What's the most remote place you've ever visited/lived in?

[iul Profile]

I can't say I've visited any remote areas. Whenever I go on vacation I stick to cities or resorts. What about you? Have any of you got stories about going to the South Pole, etc.. ?

[Suavai Profile]

some south pacific Islands that hardly see a ship in months.

[Sables4EVA Profile]

The Pungwe Valley in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, under the Pungwe Falls. Peaceful, wild and humbling.

[dragos03 Profile]

I hike often in the Romanian Carpathians and have seen many remote and beautiful places. Here are some of the most isolated ones:

1. The tiny village of Inelet in the Cernei Mountains (Caras-Severin County) consists of just a few houses spead on the top of a mountain and a small church. They don't even have electricity and you can only get to the village using some old wooden stairs built on a steep escarpment.

The stairs


A view from the Arjana Peak above Inelet


2. In the Capatanii Mountains (Valcea County), there is a remote area with a fitting name: Curul Pamantului (The Ass of the Earth). It's s maze of forested mountains and deep gorges where the (very rare) hikers always have severe orientation problems. Some of the most fanatic Orthodox monks have built their refuges in this area to live in complete isolation from the outside world, often suspended on top of the abyss. I was shocked when I first saw their buildings, I did not know something like that existed in Romania.



3. In the Buzau Mountains (Buzau County) there is an isolated area with the ruins of old monasteries and cells carved in rock by the first Christians who have seeked refuge in the area in the early Dark Ages. They are spread on a vast area of forested small mountains and hard to find, it's the only place where I had to hire a local guide to find what I was looking for.



4. This area of the Retezat Mountains (Hunedoara County) is a strict nature reservation (Rezervatia Gemenele). It is guarded by rangers and the only way to get in is to have a written permit from the Romanian Academy of Sciences (who only issue them for scientific purposes). When I was in high school, I went there on a trip to repaint the warning signs on the limits of the reservation, we were allowed brief entries into this forbidden area.

[Sables4EVA Profile]

Wow, there are some awesome places in Romania.

[Pockets Profile]

Those photos are great, Romania has some really beautiful countryside. I've only been there for a couple of days though, I'd like to go back and take more time seeing everything.

I've never been anywhere particularly remote. Every time I've had plans to go somewhere like that, things have cropped up and I've either had to cancel the trip or cut it short. I'm hoping to go hiking in northern Sweden at the end of June, which if it works out would count.

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

Well NZ would be remote for a lot of people around the world, but from a NZer's point of view, Iceland, in particular it's eastern fjords, and the Faroe Islands would be my two. Iceland in particular caught my heart and I'd love to go back. sigur ros firmly on my playlist in helping me to remember the images of the time I spent there.


Seydisfjordur, Eastern fjords, Iceland


Milky blue Myvatn hot spring baths. Great panorama northwards.


Faroe Islands

dragos, after seeing pictures 1 & 3, I'm greatly relieved you didn't take me to the mountains last year! I think I prefer the cafes of Bucharest and the fish restaurant on the lake in the country

[dragos03 Profile]

No worries, we can go next time. Since I know you enjoy driving on high mountain roads, we'll just go here:





Feroe and Iceland look amazing btw. I imagine Feroe in particular is quite isolated.

[Canadian_Rugger Profile]

Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada...



I took this photo flying in a helicopter above Resolute Bay Airport.

After that, the most remote places I have been are all the shitholes I have visited with the Canadian Army

[Ser Podrick of Payne Profile]

Skelmersdale. OK It's not remote - it just really, really SHOULD BE

[martin.dunham Profile]

Boracay, a Philippine island. Certainly not the city life I've been living.


Also went to a dude ranch in Granby, Colorado that as a young child seemed pretty remote to me, had to take a train to get there!



dragos, what's the name of that crazy, winding road?!?!? Should do the Tour de France through there!

[iul Profile]

It,s transfagarasan ... it appeared on Top Gear too when they did an episode in Romania

[dragos03 Profile]

Yep, the Transfagarasan, Top Gear named it the best driving road in the world. A Tour de France stage would be awesome. Transfagarasan already features as a stage in two lesser UCI events: the Tour of Romania and the Tour of Sibiu.

[dragos03 Profile]

A small update to my first post in this topic: a group of volunteers from a local hiking association have installed photovoltaic panels and three computers at the school in the isolated village of Inelet. The village itself remains without power but at least the few kids there will now have a chance to learn about the modern world. The volunteers will continue to climb to Inelet in order to teach those kids how to use the computers and Internet.

[Pockets Profile]

If someone asked me to carry a computer up there, I'd be begging them to let it be a laptop!

[amz Profile]

Probably this will sound strange but I felt very remote in Volgograd (ex. Stalingrad).

[grande Profile]

I've been trying to think... I'd say probably somewhere in New Brunswick... There are parts of NB where you're hundreds of kilometers from any city of more than 100 people.

Glen Coe (Scotland) felt really remote, although I wasn't that far from civilisation!

[Canadian_Rugger Profile]

I've been trying to think... I'd say probably somewhere in New Brunswick... There are parts of NB where you're hundreds of kilometers from any city of more than 100 people.

Glen Coe (Scotland) felt really remote, although I wasn't that far from civilisation!

I am from New Brunswick originally, great province! Grew up on the Northeast coast, right across from Gaspésie, Quebec. Lovely little town, about 50% French and 50% English. I speak both languages

[Coloradoan Profile]

I used to drive between Colorado and California a couple times a year and there are parts of Nevada and Utah with absolutely nothing for huge stretches. One of the highways even has the nickname "the world's loneliest highway". Of course, many parts of Australia are probably like that, but magnitudes more so. One thing that cracked me up while doing this drive was stopping for gas in reasonably remote and small (pop:>20,000) Elko, NV. In the gas station they had a sign updating you on the daily terror level, as if Elko would be a target of a terrorist attack.

[YamahaKiwi Profile]

When they say terrorist, who knows they are talking about foreigners. Maybe it's full of anti-central govt people and they were talking about a mission by the feds!

dragos, I will certainly try to find the top gear programme for that road.

[Buffalo Profile]

I've been to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory here in Canada. It was fairly spread out and awesome and animals regularly ventured downtown. It was a whole other world than visiting the big Western Canadian cities of Vancouver, Calgary and my home city Edmonton. If anyone ever has the chance I'd recommend going up to the Yukon.

[netrug1 Profile]

I have been to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the remotest inhabited island in the world, Waterboat Point on the Antarctic Peninsula and Nanortalik in Greenland.

[4N Profile]

I have been to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the remotest inhabited island in the world, Waterboat Point on the Antarctic Peninsula and Nanortalik in Greenland.

Okay, you win.

[Nikoloz Profile]

Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia.
Visited 3 times. Feels like different dimension with the centuries old towers and breathtaking surroundings.

Ushguli is the highest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe (at an altitude of 2,410 meters (7,910 ft).

[Vova12 Profile]

I was on the island of Olkhon in Lake Baikal.

A good place that would meet a zombie apocalypse.