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Matthew Parris, former Conservative MP and current parliamentary sketch writer and columnist for The Times, has had an obsession with Kerguelen Island since he was a boy. One of the most remote and inaccessible places on Earth, Kerguelen – called 'Desolation Island' by Captain Cook – is situated in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from civilisation. The nearest large land mass is Antarctica. Despite the incredulous reactions of colleagues, MPs and even Baroness Thatcher, Parris was determined to make his pilgrimage to Kerguelen. He may have been mad to want to go, but nothing could be madder, he believed, than the House of Commons. Setting sail The only way to get to Kerguelen is by ship. From England, Matthew had to fly to Mauritius, then to the French island of Réunion. From there, he took a 2,000-mile voyage on the only vessel that sails to Kerguelen, the Marion-Dufresne. This oceanographic research ship makes only four trips each year – so when Matthew went to the island, he had to stay there for four months. Arrival Matthew's first impressions of Kerguelen convinced him that, despite the doubters, he had been right all along. He saw it as 'another planet' – a place so hostile that the wind cuts into your face, yet so fabulously beautiful. On arrival, Matthew met the community of research scientists with whom he was to spend the next months: 50 men and two women, all of them French. Exploration His first expeditions outside the base confirmed the hostility of the landscape, where gusts of wind blew at more than 50mph, as well as the importance of the island to scientists. Here, as nowhere else, nature can be studied almost in a vacuum. On a four-day expedition to study the behaviour of local feral cats – the descendants of those that survived shipwrecks of centuries past – Matthew discovered that he was not as fit as he might have hoped. The terrain was difficult, the weather terrible. The extremes of the climate and the terrain brought out extremes in emotion: Matthew's moods swung violently from exhilaration to despair. After spending 'without doubt the worst night of my life' in a freezing and wet tent on an expedition around the foot of Mount Ross – the highest mountain on the island – he wondered if he was losing his taste for pitting himself against the ultimate. Tragedy Matthew's trip was blighted by a terrible accident that took place on a hunting trip to a neighbouring island. Joel, a doctor on the base, stumbled and accidentally shot and killed his friend and colleague Jackie. The death of a friend in such a small, closed and isolated community changed the atmosphere of the base. Coming to terms with the tragedy brought home to Matthew the importance of society in a place such as this, while at the same time making him realise that he had become fully integrated into that society, despite his initial misgivings. Departure When the Marion-Dufresne arrived to ferry Matthew back to civilisation, his emotions were mixed. He was excited by the prospect of returning home, but desperately sad to leave friends he believed he may never see again. He did have the satisfaction of believing that his worst fears and best hopes about the island had been realised and exceeded. |
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