The Loneliest Place
Point Nemo is the loneliest place on earth. It is a
point in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land. If
you can get a foothold in Point Nemo, what you see all around you will be water
and nothing but water, leaving aside the sky above. Water, sky and you. What greater
solitude can you ask for?
Maybe Henry Miller would be happy
there as he could ponder his ‘shame and his despair’ in seclusion. He wanted to
do that, according to his Tropic of Cancer, in the vacant sunshine,
without companions, without conversation, face to face with himself, with only
the music of his heart for company.
Maybe Virginia Wolf could be her own
real self, sitting by herself “like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings
on the stake.”
Lord Byron can find his bliss there.
Though it is not the “pathless woods” that he longed for. But the rapture he
wanted so much on “the lonely shore” might come by. “There is society, where none
intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar.”
You will get solitude at Point Nemo,
the place named after Captain Nemo of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea. But the remnants of Nemo’s submarine will keep floating around you to
haunt your solitude.
Yes, Point Nemo, the farthest place
on earth from human habitation, is in fact the cemetery of spaceships and
manmade satellites. Alas! You have no escape from manmade pollution!
Some 300 spacecraft have been
intentionally deorbited and directed to their eternal rest in Point Nemo. You
will have the company of Russia’s 120-ton Mir Space Station which was buried
here in 2001. China’s Tiangong Space Station lost control and fell right here. Elon
Musk also has made significant contributions with his many rockets.
There are about 4000 manmade
satellites orbiting around the earth. All of them will eventually find their
resting place in Point Nemo. On top of that, Space X will be launching 4425
satellites in the future. NASA’s international space centre will die in 2030
and come to rest here itself.
Something worse! You will have the
company of plastic too here. 320 microplastic particles were found per cubic
metre of water in Point Nemo.
We, homo sapiens, are a disastrous
species. No wonder, you want to leave. But don’t go to Point Nemo, the farthest
place from human habitation. Maybe, you need to create solitude in your own
heart.
👍🏻👌🏻
ReplyDelete🙏
DeleteInteresting. We’ll make trash handling as a market in the future and spend taxpayer’s money over there 👍
ReplyDeleteThat's it. Our nationalist leaders might even go to the extent stretching #AkhandBharat to that area.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteSolitude as attainable even in the most populated cities, if one seeks it rightly.
Point Nemo is the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility - there are other such poles, defined as being points on the globe which are furthest from any coastline and can be applied to land as well as sea. Would they be less affected by the this overpopulated, wasteful race to which we belong? For now, perhaps... YAM xx
Yes, of course, Yam. Where else will get solitude than in one's own heart? Like God.
DeleteBrilliant one! Informative!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear this.
DeleteSolitude and loneliness are not the same. I dont think anyone seeks loneliness, and the solitude seekers get it wherever and whenever but maybe at the risk of social abuse.
ReplyDeleteNo sane person seeks loneliness. And solitude is available even in the busiest shopping mall.
DeleteRE: "We, homo sapiens, are a disastrous species"
ReplyDeleteNot just "a disastrous species" but THE most disastrous species, especially "conscious" species, EVER --- https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html (that essay also explains WHY we are such an abomination).
Thanks for the link.
DeleteInteresting read. I just became a little more knowledgeable.
ReplyDeleteGlad I made that little contribution.
DeleteGreat read... Loves the references particularly.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, what we preach and what we do...
DeleteGreat read.... yes we need to create solitude in ourselves
ReplyDeleteSolitude is a mental state rather than a geographic place.
DeleteWow. I learn something new on your blog everytime! This point is one Nemo I dont want to find!
ReplyDeleteStay safe 😊
Delete