... A wonderful postcard and amazing little "gem"💙 to add to my UNESCO collection... it came as a total surprise from one of the world's remotest Post Offices😮... this United Kingdom's remote Overseas Territory is sitting in solitude in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean... an uninhabited island that developed almost free from human interference, making it some of the least disturbed habitats left on earth... this isolation means they have also become home to unique arrays of plants and animals... Inaccessible island is perhaps best known for the Inaccessible Island rail, the world's smallest living flightless bird (shown on the postcard)... Thanks a million Paul! (✿ ♥‿♥)
"Top to bottom: Tristan Albatros, Sooty Albatros, Inaccessible rail." Photo: Aniket Sardana
Inaccessible Island is located in the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha on an extinct volcanic island which was active 6 million years ago. Its central area is a dissected plateau reaching 449m above sea level at the summit of Cairn Peak. It is fringed with sheer sea cliffs and only a few boulder beaches, which made generations of sailors wary of difficult landings and inhospitable terrain.
The island has one small beach, made up of pebbles, that provides a non-ideal but technically possible place to land a boat. There’s a small research cabin on one end of the beach, used every once in awhile by scientists. For most people, that’s where the trip to Inaccessible ends.
There are two explanations for the name "Inaccessible" island. One is that on maps the newly found island was referred to as "inaccessible" because the Dutch crew who landed were not able to get further inland than the beach, as they were blocked by 1000-foot high cliffs. The other claims that French captain d'Etchevery renamed the island in 1778 after not being able to land.
The islands' listing as a UNESCO WHS Site began in 1995. In 2004 the WHS boundary was extended to include Inaccessible Island and the waters surrounding the islands to 12 nautical miles, and the site name was changed to "Gough and Inaccessible Islands".
Stamp:
Vagrant Species - Salvin's Albatross (Issued 06-10-2022)
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