Moving to Ascension! And Week 1!

 Last week I made the 3 day journey to start my new role as Conservation internon Ascension Island!

I left the UK on the 3rd November, flying from Heathrow (where I met another Intern - Anna) at 17:30 and landing in Frankfurt around an hour and a half later. We then flew from Frankfurt to Johannasberg at 22:00 and arrived in South Africa at around 9am the next morning (4th November). The flight was long, and I watched two films in between food and sleeping; The Hustle, and the new minions film (rise of Gru?). The landing in South Africa was a little rough, there was a lot of turbulence and the girl next to me was being sick in a bag on the way down, but once we landed Anna and I were glad to head to the hotel we had been booked by AIG (Ascension Island Government). The hotel was connected to the aiport so we didn't have to leave the airport, just walked through to the hotel from the inside, we weren't allowed to check in until 2pm so we waited in the hotel lobby with our bags for a few hours and then headed to our rooms. 

I treated myself to a long bath and then had a very early night before the next day of travelling. Anna and I met for breakfast at 5am in the Hotel where I had an omlete and pancakes from a funny pancake machine for breakfast. We then went and checked in our bags around 6am and were told with our tickets we could use the slow lounge before the flight. We found the slow lounge on our way to the gate and so decided to investigate and it turned out it was a very fancy lounge with more food inside, we aren't really sure how we ended up there but I had a croissant and some juice whilst we were there. At 8:15 we headed to board our plane to St Helena which stopped off at Walvis bag to refuel before making the trip across the ocean. I was sitting next to a really interesting lady from the Natural History museum who was the curator of the arachnids and she was heading to St Helena to deliver training to people there and also look for new spider species! How cool! After landing in St Helena we then made the final flight to Ascension! We landed early afternoon and were met at the airport by a few members of the conservation team. Sophie (a conservation fieldworker who works on seabirds and invasive species projects, took Anna and I to our Bungalow in 'ChinaTown' (we don't know why the area is called ChinaTown but we think its funny :)). We had been provided with a few essentials - some bread, eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, milk, tea, water and butter, as well as washing up liquid and teatowels - Once Anna and I had chosen our rooms, we unpacked some of our stuff and then headed to Diane's house (she's the director of Conservation) as she had invited all the new employees to hers for a welcome dinner and farewell meal for some ZSL marine plastic researchers who had spent the month on Ascension. It was really nice to meet the current team and all the new starters as well. 

On Sunday morning we had the day off and had been told Comfortless Cove is a nice place to Snorkel so we decided to take a walk to explore the Island but didn't take any swimming stuff as we weren't sure exactly where we could swim (there are only certain bays you can swim at because of large populations of galapagos sharks). We set off around 10am and walked from Georgetown to long beach, and then along the coast, along tracks and across lots of lava rock to a few small bays. The landscape is really crazy, most of it is barren and quite harsh with lava rock for miles, with a few red mountains one one really green one covered in plants called Green Mountain.

We stopped at one bay for a picnic lunch and enjoyed watching some blue spotty crabs which we later found out are called Sally Lightfoots. As well as paddling with some fish (Ascension Wrasse and Black Triggerfish), before heading onto Comfortless Cove, along the way we saw a tropic bird and some Ascension Frigate Birds which were really cool to see! When we reached comfortless cove we realised that the other new starters and some of the other conservation team were already there (apparently they had called our house phone but we had already left) and so once they were done snorkelling we got a lift back to our bungalow around 3pm. In the evening we were invite to a bbq at one of the other bungalow's and were also taken down to the pier to look for sharks and fish at night. We saw an octopus and lots of needle fish but no sharks unfortunately. 

First week at work

Monday morning was our first day in the office. We arrived at the Conservation building at 7:30am ready for induction. Unfortunately our line manager Jo has Covid (as well as a lot of the conservation department - Covid only reached Ascension this August!) so she wasn't in, but we had induction with the other new starters - Emily who is going to be the Endemic Plant Assistant, Sunita, the new assistant park warden, Mel the new DNA officer and Marcos the new MPA Officer. We were given an office tour and taken for a walk around Georgetown. Monday evening Anna and I headed down to the Pier again but didn't have any luck looking for Sharks. 

On Tuesday we had our first day out around the Island doing fieldwork. We were taken on an Island Tour whilst incorporating moisture probe sampling for the CRACAB project and monitoring and watering plots of endemic Ascension Spurge (Euphorpbia). It was really nice to see more of the Island and get out to do some practical work. We were also taken to the NAFI which is the shop on the RAF base which sells food and other convenience store things. They mostly sell things from SPAR, CO-OP and other UK shops but at a much higher price than home. In the evening Anna and I took a walk down to dead mans beach to explore a little and walked past the Ascension Island Museum, which I want to visit this weekend.

On Wednesday Anna, Emily and I were taken up Green Mountain to the endemic plant shaded nurseries. The first one was at a place called red lion, up the mountain. We spent part of the morning weeding the plants being grown there ready for relocation projects. The mountain was amazing, such a contrast to the landscape down at the bottom, it was so cool and misty and covered in green and flowers, like being in a different place all together! We also saw a couple of land crabs on the road which Diego was careful not to run over, but they wave their claws at you as you drive past which is really funny. We were then taken to the Post Office to sort out driving licences so I now have an Ascension Provisional, and will have to take a test with a local police officer within 3 months. I'm a little nervous as I've never driven a land rover before, but I think I'll get lots of practice before the test. In the afternoon we were watering Euphorbia plants in a different shaded shed at Two Boats which is a town near the RAF base in Travellers Hill and moved some plants to cross hill near long beach, ready for planting the next day. 

On Thursday and Anna, Sunita, Marcos, Mel and I went with Chrisna (the Bio-security Officer) to Mars Bay to do some Mexican Thorn control. Mexican Thorn is an invasive plant which is all over the island which they're trying to work out how is best to remove it. We spent the morning using loppers and a saw to cut down a few plants, with the same in the afternoon. I think we managed to cut down 7 in total. It was a very tiring day but was nice to feel like we made some progress, even if we were all covered in scratches by the end! Anna and I were then shown where the herbicides were kept which is what is put on the stumps after we have cut down as much as we can, they are currently trialing three different ones to see which works best. Anna and I were then asked to help Diego and Emily finish putting cages onto the newly planted Euphorbia at Cross Hill so we did that until around half 3 and then headed to explore the Chandlery which is the store in Georgetown. Sophie then kindly took us both to NAFI and JAMS which are the other two shops on the island, so we could stock up on food. We then made a vegetable pasta dish for dinner. I then went into the office to use the computer and internet to write up part of this blog :)

Friday Anna and I spent the morning with Sophie who is a conservation fieldwork assistant for the bird and plant team. We went to Mars Bay to put rat bait in rat boxes around the sooty tern colonies and then headed to the wind turbines near English bay to check for any dead birds that had flown into the turbines. We did find one bird, an adult masked booby which we bagged and brought back to the office for the freezer, to use for gut dissection analysis at a later date. Whilst we were at the turbines we also did a short beach weed to remove some of the non native plants that grow in the sand and the roots can cause problems for turtle nests. We then headed back to the office and had our lunch there. Anna and I then had the afternoon to write a short article about ourselves for the local newsletter 'the islander' to introduce ourselves to the community. We made veggie bolognese for dinner which was very yummy and I started reading the Percy Jackson Series on my Kindle. 

On Saturday Anna and I made pancakes for breakfast to celebrate our first week on the Island, before heading to the local shops in Georgetown which only open on Saturdays for a couple of hours; Sue Ryder Charity shop where everything is 50p, Treasure - had some very random stationary and kids jewelry, A&P - had some random food and souvenirs and finally Glamour which had some household supplies and food. At 11am we then headed down to the Ascension Museum which is only open between 10m-12pm on a Saturday and we had a look around. It was really interesting to read about the history of the Island - settled on as Garrison for  St Helena when Napoleon was exiled there, and about the history, wildlife and geology of the island. We also bought out letterbox books, which is a book with all the letterbox walks on the Island. The letterbox walks encompass 43 walks around the island where there are old fashioned letterboxes at the end of each one with a stamp inside to stamp in your books and we want to try and complete all of them before we leave. Apparently the record is in 46 hours, but normally people do them over the course of 2 years but 1 year is very dooable. We then headed back to the bungalow for lunch and made cheese and tomato toasties before going for a walk to dead mans beach to rock pool and beach comb. We saw some really cool fish in the rockpools, like a red squirrelfish and more ascension wrasse. The waves were very dynamic so we made sure to keep far in, but it was amazing to watch the huge waves crash over the tops of the rocks. After rockpooling we carried on walking further along the beach until we reached the end and then circled back and took the track back to Chinatown. For dinner we made a vegetable egg fried rice. Chrisna and her friend Ed who works on security on the US Military Base invited us to a Disco which was happening at Two Boats Club in the evening so Anna and I thought it would be a nice way to meet more people from the Island. We met them at aroun 9pm and headed to Two Boats but there didn't seem to be many people there so Chrisna suggested we go to the NAAFI which is where the RAF Base is as most people were probably watching the Rugby there. We managed to catch the end of the Arsenal Match on the TV there as well as the Rugby and there were a few people there to chat to. I met some people from the RAF and army that were there, they change over every 4 months apparently. We then headed back to Two Boats and chatted to some of the people who were friends with others we know from the american base and runway contractor team who are helping build the runway so that there can be direct flights to the UK again. It was a fun evening but I was exhausted after - I had been used to going to bed at 9pm most nights prior aha. 

On Sunday Anna and I had a pretty chill day. We got up a little later than normal - around 9am - and decided we would do our first letterbox walk, the closest one to our house being Jubilee drive where the letterbox is placed up at a picnic area which was built for the queens diamond jubilee in 2012. It was quite hot but we walked up the side of the hill and around to the letterbox and then carried on towards comfortless cove. We decided we weren't going to walk all the way round to comfortless again but we tried to find our way to the bay we discovered last week but we couldn't find the exact way we walked the first time. We thought we were a little lost but we by some miracle found ourselves at the secret bay again! We sat and had our lunch on the bay and enjoyed the sunshine and it was very peaceful watching the sea crashing and listening to it hitting the rocks. We then walked back to the house and had a very chilled evening and made pumpkin, spinach, butterbean and green bean curry for dinner. For the rest of the evening I then read my book and then went to bed.