Travel in Bouvet Island
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Informations on Bouvet Island: history, politics, economy, culture, Did you mean: Bouvet Island
For an other version of this travel guide, please visit Ooaj.com: Travel in Bouvet Island + Hotels
| Flag | |
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| Quick Facts | |
| Government | Administered by Norway |
| Area | land: 58.5 sq km |
| Population | Uninhabited. |
Bouvet Island is an uninhabited 58.5 sq km volcanic, mostly inaccessible, Antarctic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, south-southwest of the Cape of Good Hope that is covered by glacial ice. It has been declared a nature reserve. It has an antarctic climate and the highest point is Olav Peak at 935 m.
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Understand
Map of Bouvet Island
This uninhabited volcanic island is almost entirely covered by glaciers and is difficult to approach. It was discovered in 1739 by a French naval officer after whom the island was named. No claim was made until 1825 when the British flag was raised. In 1928, the UK waived its claim in favor of Norway, which had occupied the island the previous year. In 1971, Bouvet Island and the adjacent territorial waters were designated a nature reserve. Since 1977, Norway has run an automated meteorological station on the island.
Short info
Popularly known as the most remote island on earth (1600 km to the nearest continent, which happens to be Antarctica). It is small (58.5 km^2) volcanic island that rises sharply from the ocean, with cliffs several hundred meters high (highest cliff: 500m, highest mountain: 780 m). Almost all of the island is covered by a thick glacier.
The entire island is a nature reserve. There is also an automatic weather station there, and occasionally a visit from polar researchers. The island is administered and controlled by Norway.
Get in
By boat
There is nothing even remotely usable as harbor, although it is possible to anchor outside of it. If you are willing to put your life at risk, you might try using a light boat with outboard engine to enter. It has been known to work, but plenty of people have tried and decided it was not worth the risk.
By plane
A safer way is to use a helicopter starting from a ship.
Get around
Real claims to fame
It has an automatic weather station.
Work
Since the entire island is a nature reserve, it's likely that you will be denied permission, if the purpose of entering is just tourism. But if you absolutely have to get there anyway, your best bet is to try to find out when the next research expedition is scheduled to get there, and ask if you can join them. If you have a useful occupation or skill, such as arctic research biologist, research geologist, helicopter pilot, or physician, you will probably be welcome. There's been at least one case of this happening in the past, when a bunch of radio amateurs were allowed to enter the Island for a DXpedition (setting up an amateur radio station there to communicate with people across the world so they can send each other postcards afterwards).
Stay safe
Stay healthy
Respect
Contact
Odd claims to fame
For some obscure reason Internet Assigned Numbers Authority gave it its own top-level domain code from .bv (even though it is very unlikely that any people will live there in the foreseeable future). Because of this, Norway has decided that the .bv domain code will remain unused. A google-search will still find about a zillion registrars on the Internet that claims to sell or know where to buy registration for a .bv domain, and they will all point you to the same page, telling you exactly why this is not possible.
For an equally obscure reason, it is featured in CIA world fact book, even though it is not a country, or even an especially interesting area, whether it is military, economically, politically, or anything else (apart from the fact that it's nice someone keeps the weather station there operating). There are plenty of antarctic islands or even landmasses that does not have a separate page in the CIA world fact book, and there seems to be absolutely no specific reason why this remote island should be singled out.
It also tends to turn up a lot of other obscure places. For example, it's not too hard to get a lot of google-hits for airports, hotels, rental cars, or even airport limousines at Bouvet Island, even though there never has, and never will be such a thing. (Not only is the island inaccessible both in geographic and practical terms, almost completely covered by a glacier, and uninhabited. It is also a nature reserve).