The nearest neighbors live 1,860 miles away. There is no airport here, and if you miss a ship to the mainland, you have to wait a year.
Welcome to the island of Tristan da Cunha, such a remote corner that even the coronavirus has not made it here.
Tristan da Cunha, or Ti-di-si, as its inhabitants call it for short, is not a place for the weak-willed. To say that this is a backwater is to say nothing.
If you want to see with your own eyes the most inhabited island on Earth from the nearest mainland, then here's how to do it:
Fly to Cape Town.
Get on a sailing boat.
Sail on average 18 days in one of the most turbulent seas on the planet and wait for the imposing rock crowning the island to appear in the gap of continuous fog.
Pray for the wind to stop and you can land.
Bring the boat ashore as soon as possible so that it is not smashed against the rocks and carried into the ocean.
And here you are, in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas - the capital of Tristan da Cunha.
You can, of course, get there faster and more comfortably - the South African ship "Agulhas" overcomes 1,742 miles in just six days. The problem is that it goes there and back once a year, and there are not many places on it.
There is still a chance to get on one of the fishing boats that sometimes call on the island.
So getting to Tristan da Cunha - as well as getting out of there - is very difficult.
Friends for Life
All 245 permanent residents of Tristan da Cunha (currently 133 women and 112 men) live side by side in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas.
The village has a café, a hall for social events, a post office and an Albatross pub. There is also a small, but modernly equipped hospital and an even smaller school.
«If you don’t leave the island afterwards, then the people with whom you went to school together will be with you all your life».
They meet their future spouses here before they start thinking about getting married or getting married.
If you are a Tristan native, you will most likely be the proud bearer of one of the six major surnames on the island: Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers, Swain, Green and Glass.
"Of the permanent residents, only two were not born here: a man and a woman who married the islanders many years ago"
There is also a doctor and teacher who comes for a fixed period from the United Kingdom, since Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory.
Entertainment
It's so quiet here that you can hear the grass growing, no need to lock the doors, the internet is either bad or very bad.
There is a plus: all phone calls to the big world are free - if the phone works.
The island has a single road, about three kilometers long, that runs along the coast to the “glades,” as the inhabitants call them: small fields protected by stone walls from the strong winds here.
They grow vegetables, mainly potatoes, graze cattle, and take a little rest in summer.
Favorite hobby - barbecue, which is often called in the South African way «brai».
An important place in the leisure of residents was previously occupied by playing musical instruments and singing, but now they prefer to spend their free time "looking at the screen."
You can also walk along the green island, on which the longest distance does not exceed 10 kilometers, descend into deep valleys and climb a peak 2062 meters high.
Earth and water
There are almost no flat surfaces here. Two-thirds of the island's perimeter is occupied by steep cliffs against which the constantly raging sea beats.
Tristan da Cunha is the main island of the eponymous volcanic archipelago. For distinction, the inhabitants call the archipelago by its full name, and their island simply «Tristan».
In addition to him, the archipelago includes the Nightingale Islands, where the Tristans go on boats to relax and swim in the ocean (treacherously strong currents and sharks interfere on the main island), the Inaccessible Island (the name speaks for itself) and the harsh island of Gough, where South Africa keeps a weather station with by several changing employees every year.
«There is a tendency to romanticize island life, but this is a matter of taste. It's beautiful there, but certainly not heaven».
The island of silence
The howling of the wind and the bellowing of cows are the only loud sounds in Tristan da Cunha.
It is amazing that there are a lot of birds on the island, but they do not sing.
The absence of predators allows flightless birds to live, like the same penguins and a special species of corncrake living on the Inaccessible Island and nowhere else in the world.
No fruit, but with lobsters
On the most remote island on Earth, quarantine is easy - geography does it for you.
«But the fact that there is no Covid-19 on the island does not mean that the consequences of the pandemic have not affected local residents».
Because of the lockdown in South Africa, ships do not leave Cape Town.
«The supply chain, fragile enough even at the best of times, is seriously disrupted».
«They ran out of fruits and vegetables long ago. This has happened before, but who knows when, given the current situation, there will be new supplies».
What the islanders now have in abundance are lobsters, which are abundant in the cool water near the coastal cliffs.
Catching and freezing them is the main occupation of the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha and in former times brought them 70% of all income.
First native
"But the most important consequence of the pandemic for the islanders, which they never tire of talking about, is that a child was born on the island for the first time since ancient times".
«In order to avoid complications, women were sent to give birth in South Africa in advance, but since the communication was interrupted, everything happened in Tristan».
The mother and child are doing well. The islanders gladly welcomed the new countryman.
The first people appeared here at the beginning of the 19th century. The population has fluctuated over the years, but has been declining in recent decades.
One in three local girls who are now finishing high school in Britain decided to go to university. If she subsequently returns, she will become the first resident of Tristan da Cunha with a higher education. Another islander previously received his diploma in absentia.
At the same time, they do not seek to increase the population here. If you value a secluded life and are thinking about emigrating to Tristan da Cunha, it won't be easy.
«The island council considers each candidate for permanent residence and usually rejects».
