Solomon Islands
Bellona Island
Everything arrives thrown through the surf at a cleft in the cliffs; Bellona has no harbour.
The boat stands off in the swell while cargo goes ashore through a cleft in the cliffs, timed between waves. Bellona takes everything the hard way, and always has.
Bellona's own name is Mungiki. It is raised coral, ringed with cliffs, with no harbour and no gentle way in: boats stand off in the swell and everything, people included, comes ashore through a cleft in the rock. Its Polynesian settlers' descendants still sing traditions that were recorded in rare detail around the island's conversion in the 1930s. Gardens are coaxed out of pockets of soil in the limestone. Domestic flights reach the island, and visits run at the pace the community sets.
Solo
Flights reach the island, and walking it with a host needs no group logistics at all, which is what makes a solo trip here straightforward.
- Cliffs of thirty to seventy metres ring the island, and the only landing is a cleft where cargo comes ashore through the breaking surf.
- Bellonese songs and chants are preserved in a language archive as a distinct living tradition.
- Domestic flights serve the island.
- A host-led walk is the shape of a visit here, and landings by sea are not reliable.
Garden taro and reef fish at a host family's table, cooked the island's way.
Pair those staples with the available catch, and carry backup snacks because freight and shop stock fluctuate.
Paposo
Chile
Sea fog feeds an improbable garden of endemic plants on the Atacama coast.
Bañado La Estrella
Argentina
Dead trees stand in still floodwater — Argentina's forgotten Chaco wetland, drowned and reborn yearly.
Psara
Greece
In 1824 this island of 30,000 was destroyed rather than surrendered — a few hundred remain.
Taro Island
Solomon Islands
A provincial capital on an island low enough that the plan is to move it.
Nendo
Solomon Islands
Money made from red feathers came from here, and the memory of it has not gone.
Vangunu Island
Solomon Islands
A giant rat known to Zaira's forest for generations, and to science only since 2017.
Savo Island
Solomon Islands
Megapodes bury their eggs in black sand that an active volcano keeps warm from below.