Islands of Tristan da Cunha

Tourists are attracted here natural conditions and numerous endemic plants. Tristan da Cunha is represented by an archipelago of islands, which is located in the south of the Atlantic Ocean. It is unique and famous for being considered the most remote place in the world. The main islands of the archipelago are Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible, Nightingale and Gough. Each of them has its own peculiarity. Gough is famous for its weather station. A protected area has been created on Inaccessible Island, and therefore access to it is closed. The main island itself has a population of 300 people alone.

Tristan da Cunha has rich history. It got its name from the sailor Tristan Cunha, who was considered the discoverer. According to reports, in 1506 he found the island, but was never able to land there. Gough Island discovered by Charles Gough. In 1767, French sailors decided to land on the island. For a long time, the islands were considered the main economic and political positions. During long sea voyages they were used as a stopover or shelter. Since 1800, the first guests were scientists from many countries who came to the archipelago for research.

In 1815 the archipelago was annexed by Great Britain. At first, the main inhabitants were the military, then civilians joined them.

The island of Tristan da Cunha is of volcanic origin and appeared more than a million years ago. Queen Mary Peak has a height of 2055 meters and is the highest point in the entire archipelago. Since its inception, the volcano has erupted only a few times.

The first eruption occurred in 1906. It destroyed all livestock and fields with potatoes and vegetables.

The next eruption was dated in 1961. It caused enormous damage to the fish processing factory. The population was temporarily resettled in Great Britain.

The island has a mountainous structure and a coastline covered with pebbles and boulders. There are a lot of ravines in Tristan da Cunha, called “gorges” by the local population. Only the north of the island is suitable for human life. The capital of the island is located there - the city of Edinburgh. It's a small town that doesn't even have an airport. You can only get there by ship.

Tristan da Cunha is famous for its natural landscapes. Amazing fact is that the petrels of the entire Atlantic Ocean can only breed here. Living almost all the time in flight over the Atlantic, they arrive on the island only during the breeding season. At the end of May, birds lay eggs in crevices and incubate them for about 53 days. After hatching, the chick remains in the nest for another three months. Petrels produce only one clutch per year. Birds naturally feed on fish.

Of the mammals, the only representative was the seal. There are no more mammals and reptiles there. The island is rich in endemic flora and fauna, found only in the archipelago.

Gough, Impenetrable and Nightingale Islands recognized protected areas And national parks. Access there is open only for excursions. The country's economy rests solely on agriculture. Due to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean, fishing is very developed. On the island, residents grow vegetables, fruits, and keep pets. Even at a huge distance from the nearest “civilization,” all the infrastructure a person needs has been created on the island. There is a hospital, a school, even a church here night club and its own radio station

» Tristan da Cunha Island, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas

There you are iconic view of the “most distant inhabited island world" Tristan da Cunha with the characteristic volcanic cone, cloud and albatross in the foreground - as it is depicted in illustrations for Jules Verne's books and T-shirts "I've been to Tristan da Cunha and all I've got was this lousy t- shirt" (only the bird needs to be made bigger)

Of course, Tristan da Cunha is only the second farthest from other human habitation after, but the absence of an airport completely changes the situation: the fastest way to get there is by ship, which happens once every 2 months

Any post about Tristan da Cunha should contain a piece of a map of the South Atlantic with infographics with distances to and - to show what kind of far, far away island it is:

Capital of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas - the first and the only city on the island, 260 people, about 100 houses. Top right - Queen Mary Peak, highest mountain throughout the South Atlantic. A small, not yet very overgrown hill to the left of the city is their home volcano, which tried to destroy the city in 1961, but destroyed only a bay with a port suitable for entry by ocean-going ships. Since then, the landing on Tristan da Cunho has been a great adventure: not a single vessel larger than a longboat or a small yacht will fit into the new port

Costs ocean ship stop at the roadstead, he is attacked by the zodiacs of the islanders. Today is a very, very nice day, so the ship lowered the ramp

Swings in waves, and in highest point the ladder hangs 2-3 meters above the water, and at the bottom it submerges under water, but it is easy to disembark from it: 2 sailors RMS they carefully grab the pensioner by the armpits, wait for a lull and quietly throw him to two Tristan boatmen in the zodiac

They say it's worse to get into a boat using a rope ladder and climbing belay, and another 30% passenger ships(one of those with a schedule, and after Tristan must go somewhere further) stay at Tristan’s for a couple of days and move on: the weather does not allow disembarking passengers at all

Suitcases are passed between the ship and the zodiacs one at a time on ropes

Calshot Harbor

Great Britain annexed Tristan da Cunha to its own (right there, in the South Atlantic, about 3,200 kilometers away), but direct sea communication between the islands is rare and the governor of St. Helena appears on the island once every 3-5 years. This is exactly our case: the governor is with us on RMS and therefore, in the passenger list there are not only the usual titles of reservation systems - MR, MRS, DOC - but also GOV. Cellular connection no, not even Digicel

Edinburgh of the Seven Seas

Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on the left, 1961 Volcano on the right:

Edinburgh of the Seven Seas:

Recognizable central square with a shield and sign replicated in a million photographs, they were damaged by an electrical cabinet - they are building street lighting in the city and nothing is spared, nothing

All other human cities will be north of Edinburgh, but signs point east - blown away by the prevailing wind

Edinburgh lives in conditions of a constant strong, mournful wind from west to east or vice versa - Muscovites would have been blown off their feet long ago, but here everyone has somehow adapted. They are grown as windbreaks New Zealand linen- grass 3 human height. A plant considered an invasive weed in a neighboring area is finally doing some good here.

Dry clothes on a sunny wall that protects from the wind

If you remove the body from the pickup truck, it will turn into a greenhouse with giant plants (because it’s warm, there’s no wind and the sheep can’t eat this grass)

City water supply against the background of wind barriers made of New Zealand flax:

For a garage, the main thing is to protect it from the wind, not from precipitation:

There is no snow in this city, despite the harsh environment: the record low temperature is +5°C (higher than in the much more northern and more tropical). But here’s something else: the 37th parallel of southern latitude (see Children of Captain Grant) Tristan da Cunha corresponds to the latitude of Sicily. A person here gets sunburned in an hour in the summer, but the plants and climate, due to the cooling influence of the roaring forties, are similar to the Kolyma or Karelian summer

A flag was raised over the residence of the governor of St. Helena (for the first time in 3 years, for 2 days) - because the governor came with us to RMS

Urbanists have worked on Edinburgh - it is being implemented in the city large-scale program installing lights

In a couple of months it will be cool, but for now, after sunset, you can’t see a damn thing in the city and tourists walk around highlighting the paths with smartphones that are useless for anything else

It's getting dark

Lobsters

The island economy is structured much the same way: government jobs and small incomes from hardcore tourists. But Tristan is lucky: there are lobsters here and the Japanese aliens are willing to pay dearly for them - it pays for production and expensive logistics. Every day, when weather permits (~70 days a year), they go out to sea, catch lobsters and process them at the lobster factory.

It is not possible to gut the entire catch in real time, so the difference is stored alive in an aquarium workshop similar to the Matrix

Lobster fishing boats in the port: between exits they must be pulled ashore: the wind is unpredictable and strong, it can break

Local lobsters eat only their tails: to satisfy the special needs of aliens, the tails are packaged either in rings (in the picture) or flattened, all of this is bought and consumed in very different ways

Packaging of tailings in plastic bags

Sorting by weight

Aliens love beautiful presentation of food, so antennae and inedible shells are collected and placed in boxes - so that the cook can decorate the dish

Islands of Tristan da Cunha ... Wikipedia

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ... Wikipedia

Tristan da Cunha: Tristan da Cunha (islands) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Cunha, Tristan and the famous Portuguese navigator ... Wikipedia

- (Tristan da Cunha) group of 4 volcanic islands in the southern part of the Atlantic approx. Possession of Great Britain. The area itself large island 117 km². Population of St. 300 people (1988). The main population center is Edinburgh. Fishing, hunting... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Tristan da Cunha) about in in south. parts of the Atlantic Ocean, possession of Great Britain. Until issue own brands in 1952 used. stamps about the Great Patriotic War of St. Helena and the Ascension, as well as South Africa and Great Britain. A series prepared in 1946 by local authorities... ... Large philatelic dictionary

- (Tristan da Cunha), a group of 4 volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Possession of Great Britain. The area of ​​the largest island is 117 km2. population over 300 people (1988). Basic locality Edinburgh. Fishing,... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Tristan da Cunha- (Tristan da Cunha), a group of 4 volcanic islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean (37°06"S and 12°01"W). Administratively (since 1938) part of the British dominion. Area 209 km2 (including the largest and most inhabited... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Africa"

- (Tristan da Cunha, named after the Portuguese navigator Tristão da Cunha, who discovered these islands) a group of 4 volcanic islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean (37°06 S and 12°01 W). Belongs to Great Britain. Square… … Big Soviet encyclopedia

- (Tristan da Cunha) an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, owned by the British. 37°6 S latitude, 12°2w. d. The shape of the island is round, the surface is 116 square meters. km, 61,000 inhabitants Consists of one cone-shaped mountain 2300 or 2540 m high, steep... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron

Tristan da Cunha Islands Saint Helena Great Britain ... Wikipedia

Books

• Winter is ending. Stories, Andrey Kalinin. A book for those who are looking for their path and believe that any winter ends sooner or later. 14 stories about a variety of people: from the first number on the Forbes list to a young resident of the island...

How bizarrely the fate of a person, a city, a country sometimes unfolds. Now, it would seem, who would take it into his head to settle on small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where the temperature rarely rises above 20 degrees, and of all the attractions there is only a volcano, which occupies the lion's share of an already small territory? Come on: in all encyclopedias, the island of Tristan da Cunha is listed as the most remote inhabited place on the planet. As many as 269 people live here - and all of them are, to one degree or another, related to each other...
Holiday Island
Strictly speaking, in 1506, the Portuguese navigator Tristan da Cunha saw the entire archipelago through his telescope. And since he couldn’t land on it, he simply gave his name to himself big island from a group that also included the islands of Gough, Nightingale and Inaccessible. All of them are havens for seals, crested penguins and yellow-billed albatrosses, and Inaccessible is also the abode of the Tristan rail, the smallest flightless bird on Earth. And for this reason, especially often visited scientific expeditions. The main concern of scientists is to preserve the shepherdess for future generations. These birds have few natural enemies, and besides, they have long learned to hide from birds of prey in the bushes. But the unnatural - in the form of rats - can easily penetrate Inaccessible from Tristan da Cunha and put an end to all the endemic splendor. It must be said that until Tristan da Cunha was inhabited by people, there were no pasyukovs or mice there either. These eternal companions of seafarers arrived on the island along with its first inhabitant - the extravagant American Jonathan Lambert, who landed here in January 1811 and appointed himself ruler of the “Island of Leisure”. But, apparently, with independent rest things didn’t work out very well for him, otherwise why would he agree to the protectorate of England, kindly offered by the English governor of the Cape Good Hope? This is how the British flag flew over Tristan for the first time. Then events developed even more interestingly: in 1815, the British settled Napoleon on the island of St. Helena, an equally inhospitable piece of land located 2161 km north of Tristan. And they decided to place a garrison on Tristan da Cunha in order to cut off the possible sea escape routes of the disgraced emperor. The island was finally annexed and became part of the British metropolis.
Nine surnames
In 1821, Napoleon died and the garrison was returned to the Cape of Good Hope. It was a joyful day for most of the soldiers: they were damn tired of sitting on an island lost in the ocean, from which the mainland is almost 3,000 km by water. However, among them there were eccentrics who decided to choose Tristan da Cunha as their home. It’s hard to say what exactly they liked here so much. But the fact remains a fact. Every year there were more and more people here.
All of today's settlers are descendants of those eccentrics who settled the island in the 19th century. There are only nine surnames here - and they all became related to each other a long time ago. The Glass family is considered the oldest on the island - immigrants from the United States have lived on the island since 1816. The British Swain settled here in 1826. The Greens from Holland and the Rogers from the USA became islanders in 1836. Hagans from the USA settled on Tristan da Cunha in 1849, and two Italian surnames - Repetto and Lavarello - ended up here in 1892. There are also Collins and Squibb: both are descendants of the same English soldiers who once guarded Napoleon... It is noteworthy that these warriors chose their wives among the locals - African women from Cape Town and St. Helena Island. Two more brave Irish women arrived here after their chosen ones. And off we go. Now European-African blood flows in the veins of the entire population of Tristan da Cunha. And 42% of the population suffers from asthma to one degree or another: all thanks to the notorious common ancestors who gave the disease to their offspring. However, asthma does not prevent Tristan residents from feeling happy. Moreover, when almost every second person has it, this is a kind of variant of the norm.
Home Sweet Home
The caring metropolis did not forget its sons and daughters and repeatedly invited them to move to the mainland. And once the Duke of Edinburgh even visited the islanders with the same proposal. But the Collinses and Rogerses turned him down too. And to sweeten the pill, they named their settlement, which had previously been simply called the Settlement, in honor of the Duke - Edinburgh of the Seven Seas. Now this beautiful name appears on all maps and atlases of the Earth. As for the islanders, after seeing off the important guest, they returned to their normal life, especially since it required daily labor: after all, the Tristanians were stuck in the 19th century. Until 1961, nothing here reminded us that this was the century of scientific and technological progress. No electricity or cars. In order to build a house, representatives of all nine families gathered. Stone boulders were broken out by hand, manually adjusted to each other, and sheaves of New Zealand flax, once brought here, were placed on the roof. Together they worked the land, which was communally owned, and fished together. News from Mainland the Tristanians received only from whalers, who sometimes came here to replenish water... And everything completely suited everyone. But in 1961, the volcano, whose activity once gave birth to Tristan da Cunha, decided to wake up. Queen Mary Peak began to erupt...

Fresh blood
Great Britain, of course, did not abandon its subjects: all representatives of nine families were taken out of the danger zone. So the Tristanians made two trips at once in one: firstly, they ended up in England, and secondly - in the 20th century! They could not even imagine how far progress had come! For 2 whole years - while the volcano raged - they enjoyed modern household amenities. And when the time came to return home, they decided that it was time to end with Victorian England on a separate territory. So Tristan da Cunha entered into new era its existence - with cars and electric generators. Amazingly, almost all the Tristanians showed a desire to return home, and some also took new wives and husbands with them. This influx of fresh blood diluted the genetic monotony of the islanders, which once again proved the truth of the saying: “If there was no happiness, but misfortune would help.”
Deep relatives
Today, 269 people live in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas - that's 80 families. Each of them has their own home. But, in addition to residential buildings, there is a two-story residence of the main islander, elected every few years. He is helped to govern the island by 11 council members, among whom there is always at least one woman. There are also two churches on Tristan da Cunha - Anglican and Catholic, as well as a hospital, school, supermarket and even a police station staffed by one person. In truth, he has nothing to do alone: ​​there is no crime on the island as such. Being related to each other by relatives in one tribe or another, the inhabitants of the island are accustomed to deciding everything controversial issues like a family. So the servant of the law simply has nothing to interfere with. That's why it gets very animated when a ship from Cape Town arrives at Tristan da Cunha and crew members and tourists come ashore. Everyone needs to be checked. For example, make sure that visitors have brought certificates of no criminal record. This is a must. Without it, visiting Tristan da Cunha may be denied. True, due to the peculiarities of the terrain, currents and winds prevailing here, there are only nine such flights a year. The rest of the time, the Tristanians are cut off from the mainland. Which they seem to be very happy about. Yes, compared to the mainland English, they live modestly, even poorly. But it’s very friendly: in terms of social equality, no one can compare with Tristan da Cunha. And what kind of lobsters are found here! Is it true, weather They allow you to catch them only 70 days a year, but this is enough to eat your fill and earn money for the rest of the year. A dream, not a job!