I’m going to invent a new handle for myself if there is any chance that new migrants – new settlers, as they used to be called – are heading for Ascension Island.
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Quiet retreat ... What about a move out of the neighbourhood, perhaps a destination as far away as remote Ascension, just south of the Equator. - Thanks to BBC News for the cutting. |
Ascension Island may not be Paradise exactly, but it is a gorgeous island.
It's remarkably close to the Equator and very pleasant visits there showed me it would suit me fine for a home.
Friendly
I have sailed passed many times and, best of all, I've anchored there and enjoyed immensely the pleasure of going ashore.
Like its neighbour to the south, St Helena, it has a small but friendly and very hospitable population which knows how to give the word welcoming a capital W.
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Whether the welcoming I experienced as a singlehanded sailor anchoring close to the shore would be the same had I announced that I had arrived to stay, I’m not to know.
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You’ll find a very good account of the Ascension on Wikipedia, with some good photos and many details.
The priorities
When contemplating a new home in another part of the world, what are the priorities?
Any chance of being slaughtered by the locals? Perhaps killed with kindness, is a risk. Otherwise and long and healthy life seems the promise.
The scenes wherever the visitor looks are wonderful, the mountain gorgeous, and the greenery – introduced back in the 1840s - is gorgeous.
Look upwards, higher than Green Mountain, and the vista of the night skies is fabulous.
No wild animals pose a threat, and birdlife is plentiful. There’s plenty of what we see in an English garden, plant and bird-wise, but also there’s some wonderful seabirds including boobies, petrels, noddies, and the island’s own frigatebird.
As the popular expressions goes, what’s not to like? You may not find a convenient Aldi, nor a choice of cinemas, nor a very handy Surbiton Library.
But for life, for clean air, and only a glance away huge stretches of ocean, Ascension takes some beating.
Thanks very much for visiting the mostly Tuesday and Thursday blogs for my adventure writing. The blogs (as they call 'em) are introduced each time on Facebook Facebook dot com/Sailingtopurgatory,
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