Comfortless Cove

You can only live on Ascension Island if you work there or are under 18 years old. Once you retire, you must leave. So nearly everyone there either works for the Ascension Government or is part of the US or British military bases. There is no tourism and there are no facilities like car hire. But we were lucky enough to meet Herbie, the head of Sea Rescue, who said that his wife, Tanya, would happily drive us around the island (and keep our shopping in her fridge while we were out - nothing is too much trouble for these kind island people.😊) So Tanya took us to the beautiful, but sadly named, Comfortless Cove, where we found a most unusual cemetery. She drove us through the US and British military villages. The British village is called Two Boats and there’s also an area called One Boat, because, we’ll, there’s one boat there! We got to see the beaches where the turtles lay their eggs. Sadly, we were not allowed on the island at night time to see them, but every morning from our boat you could see the fresh tracks. It’s also hatchling season, so the friggin’ frigate birds are continually circling the area. We also got to see the Sea Rescue boat being launched for it’s weekly training session. She showed us the many and varied communication structures and the unusual landscape. We visited the museum and had a drink at the NAAFI (not ‘nafi’) bar (Navy, Army, Air Force). A truly fascinating place.Read more