Xtreme Geography: Tristan de Cunha or “The Loneliest Island In The World”

When we think of remote places and out of the way adventures our minds usually settle on the North or South Poles, or perhaps a tropical wonderland in Central America.  Sometimes getting away isn’t really ‘getting away’.  People have even suggested that most good places have been found and that exploration is dead in it’s ‘Old World’ sense.  I beg to differ.

Tristan de Cunha:  The Loneliest Island in the World

Questing For Adventure recently highlighted an article that discusses the most remote place in the world where people actually live.  The answer was quite intriguing and pointed to an article featured on the Dark Roasted Blend blog.

Tristan de Cunha lies between South America and Africa.  How remote is it?  One ship journeys to the island one time a year to deliver mail, supplies, and visitors.  It is 2,300 km away from the nearest land mass, St. Helena.  230 people actively live, survive, and inhabit this far off island paradise.

Tristan de Cunha is the breeding ground  to 90% of the world’s population of northern rockhopper penguins.  The main income to the island comes from the fishing industry, where I am told that their lobster tails are some of the best in the world. (I would hate to have to pay for shipping–and then wait a year to get them off the boat.  How does that work?)

Tristan de Cunha is ruled by the British Monarchy.  Early history has the inception of Tristan de Cuna as a property, beginning with the capture of Napolean.  In easy terms, Napolean was arrested and taken to St. Helena.  In order to prohibit and keep the French from trying to rescue Napolean, the British annexed the nearest group of islands and laid claim to their government interest.  The thinking was that since the nearest island (Tristan de Cunha) was a mere 2,350 km away, that no one would try to launch such a measure.  Even for Napolean.  I guess they were right.  Britain still controls the world’s most remote, habitable place, even though an easy mode of transport to the desolate island has still not been established.

Here is something else interesting about Tristan de Cunha:  In the 1960’s a volcanic outcropping began to erupt.  Britain would come in and rescue the inhabitants and take them back to England.  It wasn’t until two years later that these people would be allowed to come back to their native island.  Talk about a long search and rescue mission!

For more details about Tristan de Cunha and to read the full article (I have barely scratched the surface) I sugest checking out The Most Remote Place on Earth at the Dark Roasted Blend blog.  If you want to further your adventure, head over to Questing For Adventure for a few more thoughts.