This is “the must” place if you are looking for the remains of the
history on the Kerguelen. At the end of 19th century two Bossiere brothers got from the French Government the concession for the colonization of Kerguelen. They brought 3 families and more than 200 sheep to the Port Covreux in the north of the island. People soon escaped to Europe and sheep to the wilderness – I saw them on the slopes from the ship. Then the brothers encouraged British-Norwegian company to establish onKerguelen the whaling station. They built it in the deep, inner bay and named Port Jeanne d’Arc. Remains of the station still exists, and this was our target for today. It was only 4.30 am, but already clear when “Marion Dufresne” began to cruise between the picturesque, rocky islands of the bay. One hour later we passed with a minimum speed through the dangerous narrows.
After another hour of sailing we reached PJDA – how the locals call the place. In the middle of nowhere I saw few old-style houses at the bottom of the slope. Also a piles of metal barrels and rusted tanks and other installations once used to process the grease. Nobody knows how many whales lost their lives here. Annual production of oil was 3000 tons. Maybe this is the reason why so far we cannot see any whale in the sea…We had a sunny day, but it is hard to say “lovely day” because of extremely strong, icy wind. After landing I visited a little exhibit in the building restored by TAAF. They try to restore the station as a museum. Workshops and the quarters are already reconstructed and few people can sleep there (if they are ready to survive the cold). We took the walk along the bay visiting the remains of the little cemetery (but most of thewhalers were buried on the Cemetery Island in the bay). I saw a dozen of rabbits and a little herd of reindeers introduced by Norwegians. Big skua bird tried to land on the head of my friend Patrick not to attack him but just to check who entered its territory. People appear here onlyfew days per year.
