Friday, February 16, 2007

Virtual Island Hopping: Jan Mayen



OK, new crazy idea for this weblog. I'm using Google earth to find little islands on this globe that are completely unknown to me. Just found one - a volcanic island north of Iceland that is part of Norway: JAN MAYEN. Yes, it's not a person but an island and it just looks great! No real population, only one giant volcano called Beerenberg (sounds Dutch to me - and yes the Dutch have been there too, but the name is probably Norwegian for Bear's Mountain).
Now this is my idea: I want to find out if there is a living soul on this island that is willing and able to leave a comment on this weblog. Mission impossible, for sure - but let's try it and have some fun. There are plenty of beautiful islands in the Ocean, so if this turns out to be a nice game, I will travel around the globe to do some island hopping - virtually, that is. Great idea, don't you think? So, here we go: hello Jan Mayen, this is Holland calling - anybody out there? I want to hear from you! (Btw, I did send an email to the station crew on Jan Mayen -maybe these friendly people will take the trouble of visiting my blog and leaving a comment?)

Oh, I almost forgot. I just want to ask some questions to the people of Jan Mayen who are going to leave a comment here (hopefully):
1. What is it like to live on this island?
2. Can you tell me some interesting things about yourself?
3. Is it any fun to be on this island? (If yes, why? If no, why not?)
4. Can you tell me a little bit about the animals, the scenery and the vegetation (if any)?
5. And finally, if you look to the stars at night, do you believe that Someone is watching you?

Let's wait and see. You can also leave a comment if you are NOT living on Jan Mayen, of course. Have a look here! And here! For a detailed map of the island, click here.

Do you want to have a live picture from this island? Well, more or less... Click here for a fresh webcam pic every 20 minutes. Cool! :-) The only problem is: I haven't seen any changed image yet... maybe nothing ever changes on Jan Mayen??

4 comments:

Vicki said...

Wow, Paul! Not only do you have a great blog, but now you're adding in a little geography with a human interest side! This is a great idea! I'm looking forward to this, and it will really be interesting to see if you're contacted by anyone on Jan Mayen (it looks so cold and desolate.)

Carolanne said...

When I was a teenage girl, I claimed not to like geography and perhaps I didn't... back then.
Your idea is a great one and I look forward to reading about your islands and discovering about life on them.
What I did wonder about is why they bother building and maintaining roads, and an airstrip on Jan Mayen, which is a volcano when no one lives there. Why?

Paul said...

Well, I do know that there is a crew on Jan Mayen in a weather station. If you visit www.jan-mayen.no you can read more about them and see some pictures! It must be like living on board of a space shuttle (although you have plenty of room on the island) or in another small community like the crew of an oil drilling platform. I would like to hear from the Jan Mayeners (how do they call themselfs??) about their experiences.

By the way, it's not easy to go to Jan Mayen as a tourist, but it is possible via Norway. I guess I'll just stick to the virtual experience! It's all just for fun, but I might learn some interesting things and meet some more nice people via the internet!

Anonymous said...

The sign at the entrancedoor means: Theory is when you understand everything, but nothing works - practice is when all works ok but noone understand why. At this station we combine theory and practice so nothing works and noone understand why.

I was the webmaster and constructor of the Jan Mayen website. We got internet on the island in December 2000 and a few days later the website was online.

Jan Mayen was named after a Dutch sailor in early 1600's. At the peak there were more than 1000 Dutch on and around Jan Mayen. The y catched whales around the island and making blubber ashore.

A lot of the names on the maps are still Dutch and Beerenberg (Beeren-Bergh originally) was named by the Dutch sailors too :)

Per-Einar Dahlen
http://la7dfa.com