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.
