I saw mwk’s weather girls and on a whim clicked. This takes me back – it’s the weather report from Wide Awake Airfield on Ascension Island.
Some years ago some friends of ours were stationed on Ascension with the BBC World Service. They invited us out there on the Christmas of 1995 and we spent 3 weeks there, spaning the holiday season. I’ve just found the Administrator’s Office website – worth a look though I think I maybe slightly biased… *gets a bit choked up* I just saw a photo and I actually recognised the volcanos in the picture – the Sisters. I remember drawing them for an art project – I did a whole collage of Ascension… I wonder where that’s gone?
To say it was an experience is to not do the island justice. It was the single most amazing time of my life. The island is made of 14 major volcanos plus many minor peaks, and not one of them is extinct – they are all dormant. The island never existed before the volcanos built it and they only stopped erupting about 500 years ago. The largest volcano, Green Mountain, has a jungle on top of it – banana trees, ginger – but the rest of the island is so desolate they tested the Moon lander there. The pig farm up there was running when we went there and my sister spent Christmas morning mucking out the pigs! There was the Dew Pond Run where people walked or ran from Georgetown to the peak of Green Mountain where the Dew Pond was. As the island is small and young the only fresh water on the island is the rainwater that collects in the dew pond. In olden days, as a punishment sailors were made to carry buckets up the Mountain to get water with ball and chain on. Naturally they died in the effort, and there are plenty of ghost stories of clinking in the night up that Mountain… We stayed in our own house in the village Two Boats (there is a One Boat – it’s a bus stop, and there are no buses) and also stayed in the Residency up Green Mountain for a few days as well – imagine no light pollution and a thinner than usual atmosphere – I just stood on the lawn of the Residency at midnight and stared up at the amazing panorama of stars, I’ve never seen so many stars. Christmas Day was spent having a barbeque on the beach.
There’s no crime in Ascension – where would they run? Us kids did what we wanted all day and ran with the other street rats. They have their own laws, for example drink driving is only illegal if you hit something. And the most fantastic example of conservation gone mad happened at Ascension. Ascension has lots of wild birds. Humans accidently introduced rats to the island. To clear up the rats, they introduced cats…:confused: Two species are now extinct and the remaining birds are threatened.
I wrote an article for the island newspaper – I’ll have to dig that out. I believe my dad even made the paper – he got a blister on the dew pond run and had to go to the RAF hospital to have it seen to! And thus began many years of “going to the hospital for a blister” jokes…
Right – I’ve discovered it is actually possible to go back to Ascension if I have a good enough excuse. Now all I have to do is think up an excuse. Ah yes, and save up the couple of thousand to fund the trip. I wonder if they have a vet…?
They have an online shop! I want a map… I wonder if they really come from the island or if they are just posted from Stoke-on-Trent…? I’ll ask.
To the tune of “London, is a little bit of alright”, here is the song we made up whilst over there.
“Ascension, is a little bit of alright,
Nobody can deny that’s true, (coz nobody’s been there)
Palm trees and then up the Mountain and down again,
And if you should visit the Dew Pond on the way,
Pick a banana.
See the Blackfish in the see,
Careful, they’ll eat you!
Drive the 46 Miles of road,
You don’t have to travel loads and loads,
All you need is your sunglasses and hat
Oh, and I’d like to mention…
Ascension, is a place where you can cool right down,
And have a freezing glass of coke!
Coz when you’re fed right up and got your tail right down,
Ascension Island is a wonderful place to be!”
I wanna go back! 😎 My sunglasses need a-dustin’ off.