A Visit to Georgetown's Fort Hayes Museum and Part 1 of a Green Mountain Hike

On a recent Saturday, I visited Georgetown's Fort Hayes Museum about the history of Ascension Island.

The island has a very interesting history.

Green turtle shells.

I worked the first space shuttle launch from the Merritt Island Tracking Station on Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

This warehouse at the Georgetown Pier is over 100 years old and still in use.

Beginning my hike up Green Mountain. It was a 1 1/2 hour hike from my barracks room to reach the base of the mountain.

The towns of Travellers Hill a Royal Air Force (RAF) Base and Two Boats.

Shot into the sun.

Two Boats.

Many volcanic cinder cones.

Travellers town on the left and Two Boats to the right.

More large land crabs.

Trees!

The runway "Wideawake" field. to the right on a cinder cone is my satcom workstation.

A resting sheep along the trail.

The Red Lion - old British marine barracks.

Many hiking trails around Green Mountain. This day I hiked to the summit at Dew Pond.

A very interesting story of how Charles Darwin came up with the idea to plant trees at the mountain top to produce moisture which eventually became a pond of water that was diverted for drinking water and agricultural use.

A very tropical forest.

 

Another Exploring Hike

 

Interesting erosion of a cinder cone.

An open Catholic Church.

A lava cave.

An inland motocross track.

Very large land crabs. The bodies are the size of my hand.

A T in the road. I headed to the Devil's Ashpit. Two hours later in the heavy rain and wind, I still hadn't reached it so I turned around.

The airfield was named WIDEAWAKE Field after thousands of nearby birds kept soldiers up at night. It still carries that name.

After work, I jog from my barracks along the coast to the road's end. It's about 5 miles round trip. 

One of several beach shacks to chill at. People fish here and cook barbeque their catch.

Another beautiful beach with warnings of rip currents and sharks.

Remains of last season's green turtle nests.

A picture from a beach sign of an emerging turtle.

Another beach sign picture of a green turtle.

A few views of the base.

I live in the middle two-story barracks in the rear to the left. Very spacious rooms and quiet.

Work centers are spelled out with rocks.

A Tour of the HMS Protector

My satellite communications (satcom) work center.

The C-17 arrived with freshies. Not as big a deal as it was during my Antarctic winter deployments as it was always many months before the stations opened and freshies arrived. 

The newly arrived C-17 from Patrick's Air Force Base, Florida. I live 10 miles north of Patrick's.

Another view of satcom.

I had an opportunity to visit the HMS Protector on its way to the Antarctic Peninsula - my old stomping ground for the last three Austral winters.

World travel agrees with me. Just wish I could enjoy this with my family.

A view looking back at Georgetown.

The HMS Protector An icebreaker to survey and research the Arctic and Antarctic.

This is a US Air Force resupply vessel from Port Canaveral, Florida. My family lives .5 miles south of Port Canaveral. 

Boarding the HMS Protector from a motor launch.

Looking at the rear of the bridge from the main deck.

I sure miss the Antarctic penguins.

The helicopter deck.

I miss my early 70's navy days from my old guided-missile destroyer USS Hoel DDG-13. 

Beautiful Ascension Island.

The bridge.

A view from the bridge.

The ship's bell.

You don't need to tell me twice if a beach has a no swimming sign because of sharks.

These guys were quite large.

The other fish are called blackfish (triggerfish). 

There is one swimming beach north of here called Comfortless Cove that has no rip currents or shark warnings.