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ASCENSION ISLAND
by Ted Cookson
Published in May 2007
Discovered in 1501 by the Portuguese
navigator Juan da Nova Castella, today
Ascension
Island is a
dependency of the British overseas territory of St. Helena, which lies about
1,280 km (800 miles) to the southeast. The 91 square kilometer (35 square mile)
island
of Ascension
lies just west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) from West
Africa. The top of a volcanic peak, most of the
island consists of basalt lava flows
and cinder cones, of which there are at least 44. Governed by a resident
British administrator, Ascension
supports a population of some 1,100 people, most of whom are workers from St.
Helena.
Rugged and dry, Ascension
was of little interest to the East Indies fleets. The
island only
acquired significance when in 1815 Britain sent a garrision to
Ascension to
prevent the island
from being used in any attempt to rescue Napoleon from his exile on St. Helena.
In succeeding years Ascension
was used for resupplying ships used for suppressing slavery along the coast of
West Africa. Then in 1898 a submarine telegraph cable was laid from
England to South Africa via
Ascension. During World War II the U. S.
constructed Wideawake Airfield. Following the war,
Ascension
was used exclusively by Cable and Wireless. Later, beginning in 1957,
Ascension
again proved useful to the U. S., which employed the
island in
connection with the testing of missiles launched from Florida. In 1965 NASA
began building a tracking station on
Ascension, and in 1966 the BBC built
a shortwave relay facility for broadcasts aimed at both Africa and South
America.
From 1982 Ascension
became a staging post for the British Task Force in connection with the
Falklands War, and RAF Vulcan bombers were deployed at Wideawake Airfield. Not
only were the jets which fired the opening shots of the Falklands War launched
from Ascension,
but Wideawake became the world's busiest airfield for awhile during the
conflict. Furthermore, Ascension
once boasted the world's longest runway. In fact, the
island still
serves as an emergency landing spot for the space shuttle. Wideawake Airfield
is jointly administered by the U. S. and the U. K.
Today the European Space Agency also maintains a tracking station on
Ascension.
This facility is used to track Ariane 5 rockets after they have been launched in
French Guiana. Also, interestingly,
Ascension is the location of one of
the three ground antennas which are used to operate the widely-used Global
Positioning System for navigation. (The other two ground antennae are situated
on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and on Diego Garcia Atoll in the Indian
Ocean.)
Like many small islands, Ascension's
main export is postage stamps. Stamps were first issued for the
island in
1922.
The pier, where cruise ship passengers come ashore in tenders, is located in
Georgetown, the capital of
Ascension which is home to over 500 people.
Adjacent to the pier are stretches of beautiful white sandy beach. Georgetown
is the location of a cinder golf course. The post office, police station and
Cable and Wireless office are also in the capital.
The farm is located on 859-meter-high (2,817-foot-high) Green Mountain,
Ascension's
highest peak. The fields there were once used to supply the
island with
fresh produce. Nowadays holiday flats on the mountain can be rented by locals
for weekend use. There are artificial forests of bamboo and pine near the
summit of Green Mountain, which is normally covered by clouds.
PRACTICALITIES:
Weekly air service to
Ascension
Island is available on Royal Air
Force-run aircraft from Brize Norton Airbase in Oxfordshire and also from Mt.
Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. Round trip individual adult airfare from the
U. K. to Ascension
begins at sterling 1,009. See
www.ascension-flights.com.
The 128-passenger Royal Mail Ship St. Helena
cruises on the Portland-Tenerife-Ascension
Island-St.
Helena Island-Walvis
Bay, Namibia-Cape Town route. See
www.rms-st-helena.com for details of prices and schedules.
Visitors to Ascension
require written permission from the Administrator. Information on how to obtain
this permit and other important visitor information is posted online at
www.ascension-island.gov.ac
Both hotel accommodation and car rental are available on the
island.
ABOUT TED COOKSON: Egypt's most widely-traveled travel agent, Ted has been
to every country in the world! He has also visited 307 of the 315 destinations
on the list of the Travelers' Century Club (visit
www.eptours.com and refer to World Travel Club). A travel agent in Cairo
since 1986, Ted manages EGYPT PANORAMA TOURS, a full-service travel agency, at 4
Road 79 (between Roads 9 and 10, near the "El Maadi" metro station) in Maadi.
Contact Egypt Panorama Tours (open 7 days a week 9 AM-5 PM) at: Tels. 2359-0200,
2358-5880, 2359-1301. Fax 2359-1199. E-mail:
ept@link.net. Web site:
www.eptours.com.