Kiribati
Kanton
Crumbling Cold War runways where two dozen caretakers share an atoll with millions of nesting seabirds.
Cracked tarmac runs toward the lagoon where Pan American flying boats once taxied between refuelling stops. The runway ends in rubble. Seabirds wheel above missile-tracking gantries that have not tracked anything since the Cold War ended. Kanton is three chapters of the 20th century written in rust and coral.
Kanton — historically known as Canton Island — served as a Pan American Airways flying boat refuelling stop in the late 1930s, a US military airbase during the Second World War, and a Cold War missile-tracking station before being abandoned to the elements. The atoll sits at the heart of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), one of the world's largest UNESCO-designated marine reserves, covering over 400,000 square kilometres of ocean. Its lagoon, largely free of fishing pressure for decades, holds some of the most pristine coral in the central Pacific. Around two dozen Kiribati government caretakers are the only permanent residents. Reaching Kanton requires a charter vessel or a place on one of the rare research or dive expeditions that pass through.
Solo
Kanton is the ultimate solo expedition — walking abandoned Cold War infrastructure with no one for company but the caretakers and a sky full of seabirds. The isolation is absolute, and that is precisely the point.
- Kanton served as a Pan American Airways flying boat refuelling stop in the late 1930s, then a US military airbase in WWII, then a Cold War missile-tracking station — its abandoned infrastructure tells three distinct chapters of 20th-century history in a single atoll.
- The island sits at the heart of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), one of the world’s largest UNESCO-designated marine protected areas, covering over 400,000 square kilometres of ocean.
- Kanton’s lagoon, largely untouched by fishing pressure for decades, holds some of the most pristine coral in the central Pacific — the kind of reef ecosystem that once typified the entire region.
- Reaching Kanton requires either a charter vessel or a place on one of the rare research or dive expeditions that pass through; around two dozen Kiribati caretakers are the only permanent residents.
Whatever the supply ship brought last month, supplemented by reef fish caught that morning.
Tinned corned beef fried with onion and rice — the universal Pacific island pantry staple, perfected by isolation.
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