As I sit on the inflatable pontoon of our zodiac, layered in thermal protective clothing underneath my lifejacket, I squint my eyes to tiny slits to best avoid the freezing wind and driving snow. I look at my companions doing the same, and we all bounce in silence as our driver manoeuvres across the bay from the ship, doing her best not to let us get wet as our little boat negotiates the waves. Smiling, I think to myself, “Not many hikes start this way.”
Not many indeed. In fact, there are few places you can really escape the world and seek out remote wilderness experiences like this. For starters, you need a boat or a ship. Then you must head to the cold and angry Southern Ocean, down to the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties, down to the islands in the sub-Antarctic region below Australia and New Zealand, islands with rich histories of adventure and misadventure, islands that have seen countless shipwrecks and failed settlements, seen almost superhuman feats of endurance and survival, and seen no shortage of people who met their untimely ends due to the extreme conditions.
These are windswept and freezing landscapes inimical to humanity. They are, however, perfect habitat for a wide range of plants and animals. And although these islands were heavily exploited for commercial interests in the 1800s and 1900s—for whaling, seal skins, and animal oils—it is lucky for modern visitors that the animals here don’t remember those days. As a result, they have absolutely no fear of humans (nor of any other mammalian land predators; they simply haven’t evolved with them). This is in direct
