South Pacific nothing... I went to the South Atlantic!
Because Mum has an "interesting" job (which means I can't tell you any more or she will shred both you and me both!) I get the opportunity to visit some strange places. This particular time around it was the South Atlantic in the form of Ascension Island and then the Falkland Islands. Being a brave adventurer means nothing to me. I am ready to be carried anywhere! Our flight was out of RAF Brize Norton (but we had to divert to RAF Fairford in the end) and our first stop was Ascension Island. You can go to my pictures of Ascension Island here. Ascension island is a huge lump of grit and volcanic cinders about 5 degrees South of the equator. It is composed mostly of volcanic cones apart from the central mountain, Green Mountain. The island has little natural flora and fauna (big words for a cuddly, pink unicorn, eh?) most has been introduced over the years. The biggest pest is Mesquite thorn bushes which were imported some years back and grows everywhere. There are flocks of wild sheep (domestic sheep that have turned to the dark side) and feral donkeys. The people are lovely, mostly they come from St Helena for the work. There is an American airbase there at Wide Awake and other companies like AT&T have a presence as it is the end of one of the Trans Atlantic cables. The BBC has a presence as do several UK government agencies. It was a stopping off point for British troops going down to and returning from the Falkland Islands. The capital, Georgetown, has some colonial architecture but the greatest claim to fame for Ascension is the Green turtles that return every year to lay their eggs. In the past they were used as a source of fresh food for passing ships but now people are much nicer and they help the turtles if they get stranded and when the little ones hatch they are helped to get to the sea. Two of HMS Hood's 5.5 inch guns were removed during a refit and were relocated to a hill overlooking Georgetown. There is a rock near Georgetown, which is covered in different colured paint. It is said that if you paint this rock then you will never return to the island. Lots of people have painted it but not me!
After Ascension Island we zoomed down to the Falkland Islands where we landed at the RAF airbase at Mount Pleasant. Here we waited for over an hour because the RAF had lost our luggage! We eventually were driven to the far end of Mount Pleasant Airbase (I'll call it MPA from now on) where the guest quarters were. It was about half a miles walk to the Officers Mess so Dad worked up an appetite walking to and from meals. We were lucky with the weather because we had arrived in thei summer time so we had some blue skies and sunshine. The weather can change though - really is four seasons in one day. Sometimes it was four seasons in one hour! We were lucky to see different types of penguins, some dolphins, terns and alls sorts of things. Dad had to take a driving course because the roads in the Falkalnds tend to be eight feet off the ground and composed of small marbly stones. Dad had to learn not to brake too hard or we would have been off the road and into a very deep ditch. The skies could be very blue or very grey but the air is so fresh with little or no pollution. I liked the Falklands and the people. We had to watch out for landmines. Dad went to "bury some ghosts" because he was working with the Ministry of Defence in 1982 when the Falklands crisis happened. He lost several friends on the ships that were sunk. When we climbed Mount Harriet and walked to Goat Ridge and Mount Tumbledown it was very poignant as there were still the remains of Arentine field kitchens and mortar emplacements. Some of the Argentine conscript soldiers were wearing sandals in the middle of winter and these lay abandoned too. Wherever a battle was fought and British lives lost, there is a monument and an old ammunition box. This box contains a visitors book, some brasso and a cloth. People are asked to sign the book and clean the brass plaque on the monument. We cleaned quite a few. You can see my Falkland pictures here.
Dad wrote a long letter to our dear friend Sonia. You can read the letter in two parts below if you want to.
After Ascension Island we zoomed down to the Falkland Islands where we landed at the RAF airbase at Mount Pleasant. Here we waited for over an hour because the RAF had lost our luggage! We eventually were driven to the far end of Mount Pleasant Airbase (I'll call it MPA from now on) where the guest quarters were. It was about half a miles walk to the Officers Mess so Dad worked up an appetite walking to and from meals. We were lucky with the weather because we had arrived in thei summer time so we had some blue skies and sunshine. The weather can change though - really is four seasons in one day. Sometimes it was four seasons in one hour! We were lucky to see different types of penguins, some dolphins, terns and alls sorts of things. Dad had to take a driving course because the roads in the Falkalnds tend to be eight feet off the ground and composed of small marbly stones. Dad had to learn not to brake too hard or we would have been off the road and into a very deep ditch. The skies could be very blue or very grey but the air is so fresh with little or no pollution. I liked the Falklands and the people. We had to watch out for landmines. Dad went to "bury some ghosts" because he was working with the Ministry of Defence in 1982 when the Falklands crisis happened. He lost several friends on the ships that were sunk. When we climbed Mount Harriet and walked to Goat Ridge and Mount Tumbledown it was very poignant as there were still the remains of Arentine field kitchens and mortar emplacements. Some of the Argentine conscript soldiers were wearing sandals in the middle of winter and these lay abandoned too. Wherever a battle was fought and British lives lost, there is a monument and an old ammunition box. This box contains a visitors book, some brasso and a cloth. People are asked to sign the book and clean the brass plaque on the monument. We cleaned quite a few. You can see my Falkland pictures here.
Dad wrote a long letter to our dear friend Sonia. You can read the letter in two parts below if you want to.