time, in fact, the island was transferred to the management of the Eastern Telegraph Company (now known as Cable and Wireless).
Now, military specialists live on Ascension Island, which I will talk about later.
Georgetown is an unusual city. Here, as on the entire island, there are no permanent residents. People come here to work on a contract, usually for two years, and then leave the island, and many never return. No one is allowed to purchase real estate here (an exception is made for the church), and no one is allowed to stay on the island after the expiration of the contract. Therefore, there is literally a shadow of "temporary residence" on everything here. This is a striking contrast to the cozy inhabited island of St. Helena.
Fort Hayes was erected in 1860 to protect the island. Now it is part of the museum, the building of which is located nearby.
The local art gallery is also located there, in the building of the museum.
To the north are the remains of another fort called Tronton. This fort was built by the military of the first garrison, who settled here in 1815, and is the oldest surviving building here.
Built in 1847, St. Mary's Church, the only church in Georgetown, is open 24 hours a day. True, so that one of the donkeys or rams wandering around the city does not go inside, the doors of the church are closed with a latch that can be easily opened from the outside.
The first official post office was opened on Ascension Island in 1867. Later, in 1924, the island first issued its own postage stamps, which immediately became a philatelic rarity. Currently, the island publishes five sets of postage stamps annually, some of which are canceled with a special stamp on the day of issue and sold together with envelopes issued with each set. Stamps and envelopes are most often about the nature of Ascension Island, but sometimes they also have other themes. The same can be said about Saint Helena, the stamps and envelopes of which are also highly valued by collectors from all over the world, and on Saint Helena, the theme of stamps and envelopes is more diverse - from royal dynasties of Great Britain to manned space flights (although the latter topic is hardly related to this island).
The Ascension Island post office is served by just three employees who come to work from Saint Helena on two-year contracts.
Although there are no permanent residents on Ascension Island and all the houses are temporary housing, some of them look quite cozy. Most of the temporary workers come here from Saint Helena. Working under contracts on Ascension Island gives them the opportunity to make good money, especially when you consider high level unemployment at home. For them, Ascension Island is just a place where you can earn a living and never come back here.
Considering that most of the employees come here from Saint Helena, it was planned to open a sea passenger line from Saint Helena to Ascension Island in the 1990s, served by one passenger ship with weekly departures. However, this did not happen, and the islands are connected only by the voyages of the motor ship "Saint Helena", performed about once a month.
Ascension Island is where sea green turtles from Brazil lay their eggs from January to April. Scientists cannot yet give an unambiguous answer to the question of how turtles are found in the Atlantic Ocean. small island... But the fact remains: thousands of turtles annually travel by difficult sea routes to Ascension Island to lay their eggs and swim back to Brazil. And two months later, little turtles, hatched from eggs, boldly crawl into the water and, obeying unknown instincts, also swim away to Brazil. Both on land and in the water, they are trapped by birds that are not averse to feasting on young turtle meat. Therefore, only one out of a thousand newly born turtle gets to its destination.
Since the first military garrison appeared on the island in the 19th century, people have used turtle meat for food. And over time, a trade in turtles was established on the island, since the passing ships required replenishment of food. The turtles were brought from here even to London (alive), where they made soups from them. Only very wealthy people could afford such soups.
In Georgetown, pools were set up where the captured turtles were delivered. Catching a turtle meant flipping it over onto its back to render it helpless and loading it into a boat. From the pools, the turtles in the required quantity were delivered to the ships. The last time turtles served as food for the military on the island was during the Second World War. Americans enjoyed eating turtle sandwiches.
Fishing for turtles has long been banned, but the pools have been preserved in a dilapidated state.
In 1964, the village of Too Boats was built in the center of the island, where the BBC staff, serving the equipment providing broadcasting to Africa and South America, settled. Unlike Georgetown, this village looks like a cozy village in the tropics. The only school on the island is located here, there is a swimming pool and even a bar.
The village of Tu Boats is located at the foot of Green Mountain, the highest mountain on the island and the only densely covered with tropical greenery. There are several walking paths along the mountain, from which you can observe many birds that live in these places. Green Mountain is a protected area.
Moreover, it is the Green Mountain that is the very volcano, thanks to which the island was formed. The last eruption this volcano happened about five hundred years ago, so it is still considered active.
Boats are dug in some parts of the island so that people can hide from the heat. Hence the name of the village in the center of the island - Two Boats, that is, Two boats.
There is a place on the island called One boat. This is not a village, but just a boat at a road crossroads, in the shadow of which are collected sports awards received in different years by the teams and athletes of the Ascension Island. These values lie absolutely unattended: no one on the island encroaches on someone else's property. Sign bus stop put here for the sake of a joke: neither public transport, no taxis on the island.
As I mentioned, since 1922, Ascension Island has been under the control of the Eastern Telegraph Company. And during the Second World War, the Americans sewed on the island, who, by agreement with the British government, built an airfield here in record time (one hundred days).
One of the places where the American military arrived on the island was stationed in 1942, is marked with a memorial sign.
It was not without an unexpected difficulty: on the site chosen for the airfield, thousands of black terns hatched eggs. They greatly interfered with construction. Bird watchers have proposed a simple solution - to destroy all eggs, and then the birds may begin to look for another place for themselves. And so it happened: the military promptly destroyed 40 thousand eggs, the airfield was completed without delay, and the terns flew away from this place forever.
Between 1943 and 1945, American warplanes made 25,000 landings here en route to war zones, delivering troops to Europe. north africa and to the Middle East. At that time, few planes could cross the Atlantic Ocean without landing, so they landed on the island for refueling. Have American pilots there was a saying: "If I do not find Ascension Island, my wife will receive a pension."
In 1956, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a new agreement under which American forces would use Ascension Island as a training ground. In 1957, with the return of the Americans to the island, a new military base was opened, a training camp was built, and the airfield was used jointly by the American and British Air Force. In the 1960s, specialists were trained on Ascension Island within the framework of the human flight to the moon and the Space Shuttle program. To land the shuttle, the airfield was lengthened, but it never flew to the island.
The camp, base and airfield still function today. In 1982, during the British-Argentine War over the Falkland Islands, British Air Force planes landed here, delivering everything they need to the war zone.
Despite the abundance of tropical vegetation on the Green Mountain in the center of the island, the landscapes here are mostly deserted. This is due to the volcanic origin of the island. In some places, Ascension Island resembles Mars or the Moon (it was not for nothing that the island was chosen for the "lunar program"), and donkeys and sheep roam freely in the midst of all this.
Sheep and donkeys were brought to Ascension Island by man. Goats and sheep were brought in first: this happened back in the 16th century, after the discovery of the island. Goats and sheep multiplied, and for many decades became a source of food for passing ships. And donkeys appeared on the island in 1815, together with the first garrison, which carried out a lot of construction work here, and it was impossible to do without the help of strong hardy animals.
There are no goats left on the island, and donkeys and sheep walk freely wherever they please, and sometimes enter houses. Over the decades, they ate most of the island's greenery, almost completely destroying one of the rare plant species. They are shot periodically to regulate the population.
The rats that got to the island from one of the ships that sank in these waters in the 18th century became a big disaster for the local fauna. The ship gave a leak and entered the island for repairs. They did not have time to do the repair: the ship sank, and the rats hit the shore. Before that, there were no predators on the island, and a huge number of birds nested and laid their eggs right on the rocks. Before the arrival of the first military garrison, the rats managed to destroy most of the birds arriving on the island, including several species that science never knew, completely.
Cats were brought to the island to fight rats. It was then that the end came to the remaining birds, as the cats became interested not in rats, but in birds, as easier prey. Having multiplied on the island, they destroyed almost all the birds that could now nest only on the neighboring rocky islet, inaccessible to cats and rats. In the end, the cats were either shot or taken away from the island, but now the birds have begun to return to Ascension Island, and it is assumed that their population will soon be restored.
The island is also home to rabbits brought in by humans, which are frequent victims of road accidents.
And this strange sculpture is called the Lizard. According to a long-standing tradition, anyone who splashes paint on it before leaving the island will never return. Numerous layers of paint on the "lizard" show the attitude of many people towards their temporary home - Ascension Island.
Until 2004, Ascension Island was closed for free visits. Now visiting the island has become possible with a written permission from the local administration, which must be obtained in advance.
Getting to Ascension Island is somewhat easier than getting to Saint Helena, but not easy either. The motor ship "Saint Helena" comes here only once a month, and is en route to Cape Town for ten days (with a three-day stop on the island of Saint Helena). There is no civil airport on Ascension Island. There is only the airfield of the British Air Force, through which a flight is carried out once or twice a week from Bryze Norton Air Force Base near Oxford to the Falkland Islands and back. A British Air Force plane makes a landing on Ascension Island for refueling. Recently, twenty seats on each flight were allocated for sale to civilians, and thus it became possible to quickly get from Ascension Island to " big land"However, the UK Department of Defense, which operates this flight, does not guarantee civilians a seat on the plane until the last moment, even if tickets are available, since priority is given to military personnel and military cargo. It is also not guaranteed that the flight will be carried out in accordance with the announced schedule. : the flight can be postponed a few days forward or backward.
The flight on the route Falkland Islands - Ascension Island - Bryze Norton base on October 16 was completed without delay. Previously, these flights were operated by historic Tristar aircraft, and a few years ago they were replaced by Boeing 747s. Now, due to the renovation of the Falkland Islands runway, the line is temporarily using the smaller ones rented from civil airlines Boeing 767. For the same reason, both weekly flights now operate on the same day, with an interval of six hours. Don't have time - stay on the island for a week.
Our aircraft, leased from Air Seychelles, arrived at the Ascension Island airfield right on schedule. Transit passengers, mostly military, returning from the Falkland Islands, settled in an open-air "waiting room" while refueling the aircraft.
All announcements were made by the local military man - in a loud commanding voice. In civilian airports, you usually hear: "Ladies and gentlemen, now be so kind ...". Everything is different here. "Attention! Now those who have seats from the twentieth to the thirtieth row are getting on the plane!" In a military way, it is rude, but clear and understandable.
On the plane, it was unusual to hear not the usual "On behalf of the airline ... welcome aboard ...", but "On behalf of the UK Department of Defense, welcome you ...". The rest of the flight did not differ from usual.
Eight and a half hours later, we landed at Bryze Norton Military Base, where you can see the historic Tristar and VC-10 aircraft still in service with the Royal Air Force. From Bryze Norton, I was kindly driven to Heathrow Airport, along with several military personnel, without charging a penny. The next morning I flew from there to Nizhny Novgorod- I didn't have time to go home to St. Petersburg. Work does not wait, and it is no less interesting than traveling.
However, this glorious journey can be considered over.
» Ascension Island
Ascension Island is a lonely island in the Atlantic just south of the equator, about halfway between Africa and South America. Most of it is black and red volcanic deserts, very similar to that, together with an almost year-round 25 ° -35 ° C and white sandy beaches, breaks all possible patterns.
This island is an unsinkable aircraft carrier of the Anglo-Saxon military, there are military bases of the British and Americans, hence the BBC slanders on long waves, transmits secret signals from Cable & Wireless, they followed the Apollo mission and the French Ariane. Getting here is not a trivial business, but it is the most beautiful and interesting tropical island that I have seen.
The entire population of the island consists of 900 British and American military and signalmen, their families and service personnel from among the inhabitants, who are here in 2 days by sea 
This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the United States Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook
The last eruption took place here about 500 years ago, and a noticeable part of a small area of the island is still quite fresh 
Comfortless bay
On Ascension, everything, including idyllic tropical swimming, takes place against the backdrop of beautiful antennas. Don't like antennas, but like palm trees and coconuts? You are a pitiful philistine! 
BBC antennas Atlantlic Relay Station at English Bay
Since its discovery by the Portuguese in 1503, this deserted island was hardly used until the British established a military base here in 1815 to guard it;
in 1898, British signalmen first appeared on the island: the Eastern Telegraph Company (now Cable and Wireless) conducts a telegraph cable through the island from the United Kingdom to South Africa;
during the Second World War, the Americans are building an airbase here;
in the 1960s, the BBC and NASA settled here;
in 1982 from here they are at war with Argentina for the Falklands;
in the 1990s, the European Space Agency, in connection with the Ariane 5 rocket program, is building a ground station here
tourism is allowed in 2002 !!! 11 
The moon looks almost down, and not to the side, because it is almost the equator
Not surprisingly, with such a history, the main eye-catcher on this island is the beautiful antennas. 
Day of the signalman! 
This, as they say here, "Mexican thorn" Prosopis juliflora(the mesquite tree, a species of mimosa), is a dangerous alien from the seventies: she reproduces with terrible force through donkey shit. What is its danger for the volcanic desert, I did not understand: before the appearance of this mimosa, nothing grew here. 
Everything around Ascension Island contains a horse dose of romance 
In addition to antennas, the island is full of mysterious signs 
½
The cloud in the background covers the top of the mountain for a reason: unlike the "lunar" surface at sea level, a real rain forest hides in the cloud, as in Southeast Asia or 
Danger, Men Aloft
There are no fences around the antenna fields; overhead feeders can be reached by hand. You climb for half an hour and tell yourself that your head hurts from the "intensity of the electromagnetic field" 
Radiation Hazard Keep Clear
While you are sitting in the air-conditioned interior of the car, you have to pinch your side all the time: THIS IS NOT! 
Comfortless bay
But there are palms in this tropical hell, which looks like a red-hot baking sheet without oil, by the way. Satellite dishes point almost upward, not sideways, because it is almost the equator 
BBC Atlantlic Relay Station
The cars are numbered in order, starting from 1. To make the numbers differ from the numbers (damn, why?), A Latin letter is added to them at the beginning A... Offroad is allowed on the island, and 4 × 4 has a deep meaning: as soon as you move off the asphalt, you can easily bury yourself on the bridges in this layer of pumice. 
Sea temperatures vary between 24 ° and 27 ° C, depending on the season. There are enough whites on the island sandy beaches, but it will be possible to swim only in English Bay or Comfortless Bay: in other places, the risky swimmer is immediately carried away to the open Atlantic Ocean. This is how he shouts:
- AAAA-AAAA- AAA-AAA- AAAAAA- AAAA- AAAAAA !
In high season, all the idyllic beaches are dug with large pits and trampled by small feet: at night, ripe clutches of a sea green turtle chelonia mydas burst and march into the ocean, where they will have a journey full of adventure and danger to Brazil. To see a young turtle during the day is a great rarity and good luck, but we were lucky! I named this turtle Nikolay) 
By the way, in English language two non-interchangeable words for turtles: turtle - "water turtle" and tortoise - "land turtle". If you call Nikolay tortoise, you just won't be understood 
Nikolai is photogenic and loves to be photographed) 
But shooting is the tenth thing: the first 20 meters can hardly be called the most difficult, because all 2300 kilometers remaining to Brazil, the enemies will encroach on Nikolai with approximately the same frequency 
In the photo: Nikolai is climbing up the slope against the background of a cigarette butt and dead dead Pavel and Vladimir
Bursting open during the day was a bad idea for Nikolai: while we shoot his first 20 meters on the way to the ocean, a local endemic frigate is circling above us fregata aquila rushing right at us humans. How can we try to brush it off and help Nikolai on his way to the ocean 
Fregata aquila
Nikolay jumps into the sea and plunges briskly, quickly moving away from the coast 
But the frigate turns out to be more skillful, angrier: at the end of the photo session, the hero is eaten 
Fregata aquila with Chelonia myda in the mouth
Ascension Island is not a favorite tourist route... It would be more correct to say that tourists on this small piece of land are rare. Even fans of "wild" rest, who do not favor expensive hotels and crowded beaches, do not come here. This will seem strange to many, because geographic location the islands are very interesting. But the nature of the island is simple and unassuming, there is simply no riot of colors and exotic plants here. The tourist infrastructure is not developed. Well, what should tourists do there? Anyway, what do we know about this place?
Island location
Ascension Island is volcanic. Location - South Atlantic Ocean... On the maps you can see that he is about halfway from South America to Africa. From Ascension Island to the West African coast - about 1600 km.
The area of the island is not at all large, it is about 91 km2. Coastline without strong kinks, but with many small bays and bays. There are many shallows along the coast.
A story that began with the discovery
What is so interesting about Ascension Island? The history of its discovery began in 1501. It was then that the Portuguese João da Nova discovered an unknown land on his way. The traveler sailed to India and did not want to waste time on research. The only thing he did was to display his find in the ship's logbook.
In 1503 uninhabited island was on the way of another Portuguese - Alfonso d "Albuquerque. The" discoverer "was more curious. He landed on a new island, examined its territory and gave the name in honor of the Christian Lord.
For several centuries after its discovery, Ascension Island remained officially uninhabited. Pirates sometimes came here to replenish fresh water supplies. By the way, the source was found by the robbers who crashed near the island. It was the ship of the famous British pirate William Dampier.
Settlement of the island
Permanent residents appeared on the island in 1815. During this period, Great Britain decided to equip Ascension Island with a small military outpost. The garrison was supposed to be very small, but even with it financial problems arose. There was simply no money in the corresponding budget line. Then the British went for a trick. In the documents, they began to call the island "Her Majesty's Ship Ascension", and funding for the garrison flowed from another budget line.
In 1821, the military base on Ascension Island was expanded to include British ships. In addition, patrolling ships were resupplied here, which prevented slavers from delivering "live goods."
In the last century, a space observation base was located on the territory of Ascension Island. Today, the personnel of this base are the population of the island. The average number, according to a decade ago, is slightly more than 1,000 people who serve one of the antennas of the satellite navigation system.
Territorial affiliation
In fact, Ascension Island is part of This term appeared in 2002 and replaced the term "British dependent territories". This overseas territory combines the Ascension and the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Education is subject to the authority of the British Crown, but has self-government and broad autonomy.
The administrative center of the overseas territory is located on the island of Saint Helena. The autonomy is so wide that each member of the formation has its own emblems and flags. Ascension Island and the surrounding areas (St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha) are not officially part of the UK. However, this country is their main economic partner. And education owes its development entirely to the ingenuity of the British government. All symbols of the overseas territories are approved and approved by the British Crown.
Description: Ascension Island coat of arms, flag
Until 2012, Ascension Island used the symbols of the United Kingdom when necessary. Although one part of this formation, and specifically the island of Saint Helena, the flag and coat of arms appeared in 1984. Tristan da Cunha got its official coat of arms in 2002.
Since 2012, the flag of Ascension Island is considered to be a blue cloth, at the pole of which is depicted In the opposite corner is the coat of arms of Ascension Island. It is an image of one of the landmarks of the island - Green Mountain. On the sides are two green turtles holding a shield with three albatrosses against the background of the ocean and sky. The design of the coat of arms was developed taking into account the wishes of the inhabitants of the island. In honor of the approval of the flag and coat of arms, the British Mint struck a commemorative coin "New coat of arms of Ascension Island".
Tourist notes: climate and nature
Despite the military base and the lack of tourist infrastructure, visitors to the island will find something to see. The main attraction is the space tracking station. Small tourist groups are allowed here by special order. The rest of the guests admire the majestic antennas from afar. There is a small military museum on the island, worthy of attention tourists.
Guests get to the island by plane once a week and on the Royal Mail Ship once a month. The main flow of tourists is private yachts that come in to replenish their supplies.
On the island you can climb the most high point- Green Mountain. Here, despite the volcanic rocks, flowers and ferns have grown. Many of the plants and insects are found only in this part of the world, which may interest connoisseurs. The coast is inhabited by large green sea turtles and birds.
