"Unique island in the south atlantic " a Ascension Island Travel Page by johnkebab

I was on Ascension island with the British Army in 1999 for 2 weeks, needless to say the island is pretty small, read, very small, and at the time it was a closed island i.e. only open to the military and civilians supporting the military or the island - I think that might have changed now but the price of getting to the island is quite prohibitive at 1000GPB return!

Ascension is situated in the middle of the south atlantic, about 700 miles north of St Helena, which you can only get to by taking the mail ship which passes about once a month (I believe).

Ascension island has a number of climatic zones (5 I think), so you can have torrential rain, sunshine, fog, wind, etc all at the same time in different zones on the island, bearing in mind the size of the island, is quite an achievement!

Green mountain dominates the volcanic landscape of Ascension, atop which sits an old barracks built by the Royal Marines when the island was first populated (in order to provide a garrison in case the French came to try and get Napoleon off of St Helena). There is a race to the top of green mountain, which is a bit nuts really and therefore the record his held by a Gurkha (at least it was, it may have changed).

The photo here gives some idea of the volcanic landscape that can be found on Ascension island, it's not all like this but in certain areas it can be very difficult underfoot.

Ascension Island is also a home to a lot of unique wildlife, being one of the only places in the world which plays home to green turtles and a whole host of nesting birds.

There is an airport planned for St Helena and depending on the cost of flights, could open the 2 islands up to toursm, though resources for tourists are kind of limited (I think there is 1 hotel on the island), hitch-hiking is no problem, there is no crime at all on the island (as in literally 0%), shops are limited and quite expensive so when you turn up, bring some stuff from home with you........