People have been interested to see again (and some for the first time) my e-mail postings from this Spring's journeys around the world.
I'm going to start by pasting the actual postings, and then add photographs, until the whole thing loooks like an untidy work in progress, which is absurd since it is already 6 months since these events took place. My only excuse is I didn't open a blog before I left.
Here goes:
January 23rd 2008 - Buenos Aires
We had a planned stopover in Sao Paulo on the way down - BA load reasons - checked into a hotel near the airport for 2 nights and decided to veg out at the hotel on the intervening day because it was wet and grey and the guide book inspite of best efforts couldn´t really suggest anything to do in Sao Paulo. In order to break the day up we walked downto a Wal Mart we could see from the hotel window. After a very short time comparing grocery prices we found the TV department. As their demo they were showing a dvd of Schreck3 and there were a couple of chairs around so we spent part of the first day of this epic trip watching Schreck in WalMart with Portuguese subtitles. That will soon be forgotten as Buenos Aires is as impressive now as ever. We have walked our feet off today visiting museums ships docks streets and a really wonderful underground train unchanged since 1914 with wooden carriages and excellent airconditioning -windows wide open. So glad that the health and safety culture has stayed well away from here. The people are still very smart like Italians and strolling around seems to be a major occupation. And of course a superb piece of beef for dinner - I won´t even try to describe it. If you´ve been here you know. We have two more days here and then off to Tierra del Fuego. No shortage of things to do here, and obviously the tango comes into it somewhere. As for other things I couldn´t help noticing that Lyndy looked a bit anxious when I discovered the national railway museum. Haven´t been to it yet. Perhaps I´ll miss out on some window shopping.
January 24th 2008 - Buenos Aires
It was good to get some encouraging feedback, and advice. Thank you, and it´s true that I forgot to mention that the red wine is excellent, with my preference being for Malbec. There won´t be enough time to try them all, sadly, but you can rely on Lyndy (and me of course) to do our best. In the old port area of La Boca are streets of brightly-painted corrugated iron houses. Apparently this started with poor immigrants using ships paint for their houses, and bits of ship, to build them, which was all there was. Now it is a lively area dedicated to visitors with cafes art shops and tango demonstrations. In spite of it being a tourist magnet it is really colourful on the people front as well, especially the tango demonstrations. There´s no doubt that the tango is really sex but standing up and wearing a hat and in public which probably makes it more elegant. On a hot afternoon in the open air just watching was quite enough, thanks. We´re so attached to the city that we´ve talked ourselves out of going on side trips, either to an estancia for more beef, or to Uruguay across the River Plate. So I´m confidently expecting to get to the railway museum tomorrow morning. I think we´ll get to an estancia when we´re ´down south´. It was hard to find Evita´s tomb in the cemetery. Its whereabouts were the professional property of the guides, so I´m afraid I can´t say whether we found it or not. However the cemetery was amazing. Each family had what amounted to a small house made from marble with angels atop, often two storeys above ground and of course a cellar with all the ancestors in it. Time for a filet mignon and a bottle of Malbec.
January 26th 2008 - Ushuaia
Have just returned to dry land after an outing on the Beagle Channel. Had not expected snow covered peaks on either side of the waterway, nor that it might be even warm. I brought my possum scarf etc for this part of the trip, and Lyndy several layers, but it´s only hot in the sun. Underlying temperature is cold. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. It´s a sign of local politics here that Puerto Williams in Chile, which is even further south (on the other side of the Beagle Channel) is only the southernmost town in the world. It feels as remote as some of the distant parts of Australia, Derby or Broome say. We only arrived this morning and have already walked up to a glacier and been on the boat trip. Tomorrow we´ll take the most southerly steam train in the world up to the national park. That probably means there´s one even further south in Chile, but it´s not steam. Which reminds me that we got to the railway museum in Buenos Aires which was very interesting and needs some money spending on it. The ancient gentlemen who run it were charming and informative. Luckily for the future of this trip I only noticed that there is also a tram museum in Buenos Aires when it was too late to go to it. And Welsh Patagonia? We flew over it this morning. It would have been a long diversion to visit the El Boyo tea shop, so that´s also for another time.
January 29th 2008 - Ushuaia
When the taxi driver at the airport says ´welcome to the end of the world´ it makes you think that this may really be it. However we´ve now travelled on the train at the end of the world and we still seem to be here. Only just however after a long coastal walk yesterday - it said it was 6km but it was double that - very beautiful and lonely walk with lots of upas and downs. The far end of the walk was also the end of Ruta Nacional 3 (at that point a dirt road) 3700km from Buenos Aires and also the end of the Pan American highway10800km from Alaska. The local museum is very interesting with accounts of early settlers and their efforts to convert the local Fuegian tribes, naval excursions, shipwrecks, etc. They mention Meagellan, Drake, Bougainville, Cook, Darwin and Fitroy among the navigators, but I think they must have missed out a Belgian expedition somewhere. There are so many empty moules shells around that the Belgians must have been here. This place was a prison colony until about 1940, but is now the busy terminal for cruises to the Antarctic. we feel young compared with the cruise passengers. I haven´t been to northern Norway, but the town i`painted in bright colours which may be similar. We are leaving this afternoon for El Calafate where there are lakes and glaciers.
February 3rd 2008 - El Calafate
Two days of close visual contact with glaciers was the menu in the little but fast growing town of El Calafate on Lago Argentino, still in the very southern tip of Patagonia. And it wasn´t just visual. The noise of a glacier is extraordinary. It pops. It drips. And then it explodes, and a big chunk falls off into the lake. These glaciers - Perito Moreno and Uppsala are the biggest ones - have a leading edge like a jagged chalk cliff across a front of 2 or 3 km. The ice at the leading edge is about 300 years old. The colour of the glacier is electric blue, caused by refraction of light through the ice crystals, and the icebergs which result from the bigger explosions float serenely off down the lake like blue bears. They were big enough to overshadow the boat we were in, and there were plenty of them as the air temperature was close to 30deg. The locals don´t like the warm weather, and it must be a sign of global warming. Although Perito Moreno is growing the other glaciers are shrinking. As the all come from the same icefield higher in the mountains the calculation is that the total amount of ice is shrinking. Then a couple of days on the open road in a hire car. We went to a hiking centre called El Chalten which is the setting off point for ascents of some very spikey mountains, especially Fitzroy and St Exupery. Athough known about by Europeans for centuries they wre not climbed successfully until 1922. Lyndy and I were content to walk up to the viewpoint where suddenly the mountains and snowfields are right in front of you - about 5 hours roundtrip - there were lots of professional looking walkers at the hostel, so I felt it right to give them fraternal greetings from the ex BCal managers walking group! The road to El Chalten was paved for about half the distance - the middle part good gravel road - and the country around very brown and barren. The land seems to take in no water from the glacial lakes and streams, so we were followed by a dust trail in spite of all that water around. Half way along the gravel section was an estancia - La Leona - where we turned off for a break. It´s amazing how tea and cakes are part of the way of life in the country in Argentina - we had found the same at Harberton in Tierra del Fuego. You come in off the dusty road and there is a choice of cakes! La Leona is designated a Sitio Historico because in 1905 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up here for a while after robbing a bank in Rio Gallegos. They stayed for a month which I put down to the cakes. We are now in Bariloche which looks like Lucerne or Montreux - Swiss town on lake with chalet architecture - but it´s Argentina. Last night there was a classic match on TV between Boca Junior and River Plate. RP won, but it would probably have been the same whatever happened. The fans celebrated all night and drove around the town hooting, so a bit jaded this (Sunday) morning. Think we´ll just take the cable car to get a view of the lake. After the tiny places we´ve veen in Bariloche seems too big. Off to Chile tomorrow.
February 12th 2008 - Surfers Paradise (re Chile)
It was an amazing contrast to be in the Chilean Lake Distict after the wilderness of Argentina. The landscape suddenly so rich - like the Italian lakes if like anything - and green. We crossed the border using 4 buses and 3 boats across lakes high in the mountains - beautiful scenery and a hot day but not so wild as we had hoped - there were a lot of people doing the same thing. It's peak holiday season in Chile so naturally all Santiago is in the Lakes. We drove to Chiloe - a big island south of Puerto Montt - and then up to Pucon, a very posh resort beneath the active volcano of Villarrica. Everywhere the country was green and cultivated except up the side of the volcanoes. We drove up Villarrica as far as the ski area (closed for the summer) thinking we would walk up to the crater. It was so hot that we gave up the idea - and that was just from the sun! The Lakes in Chile were an area of German settlement and some towns, like Frutillar on Lake Llaniquehue, have a very German feel, with music festivals, half timbered houses and micro breweries. Oh and of course Kuchen, particularly apfelstrudel. So Argentina has cake and Chile has Kuchen. It's also dairy country with very healthy looking cattle; and lots of fruit.
February 18th 2008 - Brisbane
A totally different Australia from any other time I've been here. Cool and rainy is not what you normally expect in Queensland in February but it beats the usual hot humid climate with everybody praying for rain. It came just on time - nobody knew what the next level of water restrictins might be but very serious. They're not relaxed yet but probably soon will be - the dams now 40% full. There is a view that this might be an El Nino effect, and that might tie up with the blazing weathger we had in normally cool parts of Chile. Anyway that's the weather - and the locals love it. We spent a few days at the beach in Currumbin near the NSW border, and even drove down as far as Byron Bay. It was a first for me to see this famous beach town - very stylish and there's also a bijou country town inland a bit called Bangalow. You can see why people like that part of the country - green and hilly with artistic communities. Last night we went to the Australian Outback Spectacular - and it was excellent. It was like going out to a good (if large) restaurant with a floor show - only the floor show in this case was a complete view of outback life including sheepdogs, a bit of history, some fantastic riding, rodeo, and Aussie wit. A great evening. Tomorrow Lyndy and I part company. My flight to South Africa leaves in the afternoon. Lyndy's family have been great as ever, so sorry to leave, but the next bit's going to be good too.
March 3rd 2008 - Saint Helena
I have managed to get hold of the only internet kiosk on the island for an hour. Sorry for the interruption in service - there was no general internet on the ship from Cape Town, and there are no mobile phones etc. That stopped mattering a long time ago as the tropical pace of life takes over (or even shipboard life which is even slower). The ship took nearly six days - everything on board was excellent (it can be measured on the scales) so it sounds grudging to say I was glad to get ashore. Eventually you felt you knew everybody on board, but it was strange that up to the last day at sea people seemed to turn up whom you hadn't seen before. So far out at sea I can't inagine how they slipped on board.
St Helena must be the most welcoming place anywhere - the people who look most like mauritians in colouring and facial features are very proud of their mixed ancestry, to which almost everybody has contributed. Mostly very fine-looking peole when young but tending to live well and get fat later, which reminds me on someone, at least the latter part. The town, Jamestown, is a small Georgian gem - beautiful peoriod houses down both sides of a broad street - but it's in a very narrow gulley so there are bare cliffs of a reddish volcanic colour behind the houses on both sides. The man street goes down to the sea, which gives some air. All the coastal areas are eroded volcanic cliffs - very few roads get to the sea and theer are no beaches. The interior of the island is very lush and green, with deep valleys and sharp peaks. Peter and I have done some excellent walks in the interior. Diana's Peak the highest point at around 800m was covered in mist when we went up on the first day. Everybody was full of admiration that we then walked back on the roads to Jamestown - got really sore and hot from going downhill on the tarmac - so we won't do that again. We have paid our respects at Napoleon's house and tomb. It all looks peaceful and tranquil now with beautiful gardens around, but the inside of Longwood House did feel like a prison. It LOOKS like a fine 18th Century house, which it is, until you notice how enclosed it feels with few windows and a damp feeling. The Briars where he first lived was better. Yesterday we did another walk - after church which everybody went to - very touching when the priest blessed all the people who were leaving the island that day to work in other places. This happens more and more - there is very little for the 4000 people her to do so they work abroad and remit money. The plan is to see all corners of the island on foot, so doing well so far. On Friday back on the ship to Ascension, then 3 days there and the fly home with the RAF. I've been away so long I can't imagine that.
March 14th 2008 - London (re Ascension Island)
Back home now. I messed up my note on Ascension by forgetting that I was using a coin-in-the-slot computer. I had writen 3 paragrapahs when the damn thing switched off. Anyway hope to see you all soon and by then should have the pics. Just briefly Ascension is mostly black or brown volcanic ash with very little growing except at the peak which is green and even had a dairy farm at one time and could still grow vegetables if there were the demand (or the initiative). It was very steep up there and often in a cloud. Two lother things were impressive - green turtles labour up the beaches to lay eggs and the hatchlings leg it for the sea some time later pursued by all sorts of predators. The other - a tiny cemetery among the black ash marked with white stones with the graves of yellow fever victims, mainly off ships working off the African coast in the 1830s to suppress slavery. the disease was caught there and the crews were quarantined at this place called Comfortless Cove, which couldn't be more appropriate. Most of the graves are from one ship HMS Bonnetta.
There should be a quiz question converning the number of large aerials and other similar structures on Ascension - The RAF, BT, C&W, USAF and other US agencies, and the Ariane project all have pieces of electronics reaching for the sky. It fries your brain - honestly.
Flew back in DC10-30 of Omni Airlines International, a US carrier on charter to the RAF - uneventful flight but the area around Brize Norton this morning looked very odd and there were far too many people everywhere.
I'm going to start by pasting the actual postings, and then add photographs, until the whole thing loooks like an untidy work in progress, which is absurd since it is already 6 months since these events took place. My only excuse is I didn't open a blog before I left.
Here goes:
January 23rd 2008 - Buenos Aires
We had a planned stopover in Sao Paulo on the way down - BA load reasons - checked into a hotel near the airport for 2 nights and decided to veg out at the hotel on the intervening day because it was wet and grey and the guide book inspite of best efforts couldn´t really suggest anything to do in Sao Paulo. In order to break the day up we walked downto a Wal Mart we could see from the hotel window. After a very short time comparing grocery prices we found the TV department. As their demo they were showing a dvd of Schreck3 and there were a couple of chairs around so we spent part of the first day of this epic trip watching Schreck in WalMart with Portuguese subtitles. That will soon be forgotten as Buenos Aires is as impressive now as ever. We have walked our feet off today visiting museums ships docks streets and a really wonderful underground train unchanged since 1914 with wooden carriages and excellent airconditioning -windows wide open. So glad that the health and safety culture has stayed well away from here. The people are still very smart like Italians and strolling around seems to be a major occupation. And of course a superb piece of beef for dinner - I won´t even try to describe it. If you´ve been here you know. We have two more days here and then off to Tierra del Fuego. No shortage of things to do here, and obviously the tango comes into it somewhere. As for other things I couldn´t help noticing that Lyndy looked a bit anxious when I discovered the national railway museum. Haven´t been to it yet. Perhaps I´ll miss out on some window shopping.
January 24th 2008 - Buenos Aires
It was good to get some encouraging feedback, and advice. Thank you, and it´s true that I forgot to mention that the red wine is excellent, with my preference being for Malbec. There won´t be enough time to try them all, sadly, but you can rely on Lyndy (and me of course) to do our best. In the old port area of La Boca are streets of brightly-painted corrugated iron houses. Apparently this started with poor immigrants using ships paint for their houses, and bits of ship, to build them, which was all there was. Now it is a lively area dedicated to visitors with cafes art shops and tango demonstrations. In spite of it being a tourist magnet it is really colourful on the people front as well, especially the tango demonstrations. There´s no doubt that the tango is really sex but standing up and wearing a hat and in public which probably makes it more elegant. On a hot afternoon in the open air just watching was quite enough, thanks. We´re so attached to the city that we´ve talked ourselves out of going on side trips, either to an estancia for more beef, or to Uruguay across the River Plate. So I´m confidently expecting to get to the railway museum tomorrow morning. I think we´ll get to an estancia when we´re ´down south´. It was hard to find Evita´s tomb in the cemetery. Its whereabouts were the professional property of the guides, so I´m afraid I can´t say whether we found it or not. However the cemetery was amazing. Each family had what amounted to a small house made from marble with angels atop, often two storeys above ground and of course a cellar with all the ancestors in it. Time for a filet mignon and a bottle of Malbec.
January 26th 2008 - Ushuaia
Have just returned to dry land after an outing on the Beagle Channel. Had not expected snow covered peaks on either side of the waterway, nor that it might be even warm. I brought my possum scarf etc for this part of the trip, and Lyndy several layers, but it´s only hot in the sun. Underlying temperature is cold. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. It´s a sign of local politics here that Puerto Williams in Chile, which is even further south (on the other side of the Beagle Channel) is only the southernmost town in the world. It feels as remote as some of the distant parts of Australia, Derby or Broome say. We only arrived this morning and have already walked up to a glacier and been on the boat trip. Tomorrow we´ll take the most southerly steam train in the world up to the national park. That probably means there´s one even further south in Chile, but it´s not steam. Which reminds me that we got to the railway museum in Buenos Aires which was very interesting and needs some money spending on it. The ancient gentlemen who run it were charming and informative. Luckily for the future of this trip I only noticed that there is also a tram museum in Buenos Aires when it was too late to go to it. And Welsh Patagonia? We flew over it this morning. It would have been a long diversion to visit the El Boyo tea shop, so that´s also for another time.
January 29th 2008 - Ushuaia
When the taxi driver at the airport says ´welcome to the end of the world´ it makes you think that this may really be it. However we´ve now travelled on the train at the end of the world and we still seem to be here. Only just however after a long coastal walk yesterday - it said it was 6km but it was double that - very beautiful and lonely walk with lots of upas and downs. The far end of the walk was also the end of Ruta Nacional 3 (at that point a dirt road) 3700km from Buenos Aires and also the end of the Pan American highway10800km from Alaska. The local museum is very interesting with accounts of early settlers and their efforts to convert the local Fuegian tribes, naval excursions, shipwrecks, etc. They mention Meagellan, Drake, Bougainville, Cook, Darwin and Fitroy among the navigators, but I think they must have missed out a Belgian expedition somewhere. There are so many empty moules shells around that the Belgians must have been here. This place was a prison colony until about 1940, but is now the busy terminal for cruises to the Antarctic. we feel young compared with the cruise passengers. I haven´t been to northern Norway, but the town i`painted in bright colours which may be similar. We are leaving this afternoon for El Calafate where there are lakes and glaciers.
February 3rd 2008 - El Calafate
Two days of close visual contact with glaciers was the menu in the little but fast growing town of El Calafate on Lago Argentino, still in the very southern tip of Patagonia. And it wasn´t just visual. The noise of a glacier is extraordinary. It pops. It drips. And then it explodes, and a big chunk falls off into the lake. These glaciers - Perito Moreno and Uppsala are the biggest ones - have a leading edge like a jagged chalk cliff across a front of 2 or 3 km. The ice at the leading edge is about 300 years old. The colour of the glacier is electric blue, caused by refraction of light through the ice crystals, and the icebergs which result from the bigger explosions float serenely off down the lake like blue bears. They were big enough to overshadow the boat we were in, and there were plenty of them as the air temperature was close to 30deg. The locals don´t like the warm weather, and it must be a sign of global warming. Although Perito Moreno is growing the other glaciers are shrinking. As the all come from the same icefield higher in the mountains the calculation is that the total amount of ice is shrinking. Then a couple of days on the open road in a hire car. We went to a hiking centre called El Chalten which is the setting off point for ascents of some very spikey mountains, especially Fitzroy and St Exupery. Athough known about by Europeans for centuries they wre not climbed successfully until 1922. Lyndy and I were content to walk up to the viewpoint where suddenly the mountains and snowfields are right in front of you - about 5 hours roundtrip - there were lots of professional looking walkers at the hostel, so I felt it right to give them fraternal greetings from the ex BCal managers walking group! The road to El Chalten was paved for about half the distance - the middle part good gravel road - and the country around very brown and barren. The land seems to take in no water from the glacial lakes and streams, so we were followed by a dust trail in spite of all that water around. Half way along the gravel section was an estancia - La Leona - where we turned off for a break. It´s amazing how tea and cakes are part of the way of life in the country in Argentina - we had found the same at Harberton in Tierra del Fuego. You come in off the dusty road and there is a choice of cakes! La Leona is designated a Sitio Historico because in 1905 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up here for a while after robbing a bank in Rio Gallegos. They stayed for a month which I put down to the cakes. We are now in Bariloche which looks like Lucerne or Montreux - Swiss town on lake with chalet architecture - but it´s Argentina. Last night there was a classic match on TV between Boca Junior and River Plate. RP won, but it would probably have been the same whatever happened. The fans celebrated all night and drove around the town hooting, so a bit jaded this (Sunday) morning. Think we´ll just take the cable car to get a view of the lake. After the tiny places we´ve veen in Bariloche seems too big. Off to Chile tomorrow.
February 12th 2008 - Surfers Paradise (re Chile)
It was an amazing contrast to be in the Chilean Lake Distict after the wilderness of Argentina. The landscape suddenly so rich - like the Italian lakes if like anything - and green. We crossed the border using 4 buses and 3 boats across lakes high in the mountains - beautiful scenery and a hot day but not so wild as we had hoped - there were a lot of people doing the same thing. It's peak holiday season in Chile so naturally all Santiago is in the Lakes. We drove to Chiloe - a big island south of Puerto Montt - and then up to Pucon, a very posh resort beneath the active volcano of Villarrica. Everywhere the country was green and cultivated except up the side of the volcanoes. We drove up Villarrica as far as the ski area (closed for the summer) thinking we would walk up to the crater. It was so hot that we gave up the idea - and that was just from the sun! The Lakes in Chile were an area of German settlement and some towns, like Frutillar on Lake Llaniquehue, have a very German feel, with music festivals, half timbered houses and micro breweries. Oh and of course Kuchen, particularly apfelstrudel. So Argentina has cake and Chile has Kuchen. It's also dairy country with very healthy looking cattle; and lots of fruit.
February 18th 2008 - Brisbane
A totally different Australia from any other time I've been here. Cool and rainy is not what you normally expect in Queensland in February but it beats the usual hot humid climate with everybody praying for rain. It came just on time - nobody knew what the next level of water restrictins might be but very serious. They're not relaxed yet but probably soon will be - the dams now 40% full. There is a view that this might be an El Nino effect, and that might tie up with the blazing weathger we had in normally cool parts of Chile. Anyway that's the weather - and the locals love it. We spent a few days at the beach in Currumbin near the NSW border, and even drove down as far as Byron Bay. It was a first for me to see this famous beach town - very stylish and there's also a bijou country town inland a bit called Bangalow. You can see why people like that part of the country - green and hilly with artistic communities. Last night we went to the Australian Outback Spectacular - and it was excellent. It was like going out to a good (if large) restaurant with a floor show - only the floor show in this case was a complete view of outback life including sheepdogs, a bit of history, some fantastic riding, rodeo, and Aussie wit. A great evening. Tomorrow Lyndy and I part company. My flight to South Africa leaves in the afternoon. Lyndy's family have been great as ever, so sorry to leave, but the next bit's going to be good too.
March 3rd 2008 - Saint Helena
I have managed to get hold of the only internet kiosk on the island for an hour. Sorry for the interruption in service - there was no general internet on the ship from Cape Town, and there are no mobile phones etc. That stopped mattering a long time ago as the tropical pace of life takes over (or even shipboard life which is even slower). The ship took nearly six days - everything on board was excellent (it can be measured on the scales) so it sounds grudging to say I was glad to get ashore. Eventually you felt you knew everybody on board, but it was strange that up to the last day at sea people seemed to turn up whom you hadn't seen before. So far out at sea I can't inagine how they slipped on board.
St Helena must be the most welcoming place anywhere - the people who look most like mauritians in colouring and facial features are very proud of their mixed ancestry, to which almost everybody has contributed. Mostly very fine-looking peole when young but tending to live well and get fat later, which reminds me on someone, at least the latter part. The town, Jamestown, is a small Georgian gem - beautiful peoriod houses down both sides of a broad street - but it's in a very narrow gulley so there are bare cliffs of a reddish volcanic colour behind the houses on both sides. The man street goes down to the sea, which gives some air. All the coastal areas are eroded volcanic cliffs - very few roads get to the sea and theer are no beaches. The interior of the island is very lush and green, with deep valleys and sharp peaks. Peter and I have done some excellent walks in the interior. Diana's Peak the highest point at around 800m was covered in mist when we went up on the first day. Everybody was full of admiration that we then walked back on the roads to Jamestown - got really sore and hot from going downhill on the tarmac - so we won't do that again. We have paid our respects at Napoleon's house and tomb. It all looks peaceful and tranquil now with beautiful gardens around, but the inside of Longwood House did feel like a prison. It LOOKS like a fine 18th Century house, which it is, until you notice how enclosed it feels with few windows and a damp feeling. The Briars where he first lived was better. Yesterday we did another walk - after church which everybody went to - very touching when the priest blessed all the people who were leaving the island that day to work in other places. This happens more and more - there is very little for the 4000 people her to do so they work abroad and remit money. The plan is to see all corners of the island on foot, so doing well so far. On Friday back on the ship to Ascension, then 3 days there and the fly home with the RAF. I've been away so long I can't imagine that.
March 14th 2008 - London (re Ascension Island)
Back home now. I messed up my note on Ascension by forgetting that I was using a coin-in-the-slot computer. I had writen 3 paragrapahs when the damn thing switched off. Anyway hope to see you all soon and by then should have the pics. Just briefly Ascension is mostly black or brown volcanic ash with very little growing except at the peak which is green and even had a dairy farm at one time and could still grow vegetables if there were the demand (or the initiative). It was very steep up there and often in a cloud. Two lother things were impressive - green turtles labour up the beaches to lay eggs and the hatchlings leg it for the sea some time later pursued by all sorts of predators. The other - a tiny cemetery among the black ash marked with white stones with the graves of yellow fever victims, mainly off ships working off the African coast in the 1830s to suppress slavery. the disease was caught there and the crews were quarantined at this place called Comfortless Cove, which couldn't be more appropriate. Most of the graves are from one ship HMS Bonnetta.
There should be a quiz question converning the number of large aerials and other similar structures on Ascension - The RAF, BT, C&W, USAF and other US agencies, and the Ariane project all have pieces of electronics reaching for the sky. It fries your brain - honestly.
Flew back in DC10-30 of Omni Airlines International, a US carrier on charter to the RAF - uneventful flight but the area around Brize Norton this morning looked very odd and there were far too many people everywhere.
