My Last week on Ascension!

Last week on Ascension!

On Saturday evening (30th September) Lorna had a games evening and drinks around a fire for her birthday celebrations. We played Scrawl which is a drawing version of Chinese whispers where you’re given a phrase to draw then the next person has to write what they see, then the next person draws the new phrase, and this is repeated until it returns to the original drawer. It was a very funny game. We then sat outside Haye’s in their garden where they have a fire pit area and had a few drinks whilst we looked at the Stars, Tobias was showing Anna and I his new stargazing book which teaches you about the visible features on the moon which was really cool. At around 22:15 Anna and I decided we were going to head to long beach to stargaze for a little while before heading to bed. We walked along the back of the beach and were going to walk all the way to the end when I decided we should turn onto the middle and sit in the centre. I’m not quite sure what made me want to do that instead, but it was almost as if I had a sixth sense, because when we reached the high water line, we noticed a very dark patch of sand. Anna and I looked at each other in disbelief and didn’t quite believe it until we saw sand being flicked up and then we knew we were right, there was a turtle! The turtles here don’t normally come back for the beginning of the season until December, with a few early turtles in November so this was a crazy early experience! It was very magical and almost like the turtle was saying goodbye. One last turtle for me on Ascension before I leave! We sat and watched her as she was camouflaging and then as she made her way back to the water and I named her September (to stick with our S name theme) as it was the last night of September. What an amazing and unexpected night.

On Sunday morning Anna made pancakes for our breakfast and then at around 11am we headed off on a walk to a small cove area we call Monty’s beach to recreate our first weekend walk from when we first arrived on Ascension (Almost a year ago!). We first walked along long beach to see the next from the turtle the night before to make sure we hadn’t been dreaming! Then we followed the dirt track that heads towards Comfortless Cove, until we reached Monty’s (or as we called it at the beginning ‘secret cove’). On the way we also found a new area we hadn’t seen before which had a sign labelled observation post, and old rusting bedframes which was very weird.

We spent the afternoon splashing in the edge of the water and chilling on the beach, we saw a flatfish, lots of Ascension wrasse, Sargent Majors, Sally light foots and even an Octopus! It was a really nice afternoon. Once it reached around half past two, we retraced our steps and headed back to Georgetown so I could do some packing. Then in the evening Anna, Carson and I watched Despicable me 3.

On Monday 2nd October I had a Plant Day with Diego, Georgia and Cerys. We had shade house checks which meant doing pest checks for the morning at two boats shade houses, followed by Green Mountain shade house checks in the afternoon. I carried out the Anogramma checks whilst Diego showed Cerys around the shade houses and Georgia started on some of the weeding. Then I helped water the plants before joining the others to weed the plants in the furthest shade house. Pascal (one of the new marine placement students) and Cuen (the new marine team lead) also joined Conservation for their first day. Anna and I then ended the day by doing some sunset yoga on the Thornton Fort next to the Georgetown pier overlooking the sea.

On Tuesday I had a half day, with the morning for packing my bags some more and the afternoon in the office doing some more edits to the turtle manual which I have been editing for the new interns who will be coming soon. In the evening Anna and I went to my last Zumba session. Before the Zumba we also stopped off at One Boat (where the dump is) to ceremoniously place our Dew Pond Trophy amongst the other trophies left by previous people who have left the island.

Zumba was fun as always, the ladies got me to choose a few dances as it was my last session, and they gave me a going away gift at the end which was really sweet of them!

On Wednesday Anna and I were helping out Phil by sewing up his new Fog catcher again. After work Carson picked Anna and I up (in what we named the ‘Party Bus’ – as his truck was at the mechanic) and we got VC food which we took to Pan Am for a sunset dinner on the beach which was really lovely. We stayed for a little while after to stargaze before heading back to the house.

Thursday marked my last day of Mexican Thorn work. Chrisna, Anna and I were joined with three volunteers from the MET office at Northeast and cut down five and a half trees! Whilst we were working I found a gecko friend who stayed on my back for a while whilst I worked.

We headed back to the office for my leaving cake and coffee/Jolene’s birthday celebration which was at 2pm. Jolene said some really lovely things about me and I was presented with an Ascension turtle Lazy Susan and a lovely card which includes an embroidered turtle made by Sophie.

At 15:15 I then headed to Two Boats school to join Lorna for my last MPA youth committee session. We took the kids to English Bay for World Animal Day (Photos here: https://www.instagram.com/ascension_mpa/?img_index=1) where they had to choose an Ascension animal to make a sand sculpture of. We had two turtles, two manta rays and one whale shark. After creating their sand artwork, they were then very investing in jumping about in the edge of the sea trying to catch ‘sand cockroaches’ which are a type of crustacean called Mole Crabs which burrow in the sand. We finished the session just after 5pm but by the time I had dropped all the kids off it was 17:45 which meant Anna and I would have been very late to the line dancing lesson we had been planning on joining! Instead, the two of us went for a walk up to Jubilee view to watch the sunset and look across Long beach.

Friday was my last day at work! I found out my flight was going to be delayed by 24 hours, so I wasn’t going to leave that evening. Georgia joined Anna and I for a beach clean day on Pierhead beach. Before heading to the beach, we first went to Daly’s Crag to try and remove an old moisture probe from the ground, however it snapped in the process, so we didn’t manage to get it all out. We then headed to Pierhead beach and weeded along to our Turtle Tunes playlist! After work I taught Anna how to play Solitaire before Carson took Anna and I to the base of the mountain to do Middleton’s walk. We had hoped to see a nice sunset, but it was quite windy and cloudy. It was still lovely to walk and see some of the views despite the weather! Afterwards we had a late dinner and watched Sing before going to bed.

Saturday was my last day on Ascension! I woke up at 7am and made sure to pack my last few things into my cases before cleaning my room. Lorna picked Anna and I up at 9:30am to head up the mountain to do a loop of walks around the mountain. We started at the Red Lion and walked up to the marine barracks to head down Breakneck. Following Breakneck down into the pines we then headed across Nature Trail, to Warpath and then onto Ruperts which then led us to Garden Cottage and then Red Lion. We then decided to head up to Dew Pond to finish off our walks and go to the peak of Green mountain.

After our walks we met Sophie, Thom, Simon, Marcos and Tobias at Red lion to help make some wreaths for a memorial service happening the next week. We headed down the mountain at 15:45 as I wanted an hour to get ready before heading to the VC for a burger before checking in for my flight. However, when we got back to the house, I phoned the flight information line to double check if there had been any changes to my flight and it informed me my check in time had been moved forward an hour! This meant I had 20 minutes until I needed to leave if I wanted time for food before my flight.

I quickly changed and put the last few things in my case whilst Anna fetched 1223 from the office for me and we loaded my bags into the back. I went over to Jolene’s house to say an emotional goodbye before Anna drove me to the US base. Chrisna, Mel, Sunitha, Jonny, Marcos, Tobias, Lorna and Carson also joined me at the VC for burgers which was really lovely. I said goodbye to everyone after we had eaten and Anna drove me to the Airhead to check into my flight. Once my bag was checked in I went through the room and outside to the caged area where I could see Anna still in the Airport carpark. She stood near the fence on her side and we chatted for about an hour and a half which was when the plane from the Falklands landed and people from the plane got off to stretch their legs. At 20:00 they began letting us onto the plane and by 20:20 I was in the sky looking back over the lights of Travellers on Ascension!