1. ASCENSION ISLAND : HUMAN PRESENCE & WILDLIFE
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around 1,600 km from the coast of Africa and 2,250 km from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha. The island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day.
Ascension Island is the location of a US Air Force / Royal Air Force base, a European Space Agency rocket tracking station, an Anglo-American signals intelligence facility and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. The island was used extensively by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of five ground antennas that assist in the operation of the GPS navigational system.
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2. Ascension Island flag (adopted in May 2013) & Distances pole in Georgetown

3. Georgetown top : from Fort Hayes bottom : from Fort Bedford
Cross Hill
Pier
Georgetown top : from Fort Hayes bottom : from Fort Bedford
Fort Hayes
Fort Thornton

4. Georgetown (from Fort Hayes)
Fort Thornton
Pier head

5. Georgetown (from Fort Hayes)
Long Beach St Mary’s Exiles building

6. Georgetown (from Fort Bedford)
Fort Thornton Former turtle ponds

7. Georgetown (from Fort Bedford) Fort Hayes
Exiles Building

8. Fort Bedford (on Cross Hill)

9. Fort Bedford : Hood guns
(from Battle Cruiser HMS Hood – fired just once in on a German U Boat)

10. Fort Bedford

11. Fort Bedford

12. Georgetown : St Mary’s church & Cross Hill

13. St Mary’s church at sunset (Georgetown)

14. Ascension Island Government (Georgetown)

15. Exiles Building (Georgetown) built in 1830, it was used as a Marine barracks

16. Exiles Building

17. Court House (Georgetown)

18. Fort Hayes (Georgetown)

19. Fort Hayes

20. Fort Hayes

21. Fort Hayes

22. Pier Head (Georgetown)
Note holes dug by turtles for laying eggs on the beach

23. Hospital & Museum (Georgetown)

24. Obsidian Hotel (Georgetown) the only hotel on Ascension Island

25. Old turtle ponds (Georgetown)
Old turtle ponds (Georgetown) built in 1829 as holding areas for captured turtles, harvested for their meat (protected now!)

26. Fort Thornton (Georgetown)

27. Fort Thornton

28. Fort Thornton

29. Pier head (from Fort Thornton)

30. Long Beach This beach is one of the largest Green Turtle nesting sites in the world

31. Lizard Rock The tradition here is that, if you are leaving Ascension and keen not to come back, you have to paint the rock, unseen, at night ! It is a live enough tradition that some of the paint looks pretty fresh !

32. Green Mountain (highest of Ascension Island) viewed from Two Boats Village, the second settlement of the island

33. One Boat Golf Club dubbed the worst in the world (due to the volcanic ground) !

34. US Air Force Base (built in 1943) Shared with the British Royal Air Force ; Ascension Island was re- garrisoned by the RAF in 1982 and used extensively as a staging base during the Falklands War in Falklands War

35. US / RAF Base : Wideawake Airfield (western side of Ascension)

36. Wideawake Airfield

37. US Air Force / RAF Base

38. Challenger Center (former NASA tracking station, now disused) with Green Mountain in the background (eastern side of Ascension)

39. Ariane tracking station (European Space Agency) (northeastern side of Ascension)

40. Pyramid Point (northwestern side of Ascension)

41. Feral donkeys (there is about 20 wild donkeys on Ascension)
The first explorers brought (intentionnally or not) invasive species to Ascension, which went wild, such as rats, cats (later : to eradicate the rats … what failed : the rats preferred to eat the local birds!), donkeys, goats, sheeps …

43. Feral animals

44. one of the largest Green Turtle n
Beaches on Ascension Island (such as Long Beach, Hanney’s …) are one of the largest Green Turtle nesting sites in the world. These giant endangered turtles can be seen every night and dawn during the nesting season from December to June.
Up : Green turtle laying eggs Left : hatching baby turtles leaving nest for the ocean (only one out of a thousand will survive …)
one of the largest Green Turtle n

50. Eggs (after hatching) (bottom) & baby turtle at dawn (right)

51. Green turtle tracks (Long Beach)

52. Sooty terns breeding grounds
On Wideawake Fairs, near Mars Bay (western side of Ascension), is a huge colony of sooty terns, consisting of more than one million breeding pairs. Ascension is, with the Seychelles, the best location to see sooty terns. The breeding season lasts about 6 months (the sooty terns,which are migratory birds then leave Ascension).

56. Sooty tern

64. Petrel

65. END