Back in October, 2003, Where’s the one place all of us have been? drew 109 responses without ever coming to the conclusion that there is indeed some place on the planet where every Doper has been to.
It occurred to me that it’s got to be easier to locate that other extreme: that place where even the best-traveled and most-adventurous of us has never been.
In my own case, it would be any place outside the eastern half of the USA and a few points in Ontario. And of course there are many places I have yet to visit even in Tennessee and Alabama which would contain most of the places where I have been.
So we could start by listing the least likely places any of us must have been to and narrow it down from there.
How about:
Mount Everest
Marianas Trench
North Pole
South Pole
Headwaters of the Amazon
The Moon
Rather than produce a really silly list, let’s limit this to places on the planet. Try to think of some remote and/or godforsaken point that ought to be accessible but still unlikely to have seen the footprints of even the most daring Doper.
There are a few really remote islands that are inhabited but not often visited:
Pitcairn
Tristan da Cunha
St. Helena
Ascension
It’d be interesting to hear from any Dopers who’ve been to any of those. I reckon Ascension is most likely seeing as there is a fairly large military presense there.
How about something a little more mundane? I grew up four miles away from it, and I’ve never been to Burton Island Delaware. Unless there are other southern Delawarean Dopers who are ornithologists or crabbers, I suspect I’ve found a pretty good spot.
Yours is a good point, and one I gave a little thought to before posting the OP. I suspect there may be several viable approaches (assuming there’s any real curiosity about the issue) including the ones of indicating the perimeter of your own travels (such as how I tried to show where I haven’t been) or of trying to predict the spots least likely to have had visitors.
It will be fun when some really unlikely place has had at least one Doper to claim that “Oh no, I’ve been there.”
In that old thread it became obvious that due to the limited traveling by overseas Dopers that there wouldn’t be a USA location that would fit. Conversely, those places outside the USA seemed unlikely for many, if not most, USA Dopers.
Maybe the byproduct of this thread will be a smarter way to find the place(s) where most of us have been.
Maybe it will be seen as a waste of time. Many of the threads I have started have shown that feature.
Near-miss on this one – I worked on a weather satellite program where several of us went to Svalbard twice a year. I was never in the group that went, but I did introduce several of my co-workers to the Dope. I don’t know that any of them ever joined, but if any of them did, we’ve got a hit for Svalbard. I guess it’s up to them to pipe in if they’ve been…
I have. I was born on St. Helena and I gather my family visited Tristan Da Cunha and Ascension as well after I was born and before coming to the states.
I’m afraid I don’t remember any of it. We left when I was around nine months old.
My parents say they hated it, but they hate everything so I’m not really taking their word on it. I want to go back when I’m old enough and have enough money.
I can scan some pictures if you like. They’re not terribly interesting, but… well, I have them.
My parents say it’s like a poor small town in the US. People are undereducated and everybody wants out. And since it’s so remote, they don’t have stuff like TV or mayonnaise. Or they didn’t in 1991-92. But I know they have the internet at least now, so I assume they have TV. I have no idea if they have mayonnaise.
eta: I nominate the Marianas Trench! (that’s what it’s called, right?)
I’m increasingly attracted to island life - I’m seriously considering moving to Orkney/ or maybe I have an impending midlife crisis - but while the islands off Scotland can certainly feel remote, they really aren’t. I can’t imagine life where the Royal Mail Ship is the only link to the outside world, and it only arrives every few months.
Are you eligible for a British passport? That might come in handy when you are older, giving you easy access to all the EU countries.
The Midway Islands have no native human inhabitants, never have. I lived there for about a year and a half back in the early 60’s. Anyone else visited there?
Then there’s Kure Atoll, about 60 miles west of Midway.
A few years ago I would have voted for this as well. But I have met several world-traveler types in the past few years who have made cruises to the continent. Even though their exposure to the inner areas has been limited to a few yards (maybe up to a mile or so) from wherever their little lifeboat or dinghy landed, they did at least set foot on the ice at the shoreline.
Do you remember much about it?