Journey to some of the world’s most remote islands6 min read

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Have you looked at the world around you? There are buildings towering over one another, vehicles crowding the roads, small parks and pockets of green, and of course, the animals that cohabit our cities.

But imagine that none of this was there. You’re on a lonely island with only the wild jungles for company. The wind is the loudest thing around you and waves crash on the empty sands. Sounds right out of the movie ‘Madagascar’, doesn’t it? Actually, Madagascar isn’t too remote, but there are other islands across the world that are so far away that little to no human beings live there! Surprised?

We can’t visit some of these islands due to natural or other causes. So, let’s learn a little more about them instead.

Tristan da Cunha

The most remote inhabited island on the planet, there’s nothing close to Tristan de Cunha and neither is there an airport! It’s atleast 1,500 miles away from it’s nearest neighbour, the St.Helena island, and sits in the South Atlantic, somewhere between Brazil and South Africa. Yup, that’s exactly how remote it is. The only way to reach the island is by boat! Here’s a snapshot of where it is on the map so you can see for yourself.

The island is home to 250 British citizens whose ancestors first arrived on the island about 200 years ago. The island was discovered by a Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha in 1506 band claimed by the British in 1816, who established a garrison there. When this garrison was finally abandoned, a corporal and his associated remained on the island and started families. It’s the family of these men that remain there. Also, this island has no active Covid-19 cases so far!

North Sentinel Island

This island is a part of the Andaman chain of islands off the coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal. While it isn’t hard to reach in terms of transport, you probably don’t want to ever try to set foot on this island. The tribe that has lived there for millions of years, the Sentinelese, is the most dangerous tribe in the world and wants nothing to do with modern civilization. Repeated attempts to contact them have only failed and the sentinels continue to live their isolated lives like they have for 55,000 years.

Easter Island

Easter Island is located 2,182 miles from Chile and is famous of the Moai statues that populate the island. These were sculpted by the island’s original Polynesians who lived on the island. The reason they are so popular is because it was astounding to researchers how people rowed thousands of miles in the sea to get to the island and establish a colony as far back as 800 AD! And then, not only did they settle there but dragged huge monolithic rocks and sculpted them into statues between 1400 AD and 1650 AD. These statues were built to honour a chieftain or tribe leader who had passed away. There are hundreds of these statues on the island, and scientists say there were more that were lost in the passage of time.

Around 5,000 people live on the island today and lots of tourists come to admire the statues and the island’s history.

Owliver’s Obscure Observation: The Easter Island statues were made from tuff, which is solidified volcanic ash, which was found on the island’s volcanic crater. The rock is soft and so, was easy to chisel. The statues were then taken from the crater to their resting spots.

Bouvet Island

Often called the most remote uninhabited island in the world, Bouvet Island is essentially a block of ice in the middle of the ocean. It’s 93% glacier and 7% land, and at the centre of the island is a dormant volcano. The island was first discovered in 1739 by Jean-Baptiste Charles but he marked it wrong on the map! For almost 100 years, it was lost. In 1808, it was rediscovered again and has since been rightly placed on the map. No one really lives on the island, and it is rarely visited by research teams.

Amsterdam Island

Owned by France, the island is equidistant to Arica, Australia and Antarctica, in the Southern Indian Ocean. The island has numerous craters and vents and is probably an active volcano, although there have been no historical eruptions yet. The island currently has around 30 people, most of whom are researchers or military personnel. They work at the scientific and meteorological base that was set up there in 1949.

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Think with Owliver

1. How are islands created?
2. Why don’t they sink?
3. Why are some islands inhabited while others aren’t?
4. What is an active volcano?
5. What other kind of volcanos exist?