March 2004 Trip to Diego Garcia

     The trip from Colorado Springs to Diego Garcia routed me through Los Angeles, Tokyo-Narita and Singapore, a total of approximately 24 hours of flying and waiting in airports.  Good thing I had business class from Los Angeles to Singapore!  I spent two nights in Singapore before catching the military flight to Diego Garcia.  Singapore was surprisingly clean, modern, technologically advanced and safe.  Since English is required in the school system in Singapore, everyone spoke English and all the signs, newspapers, etc. were in English.

       
Downtown Singapore as viewed from my room in the InterContinental Hotel

       
Just down the street from the hotel; a mix of old and new structures with the comforts of home!

     The military flight from Singapore to Diego was on a modified DC-8, which had all but the last 32 seats in the rear removed for cargo.  The flight took approximately 4 1/2 hours.  If I had been on a flight that arrived during the day, I may have seen an aerial view of the island that looks something like this.

A view of some of the Officers' Quarters on the NW section of Diego.  The building that I stayed in is just off the picture to the right.
(This photo is borrowed from a Web Site about Diego Garcia.)

     My work location was Diego Garcia Tracking Station (DGS; call sign "REEF").  It is less than a mile from where I lived for nearly two weeks.  DGS is an Automated Remote Tracking Station (ARTS) with a single antenna, although the facility also supports a GPS antenna as well some other things that I shouldn't talk about!

       
DGS with the GPS radome on the left and the ARTS radome on the right.

     Lodging on Diego Garcia was inexpensive at $8.00 per day, and I was fortunate enough to get a private room.  It was certainly nothing fancy, but it did have a phone, cable TV and a small refrigerator.  The rental car was $8.40 a day plus 11¢ a mile, but then the car was only a 1993 Ford Tempo that had been well abused over the years.  Meals at the Galley were very reasonable; all you could eat cost $1.70 for breakfast and $3.30 for lunch or dinner.  There was also a choice of several other restaurants that were only slightly more expensive, the best of which (in my opinion) was the Officer's Club.  A nice dinner of pretty tasty Sweet and Sour Chicken with iced tea was under $7.00.  I also bought snacks at the Ship's Store, went bowling at the four-lane bowling alley (3 games plus shoe rental for only $2.20) and, best of all, went deep sea fishing for half a day at a cost of $25.00.

       
Downtown Diego Garcia looking north (left); the Ship's Store (right).

       
The east side of Diego Garcia as viewed from the ocean (left); a view of the lagoon headed back from the fishing trip with some ships barely visible (right).

I caught the only fish of the morning on my boat - a 52 inch (~28 pound) Wahoo.
This was the best fish that I have ever eaten!

     Diego Garcia is definitely a tropical island, as it is located about 7 degrees south of the equator in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  I won't give all the details here as there are plenty of Diego Garcia Web Sites, but it was hot and humid the whole time there with rain every day most of the first week and dry, hot and humid weather (about 90F every day) the second week.  Note that the "white sand" that you see in the photos is not sand but instead is ground up and pulverized coral (chemical composition - mostly calcium carbonate; sand is silicon dioxide).

       
A view of the lagoon looking SE (left) and looking NE toward the ocean (right).  Note the additional islands visible to the NE.

       
A Merchant Marine ship in the lagoon (left); sunset on the ocean side (right).

       
An off-road biking and hiking path through the jungle; it really is a jungle out there!

     The second weekend in Diego I was able to visit the deserted coconut plantation and Turtle Cove.  I was surprised about how many rats I saw scurrying everywhere at the coconut plantation!  It seems that the Brits have been ridding the island of cats, and the rats and chickens (on the inhabited side of the island) are now taking over.  The donkeys are kept away from the inhabited portion of the island with a fence, mostly to keep them from wandering out into the runways and getting hit by an expensive aircraft (there were B-1s, C-5s and C-17s visible while I was there).  Turtle Cove was an especially beautiful part of the island, and I saw over a dozen rare Hawksbeak turtles during two visits.

       
The main plantation house (mostly restored) and some of the various abandoned buildings at the coconut plantation.

At the plantation there were plenty of coconut crabs; I didn't bother with any photos of the rats!

       
A view looking into Turtle Cove (left) and a view looking out from Turtle Cove into the Lagoon (right).

       
What I believe is a stingray (left) and a manta ray being harassed by a fish (right); both photos are from Turtle Cove but at different times of the day.

       
A Red-Eyed Crab and a Hawksbeak Turtle from Turtle Cove.

     The return trip included a night in Singapore and a night in Tokyo-Narita.  I made a trip by train from Narita to Tokyo (Ueno Park area) at night, so the photos are not that great.  I didn't have a tripod to keep the camera from moving while taking night photos.

       
Looking across the lake toward downtown Tokyo at Ueno Park (left); downtown Tokyo (right).

     That's it for now.  I am waiting on some pictures from a co-worker who made the trip with me and may add some of them at a later date.

     Don Hartlaub