July 14, 2019 Comments Off on Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited archipelago on the planet Views: 667 Urban Trekker

One of the world’s most unique island destinations is Tristan da Cunha, for the sole reason that this is the world’s loneliest island. This place accounts for the most remote inhabited archipelago and island on the planet, a British overseas territory found in the south Atlantic Ocean. There are no hotels, restaurants or other similar amenities on this island. Reaching it is possible only by boat, as no airlines fly to this part of the world either.

Tristan da Cunha is part of an archipelago that goes by the same name. The archipelago consists of volcanic islands and is located some 2,000 km away from Saint Helena, another volcanic outpost in the ocean, made famous after Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile there. Saint Helena is also the nearest occupied land to Tristan da Cunha. Some 2,400 km away to the east is the closest mainland, that is the shores of South Africa. And some 3,360 km to the west is South America.

The worlds most remote inhabited archipelago adds to the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha.

Tristan da Cunha in the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. Notice the perfect volcanic cone. Photo: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0

The island/archipelago took the name after Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha, who first cruised the area in the early 16th-century. Cunha was high-ranking official, serving the Portuguese king Manuel I at the time. In 1506, he was not able to anchor his vessel and inspect the island due to bad weather, but anyway, he went after naming the newly discovered territory after himself. Before the islands name was anglicized it went as Ilha de Tristão da Cunha.

Fellow Portuguese explorer Ruy Vaz Pereira is said to have first managed to land on the island some 14 years after Tristão da Cunha first sighted the distant outpost. Pereira allegedly sought after water on the island, but not much is known about his encounter.

The island of Tristan da Cunha as seen from space, Source: NASA

The next historical mention of the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago dates back to 7 February 1643. On this date, Tristan da Cunha was visited by the Heemstede, a vessel belonging to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch kept on returning to the archipelago, and they made the first map outlines of the realm during the 17th-century. But it was the French who carried out a full exploration, as the crew of their own Heure du Berger camped on the islands for few days in 1767. The islands remained unpopulated until the early 19th-century, however.

The first settler to Tristan da Cunha was Massachusetts-born Jonathan Lambert, who reached the remote archipelago at the end of 1810. He was joined in his journey by two others, including one Thomas Currie who became the sole survivor on the island two years later. Currie farmed land on the island to produce some food. His dead pal Lambert had renamed the archipelago as the Islands of Refreshment at this point.

Tristan da Cunha’s single settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, was founded in 1816, Photo: Michael Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0

In 1816, Tristan da Cunha was captured by the British and the archipelago was administered under the South African Cape Colony. The British reportedly did this as a measure of protection, to assure that nobody will approach Saint Helena via Tristan da Cunha and get near Napoleon Bonaparte, though the two islands are thousands of kilometers apart.

It was also during the 19th-century and under British governorship that the first and only settlement was founded on Tristan da Cunha, known as Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, after Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria. The Duke of Edinburgh would visit the islands in 1867. However, among the few hundred locals living there today, the settlement is referred to simply as The Village…or The Settlement.

View from the top of Gough Island, one of the smaller and uninhabited islands that consist Tristan da Cunha, Photo: Steven Chown, CC BY 2.5

The village has a small port, administrative buildings, post office, church, and cemeteries. A crayfish factory that operated in the village was destroyed in 1961, following a violent volcanic eruption that also made the entire island population relocate to the U.K. for a while. Most islanders returned to Tristan da Cunha by 1963 and resumed their otherwise peaceful life in the middle of nowhere.

As of October 2018, the island’s total population numbers 250 residents. The other archipelago islands remain unattended for most of the time. There is a weather station on one of them but there is no permanent staff residing there. The Inaccessible Island and Gogh Island both have wildlife reserves. The world‘s smallest flightless bird, Atlantisia rogersi, can be found only on Inaccessible Island.

The Inaccessible Island rail (Atlantisia rogersi), the world’s smallest flightless bird, is found only on Inaccessible Island, Photo: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0

It is possible to visit Tristan da Cunha as a tourist, however, only those escorted by island guides are allowed to conduct a visit. Most visitors come as part of cruise ship itineraries and each is advised to bring their own food and refreshments.

We also thought to remind you of La Rinconada, the highest settlement in the world, in Peru

Tags: Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, Gogh Island, remote cities, remote places, Tristan da Cunha