Ascension Island, where nothing makes sense(bbc.co.uk) |
Ascension Island, where nothing makes sense(bbc.co.uk) |
I remember being there on the way down middle of the day and all the army guys were grabbing beers. It was 35C and I was necking water. I thought they were crazy. I am told there are parts of the island that get hotter.
On the way back, middle of the night, 4am I think we landed. I remember thinking the plane was too warm, and I couldn't wait to get some fresh air. I stood by the door as it opened waiting for the cool breeze to come in. Nope: wall of hot air. It was in the 30s.
There's nothing there, really. It's obvious who runs the comms stuff, and it's obvious why it's kept the way it is, but nobody will talk about it.
A few people I spoke to have ventured further afield.
The lady I stayed with in the Falklands who ran a B&B told me she had holidayed there. It was beautiful, apparently.
A friend of mine was stationed there during the Falklands War helping refuel planes. It was hell, apparently.
Including you, it seems :)
Who runs the comms stuff? Why is it that way?
A bit disappointed--was expecting something more along the lines of physics abnormalities, I guess. After reading the article, everything seems to make sense, in terms of human activities: the official UK denial over residents' right of abode; the secrecy over hilltop-stationed communications equipment; the lack of Leendert Hasenbosch's remains; Joseph Hooker's re-engineering of the islands environment, as well as subsequent efforts, over the ensuing decades.
Getting permission to visit is a laugh, I had to write to the governor and explain why I want to come (last sailing of last mail ship).
Even without a drone I've had (occasionally gunpoint) dealings with all sorts of bemused security forces around the world, so not too worried.
I want to go to Tristan (and Inaccessible!) too, but it's going to have to wait for another trip, as I only have so much time off, and the sailings don't work for me. There's one place that'll almost certainly never get an airport.
She'd never left the island before she was 18, when Britain paid for her to attend university in the UK. Once in Britain, she had more money than her parents could ever get, but visiting her parents still took the best part of a month for the trip to be worthwhile.
Without an airport, the island would probably depopulate.
As for the radio stations, there's a LORAN station, to provide a navigational marker in the South Atlantic. NASA had a tracking station there for Apollo, but it was closed and abandoned in the 1990s. The USAF has a tracking station there now, for communicating with various space assets.[1] As an intercept station, it would be marginal; there's nobody to listen to.
[1] http://www.patrick.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print...
The full version can be found by searching, kat, etc. BTW the whole Departures series is great, for those who love traveling (or wish they were traveling).
I don't shed many tears for the species that had a protected niche and never managed to do much with it. In the long run, Earth needs species that can quickly colonize hostile environments and make them more biologically productive.
So let's hear a cheer for protection from hostile environments.
It wasn't until humanity left its protected niche that it really did anything interesting. And now we are the only ones capable of intentionally spreading life to other planets. So if your species took a gamble and made an alliance with humanity early, congratulations, you get to survive the planet-death extinction event someday. Good job, dogs and apple trees! Poor show, guinea worm and smallpox.