Think of Daniel Defoe’s classic novel Robinson Crusoe and you will be picturing an intrepid castaway, marooned on a paradisiacal island. That image might be ideal for movie lovers, but the actual inspiration for Robinson Crusoe was a salty Scottish seadog who went by the name of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was marooned in Chile’s Juan Fernandez archipelago for four years and four months, rescued by a British private warship. Despite Selkirk’s slightly chequered past, he was greeted as a celebrity upon his return to England.
His adventures were given a gloss and immortalised in the much loved 18th century classic. Alejandro Selkirk Island is located 165 kilometres west of the other islands in the archipelago, for a surface area of just under 50 m2. The island was renamed from its Spanish name Isla Más Afuera in 1966 by the Chilean government in homage to the sailor. The topography is very different form the Caribbean dream that Defoe writes about, think dense woodland, rugged coast and peaks, shrouded (more often than not) in cloud. Sandy beaches can be found to the north of the island. Throughout much of its history, the island has been uninhabited, although there is a former penal settlement on the middle of the east coast, which operated from 1909 to 1930.. It initially housed 190 criminals, while there were as many as 160 political prisoners from 1927 to 1930. T
During the summer months, Selkirk welcomes a small community of lobster fishermen and their families who come from Robinson Crusoe. As part of the Chilean National Park, it also holds the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve title.
We arrived at Alexander Selkirk Island by 8am, pre dawn, and there was too much swell to use the zodiacs .So we had a 2 hour ship's cruise around the island. Just 5 people lived in the small village there which was once a penal colony, but that increased with fishermen and there families living there in the summer fishing season. We spent most of this time up high at the front on Deck 7, mostly by ourselves.
The only habitation on the island
click on a thumbnail to get a bigger photo
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Fin whales spotted