Imagine a place where you need to travel for 9 whole days. 9 days on a rocking boat, around which there is absolutely nothing - only water, which seems to flow endlessly, as if it never reaches the shore.
This is the only way to get to Palmerston, a tiny coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
It is home to 62 people who descended from one Englishman who settled in this green area at the end of the earth about 150 years ago.
Palmerston Island is a coral atoll that is part of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific
Palmerston Island is the real embodiment of slow life. There are no shops here. To make a living, people fish and collect coconuts, and in their free time they make decorations, play volleyball or swim.
Image: Patrick Dayshaw and Kirsten Rohrbach.
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However, they have electricity and even the Internet, but only for a couple of hours a day. Some of the lucky ones even have cell phones and satellite TV. But nobody sells anything there - money is only used to buy supplies in the outside world.
There are only two toilets on the island, and the inhabitants collect rainwater for drinking. Life there really seems idyllic - especially on Sundays, when the church bell calls people to the service, after which they are not allowed to work or play, and the island slowly sinks into a pleasant evening.
Today 62 people call the island their home
Palmerston is located at the top of an ancient underwater volcano, a formation also called an atoll. The atoll is made up of more than a dozen sandy coral islets that together form a ring along the coral reef and surround the lagoon.
Whatever it is, the reef is too high on the surface, so planes cannot land there, while helicopters simply cannot reach this place, so it is only accessible by boat.
The island has a school, church and even a bar
On the one hand, Palmerston's isolated life is beneficial to the island itself as it remains untouched. On the other hand, the remoteness of this place can cause certain inconveniences (and sometimes even pose a danger) for its inhabitants.
For example, one visit to the dentist can take months, since organizing such a trip in the Cook Islands is rather difficult.
Palmerston Island was inhabited in the 19th century by the English carpenter William Marsters and his three wives
Palmerston Island is among the Cook Islands, named after explorer James Cook, who is credited with discovering them. More than 8 decades after the discovery, no one lived on the island. However, in the mid-19th century, an Englishman named William Marsters stumbled upon Palmerston and immediately fell in love with him.
At the time, Palmerston was owned by the British merchant John Brander, whom William met in Tahiti and who later made him Palmerston's caretaker, allowing him to grow and harvest coconuts. Marsters moved there in 1863 with a Polynesian wife and two of her relatives, whom he eventually married.
William Marsters survived the coconut oil trade
Twice a year, a ship came to the island with food and necessary materials, and in return, William gave coconut oil. But then such visits became very rare - the gap between them stretched for three years, after which they eventually stopped.
A letter from William Marsters, dated January 6, 1888, reads:
But, being a hardworking person, William found a way to survive.
The original William Marsters home, built from the remains of the wrecked ships, still stands
When the owner of the island, John Brander, died, William Marsters received the ownership of Palmerston from Queen Victoria.
Before his death in 1899 - when the coconut trees died from illness and he died of malnutrition - the man divided the island into three parts, one for each of his wives. Over time, the population grew and today all residents, except three, are its direct descendants.
Between 1950 and 1970, about 300 people lived on the small island
Many former residents have left, and the remaining small portion of the population is at high risk of incest.
There are cases when people got married, and later found out that they were too close relatives. The mayor of Palmerston once admitted to the media:
This is one of the reasons for the steady decline in the population, as young people want more opportunities to get married and have healthy children.
Today, Palmerston's population is declining steadily as young people seek to leave
We add that the inhabitants of the island cannot cultivate all their land, so they turn to the world in the hope of attracting migrants to populate this place, but so far there are no volunteers who want to live at the end of the world.