As the tsunami surged under the railway bridge...

 

...Martha Wollensak was riding along the bike/walk path with her headphones on. She later told her boyfriend that she saw some people waving at her from the bridge and she thought, "Wow, do I know those people?" Then she suddenly felt water rushing around her feet, and it almost upset her bicycle. She managed to swerve up the grass embankment just before she came upon Bob's Prop Shop, but she got plenty wet anyway. Martha is from Wheatland in the rather dry Highlands, and had just come down to visit her boyfriend Rod, now attending Putney University. She didn't expect the ocean to visit upon her.

 

"That was enough bicycling for me today." said Martha, still a bit breathless... 



 

Martha is about to get wet

When the tsunami came through...

 

...this little red truck was crossing the Cecelia Avenue Bridge.

It's a Haulzall Type 2, gets up to 95 miles to the gallon (gas prices are through the roof on New Island) and can easily cruise at 65 miles per hour. The Type 2 is a kind of Tuk Tuk, but with four wheels instead of three. It's built in Victoria Harbor, mostly of imported parts from Thailand, and uses a high-efficiency, very quiet, gas/biofuel engine designed by Arnold F. Partener, who moved here from New Zealand. Arnold had been tinkering with small engines all his life, but couldn't find backers in New Zealand or Australia (they couldn't believe his claims of efficiency). He moved here in 2002, set up a small plant in an long-abandoned whale-oil processing building in Victoria Harbor's Marketside District, hired a few semi-retired foundry specialists and machinists and set to work. (VH once was a ship repair center, and, before that, a whaling center run by the Russians. Many machinists stayed on after the Russians left in 1992.) 

The first trucks came on the market in 2009, and were an instant success! New Island was finally in the home-built transportation business, after years of importing. Haulzall is developing a Type 2 Electric model, but Partener's company, Nevermore Transport, is not yet happy with the cost, weight, and environmental risks of the battery.

Most trucks are meant for commercial use - very few are used privately. This one happens to be owned by Putney University.  

Indian Ocean Quake Sends Minor Tsunami into Putney Bay

 

On January 5, an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale shook the Indian Ocean floor near the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, sending a small tsunami to New Island late that afternoon. The wave was not noticed on the coast, but in Putney Bay it resembled a hefty tidal bore, growing to a height of 4 feet, as its energy was concentrated in the narrows. As the wave approached Putney's bridges, some walkers and cyclists got wet but no injuries were reported. Surprisingly, damage was limited to only a few boats that were torn loose from their moorings. Alan Faramond, intrepid architect and sketch artist, happened to be in the area and dashed off this view of Putney Harbor between the bridges.



The small green arrow on this map shows the view in the picture.

What was going on here as the tidal bore apprached?  Stay tuned.





 



Not Much Traffic on New Island Roads

Route P-20 on its way to North Cape, in the Blue Ranges

The Russians built New Island's major roads and highways beginning in the 1900s. The Czarist government initially funded the roadbuilding for the needs of the Russian Navy, and,for a while, for land-investment oppurtunities.  The south and east parts of the island were suitable enough for railways, but narrow two-lane roads became the rule in the mountainous Highlands. For many years, Russian contractors hired Polish workers, for a year at a time, to build the roads. Roadbuilding continued as towns and settlements spread over the island; the Russians were generous since all roads were officially military roads.  Russian road building continued into the 1960s during the Cold War with the Americans.

When the island won its independence, highway traffic diminished to near nothing, since the Russians removed their own vehicles. New Islanders have since imported some cars and light trucks, but no new roads have been constructed: A. They cost too much to build and maintain. B. Roads can mess up the landscape. C. Many locals prefer to walk the Path System instead.

As a result the island is graced with narrow, winding, though mostly paved, national highways numbered 1 through 6, and several paved and unpaved county roads, all with a P, M or E before the numbers that stand for Putney, Edgarford, and Mulhenry Counties respectively. Several un-numbered public roads also lead to interesting places.

Soon we will check out some of these interesting places.

Why Isn't New Island on My GPS?

 

 

New Islanders claim there are too many nosy satellites!

When you look up the co-ordinates 98 degrees 5 minutes East Longitude by 35 degrees 40 minutes South Latitude, you'll likely find a blank area of the Indian Ocean. However, New Islanders know this to be roughly the location of downtown Putney, New Island's largest city. The rest of the world simply doesn't know...

A recently-retired CIA operative told me that satellite imagery is often edited in some parts of the world. Certain features in Area 51 in Nevada, and similar places in Russia, North Korea, China and Iran, come to mind. The governments there simply don't want us to see these places, so they are carefully deleted off printed maps, live-stream digital maps, and from your GPS system!

New Island was deleted around 1940 from most maps worldwide, except those classified for military use. (see previous post, "You probably Know This, But...") This policy has continued into our age of digital mapping, mostly from prior demands of the military, but also at the request of the people of New Island.

In 1992, when the island became independent, Island residents voted to keep the island "off the map". They would rather not have airliners coming and going, cruise ships docking, or private planes and boats showing up unannounced. Secrecy can save a lot of headaches!

How to Get Here

To travel to New Island, book a cabin (or deck space) aboard a Rudyard Line ship, either the Charles Ames or the New Ireland.  These vintage 50's-era cargo-liners were "donated" to New island in the early 1970s from Poland. They have been well-maintianed and recently restored. Usually the C.A. leaves the Port of Fremantle, Western Australia every Thursday at 3 pm; the N.I. every Sunday at 3 pm. Cabins or deck accomodations are available and all meals are local New Island cuisine.

This enjoyable means of passage to New Island is also the only way to get there!

 

The SS Charles Ames

The Rudyard Line office is on a quiet street not far from the Fremantle docks. Tickets, passenger status and shipping information are available by inquiring in person. Inquire locally as to the location; most Fremantle cabdrivers know where to go. (PS: see posts from July 2011 where I took the steamer to New Island.)

Ticket window hours are 9 to 3 weekdays.

Doors open one hour prior to ships' arrival, and 4 hours prior to departure .

 

 

A Better Picture by NASA

Another view I found of the island is this gorgeous photograph taken by a NASA astronaut/photographer on the June 1985 mission of the shuttle Discovery. Here you get an idea of the island's topography...

 

New Island from 450 Miles Up - taken above the southwestern coast looking northeast.

 

In the photo at left lies the sandy, relatively flat Sheffield Desert. Putney Bay fills the lower center, and Lake Riga is clearly visible to the right. TheWicklow-Blue Highlands, a vast plateau with an average elevation of 3,000 feet, dominates the upper center.

The island is an old piece of an ancient continent that the paleo-geologists call Gondwana. New Island's age explains it's limestone plateau as well as its generous beaches and sand dunes. Where there is a lot of sand, you know the place is old. It's climate is primarily Mediterranean, or similar to that of Southwestern Australia and California. The island's winters are rainy, with some snow above 2,500 feet. Summers are dry and mild, and the hotter areas are to the north. New Island is in the Southern Temperate Zone; indeed, the city of Putney is almost the same latitude south as San Francisco, California is in the north.      

Next: How to get here. 

You Probably Know This, But...

The Commonwealth of New Island is situated in the southern Indian Ocean, almost 1,000 miles west of Cape Leeuwin, Australia. I found this older satellite view of the island, quite by luck. The island has since been removed from these images, which brings up the story of the island's secretive history...



The one and only satellite image I know of that includes New Island.

Beginning in 1799, New Island's first European residents were shipwrecked convicts bound from Britain to Australia. Once they began to thrive on the island, they really didn't want the British to find them again. Their stricken ship had been blown far to the north of the favored shipping routes, which is why the island had evaded discovery. Then quite by chance, Fabian von Bellingshausen, a Russian explorer, found the island in 1821 and immediately claimed it for Russia, which effectively kept the 400 or so English-Irish pioneers free from the British penal system.

 

The Russians, in turn, felt the island was nobody's business, and declared it off-limits to other countries. This was fine with the now-established shipwrecked natives. The Soviet Navy later intensified the island's secrecy during World War II and the Cold War, effectively cutting off all communication to the island except via channels authorized by Moscow.  In the late 1950s, the American CIA joined with the Soviet KGB in a covert "partnership" whereby the island was kept off all maps of the area. It seems that both sides at that time were using the island for strategic military purposes, including a submarine base (Soviet Navy) and a missile tracking station (CIA). Satellite imagery was later (and still is) modified to create the appearance of  deep blue water in that part of the Indian Ocean. But once in a while someone blinks and the island appears briefly!

The good news is, since 1992 when the Soviet Union fell, the island gained its independence, and it now welcomes travelers form all countries.    Next: New Island From Space!     

The Letter from New Island

 

It was completely by chance that I found New Island, or, that it found me.

I had a hunch it existed, and roughly where, but there was no trace of it on any of my maps, or on GoogleEarth. Then I received a letter from the island's tourism department! (They still communicate with real mail...) It seems one of their employees had acquired a small drawing I had sold to an Australian resident, which then found its way to the island. Here is the letter:

 

Dear Mr. Mothes,

My name is Margaret Mullen, and I have come into possession of a drawing I believe you made. I am able to write to you because your name and address are on the back. The drawing is an exact rendering of my childhood home and my favorite old cargo trike. Were you there when I was a child? Have you ever been to New Island? Have you more drawings like this?

 

Please respond to my address where I work:

 

Attn: Margaret Mullen

Ministry of Trade, First Floor

15 Government Hill Mall

The Commonwealth of New Island 1005

 Yours Truly,

 Margaret

Enclosure: Copy of the drawing in question:

 

 An imaginary coastline I drew fourteen years ago that seems to be the

childhood home of Margaret Mullen.

Wow!

 

 

 

 

Me on New Island

OK, I've talked a lot about this island in the last 70-some postings. Now I'm going to take you with me all over the island. I'll fill you in with some of the background, but mostly we'll just wander around. 

 

My wind-blown self-portrait, at the Beltane site, a Celtic sacred place

on the island's southeastern coast.

 

To begin, I have been making drawings and paintings of beaches and coastal scenes for most of my life. The images originally came to me through a haze of dreams and memories that, for whatever reason, have been important to me. I felt these scenes were probably in the south Indian Ocean, mostly because it's a relatively unknown place, and also a region of the world where wonderful stories like "Dinotopia" originated. Also, the climate there is much like my home-land of coastal California.

I then realized I was wandering and drawing this place called New Island, and didn't know it until I received a strange letter...