Alternative to Marion-Dufresne for Kerguelen Islands
I came across this interesting photographic work by an artist who went to Kerguelen Islands, a windswept rock with a lunar landscape in the South Indian Ocean also known by the cheerful name "Îles de la Désolation".
Wikivoyage mentions the Marion-Dufresne ferry from Île de la Réunion, and Sluban himself talks about the sea voyage.
Is this ferry the only way on and off the island ?
Best Answer
If the French Wikitravel article on Kerguelen is to be believed, there is no airport on the island:
Aucune infrastructure n'est prévue pour permettre l'atterrissage d'avions, un tel projet pourtant entamé il y a quelques années est aujourd'hui retombé dans l'oubli.
... which translates as:
No infrastructure is present to permit the landing of airplanes; such a project was started some years ago, but has since been forgotten.
The only other reference in the article to other ships visiting the island is in the section on medical evacuation:
Il est à signaler que les cas pathologiques les plus graves nécessitent généralement une évacuation sanitaire, une opération déléguée à des navires présents sur le secteur au moment de la survenue des faits. Le temps de transport vers un lieu médicalisé est donc assez variable.
It should be noted that the worst medical cases generally require medical evacuation, which is delegated to ships present in the area when such an operation is deemed necessary. Transport time to a location with medical care is therefore quite variable.
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Can you visit Kerguelen Islands?
There are four trips open to tourists per year. The trip leaves from R\xe9union and takes about 28 days, half of them at sea and half on land. It covers 9,000 km in the Indian Ocean, visiting three or four islands in this order: Crozet, Kerguelen, and Amsterdam before returning to R\xe9union.Does anyone live on Kerguelen Island?
The Kerguelen Islands are located 2,051 miles away from any sort of civilization. There are no native inhabitants of the island, but as part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands it is permanently occupied by 50 to 100 French scientists, engineers and researchers at any given time of the year.What country owns Kerguelen Islands?
Kerguelen IslandsKerguelen Islands \xceles Kerguelen (French)\u2022 Head of DistrictDiskerFrench overseas territory\u2022 Discovery and claimFebruary 1772\u2022 administered as a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands195524 more rowsIs Kerguelen Islands a country?
The Kerguelen Islands are an overseas territory of France. But their far-off location in the southern Indian Ocean places these islands far closer to Antarctica than to mainland Europe.The odyssey of the Marion Dufresne, a link with far-flung French territories
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Elena Golovchenko, cottonbro, Pixabay, PhotoMIX Company