Escape the city and live like Robinson Crusoe
In “Robinson Crusoe”, the protagonist is forced to live on a deserted island. In the new era, some people take the initiative to stay away from the hustle and bustle, become Robinson Crusoe, go to desert islands to live by hunting and picking, and go to nature to find the meaning of life.
| Rose’s 300-Day Deserted Island Journey|
Do you dare to imagine living alone on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean for 300 days? The Swiss Xavier Rose did just that. There is a deserted island called Tofuya in the Tonga Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and there are volcanoes on the island. In 2008, Rose went to live on this island that had been neglected for 30 years by himself, and lived the life of Robinson Crusoe. He went to the island with a Swiss Army knife and a machete, built a hut with coconut leaves, and started his way to survive on a deserted island by fishing and picking. Rose recalled: “I chose such an extreme natural environment because I wanted to change my way of life.” “After a few days on the island, my natural instinct returned. and drink.” Rose continued. At first, life on a deserted island did not make Rose feel much inconvenience. But later, he discovered the difficulty. For example, one day, he got a big gash on his hand, so he had to find a way to bandage it; on Christmas Eve, he could only stay on the empty island alone, away from his family.
Today, 14 years later, Rose, who has bid farewell to the deserted island, is a captain in summer and a mountaineering team leader in winter. Nevertheless, he still clearly remembers everything that happened on the island. “I receive about 300 letters every year, and some people say they want to live in Tuofuya for 300 days, but most of them are just talking, and they will not really go to the island to live.” Rose said regretfully. He has no intention of returning to life on the island. “The feeling of ‘it’s all about survival’ that I started on the island is impossible to go back, and even if I go back, I will soon feel that this is nothing more than another Robinsonian routine.” He half-jokingly Say.
The monotony of daily city life has many people dreaming of one day returning to the countryside, or retreating to a cabin deep in the forest. “The consumer society not only makes it difficult to find meaning in life, but also destroys the global environment. In such a consumer society, it is only natural for people to turn to nature if they want to find meaning, refuge or answers. The raging epidemic has made people yearn for nature. Returning to nature and living a self-sufficient life has never been new, but this idea has never been as popular as it is today.” Sociologist Sebastian Dahl Gallondo and Tristan Fournier wrote in their book Wild Utopia.
| The Fairy Couple on a Deserted Island|
Emily Gussen is very happy with life on a deserted island. In 2018, she came to live on a deserted island near the Brittany Peninsula. Not long ago, she brought her newborn child to the island to be raised. This deserted island called “Quemenni” is 1,300 meters long and 300 meters wide. Gu Sen and his partner Etienne Mengi built a small farm with stones on the island. They grow organic vegetables and do not need external assistance for electricity. They rely solely on their own equipment to solve the problem. There is no regular boat connection between the island and the mainland, and Mengji will drive a small boat to the nearest port every once in a while to sell potatoes, onions, garlic and other self-grown vegetables. “I can stay on the island for several weeks without returning to the mainland, and there is nothing to do. There are too many things to do on the farm, not to mention that there are so many vegetation and birds to see on the island. The ecology here is diverse. Sex is something I’ve never seen before,” said Gu Sen, who is in his 30s. She and Menji were both timber architects before they moved to the island. “We started living in isolation in 2018, but we did it voluntarily!” she laughs.
Gu Sen and Mengji’s main source of income on the island comes from the sale of self-grown vegetables and the provision of short-term accommodation services for guests. Gu Sen said: “Every time a tourist comes over, it is a good opportunity for everyone to meet new friends when they gather for dinner, and we can discover a lot of common topics with each other.” up. The island is only open from July to October every year, and Gu Sen and Mengji can only deal with outsiders during these months, because after that, the winter weather is harsh, and the sea between the island and the mainland is rough and not suitable for boats. The couple intends to stay on the island until 2027, and when their children reach school age, they will also give priority to distance education.
| Deserted Island with Polar Night|
In recent years, climate deterioration and extreme natural disasters have become “frequent visitors” in news reports. The forest fire in the Gironde region of southwestern France in the summer of 2022 is an example. Despite this, nature still has an unstoppable force in our minds. magic. The word “return to nature” means regaining freedom in the eyes of many people. Since 2015, photographer Bryce Portorano has been photographing “Robinson Robinson” who has returned to nature, and gave this group of photos a theme – “No Signal”. Among them, the magnificent scenery of an island in northern Norway impressed him deeply. There, he met a former journalist named Elena Hunstensen. The natural environment of this island is harsh. From December to January of the following year, the island will enter the polar night. If the sea conditions are good, it takes 20 minutes to take a boat from the nearest village to the island. On the island, Hanstensen generates electricity with solar panels and grows strawberries in a greenhouse. Whales occasionally swim by in the nearby waters, and she can see them lying in front of the window. There used to be an abandoned lighthouse on the island. After she moved here, she converted the lighthouse into a residence, leaving a few rooms as guest rooms, which are occasionally rented by tourists. In addition, there will also be young volunteers who will come to help. She said that the death of a loved one hit her hard, but this close connection with nature gave her the courage to live.
| Can Wilderness Live Long? |
Most people’s wilderness life is a whim, some regard it as a way to challenge themselves, just experience it, and some give up the wilderness life because of physical illness and other reasons.
Jacob Calhoue’s wilderness life lasted only seven months. In 2018, the top student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure put aside his studies and took a year off to live a nearly self-sufficient secluded life in the Pyrenees. In 2021, Calhu’s “Wildness Living Handbook” was published, in which he described in detail the various jungle survival skills he had learned since he was a teenager. Karhu said: “I don’t have a quirk for learning wilderness survival skills. I just think everyone needs to know how to make a fire. It takes a long time to learn to not starve in the forest.” His experience is somewhat reminiscent Consider the experience of Christopher McCandless, an American top student who gave up his studies, cut himself off from the business community, and went to Alaska to live in the wilderness alone. Writer Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” published in 1996 tells the story of McCandless. In 2007, director Sean Penn made a movie of the same name based on it.
After taking a break from school, Calhu began writing his doctoral dissertation in the direction of glacial climatology. Now 28, he hasn’t returned to apartment life. “After saying goodbye to the Pyrenees, I tried to build a house in a green community in the Chevres Valley, but I found that community life was not for me. I live near Paris now, but I don’t have a permanent residence. Residence, my home is a van. My life is very simple, I will follow my desire for nature and go where I want to go, especially on weekends, I often go to the depths of the forest to feel the power of nature.”
| Reintegrating into society is not easy| It is not easy
for these modern “Robinsons” to reintegrate into society. Geoffrey DeLorme decided to leave the forest over a weekend. “I still love that forest deeply, and even today, I often go back.” From the age of 19 to 26, he spent time in the forest in Eure. In those years, his neighbors were only deer. In 2021, his “Seven Years in the Wilderness” will be published. He refuted some people’s views with practical actions, and proved that people can survive in the forest by picking. Now in his 30s, he candidly admits that he cannot live a so-called “normal” life. “I can go back to society, I haven’t forgotten the rules of the game in society, but I may come back too soon. I still have to go back to the forest from time to time. It is difficult for me to meet the expectations of others for my work. Everything needs enough time, and I can’t adapt to the current pace of work. Society runs too fast, it’s like a Ferrari sports car, and I’m just a tractor. What’s more unbearable is the strange eyes of others. Of course, the more core problem It’s about what do I need to survive? Actually, I don’t need much. I plan to write another book, recording my thoughts and thoughts in the past few years after I left the forest.” Delorome said.
Sociologists Dalgarondo and Fournier have spoken of this feeling of disconnection from society. They explain: “Many times, people who try to make it through the wilderness feel that they don’t fit in with city life at first. They go to the wilderness because they have encountered a hurdle, either professionally or emotionally. After that, they It is likely to be more difficult to return to society and live a ‘normal life’.” Delorome said wilderness life is not for everyone. As he said, “The word ‘wilderness’ is easy to conjure up people’s imaginations, such as land and forests. Many people feel safe when they think of these, but the real wilderness is very cruel, and the rule there is the survival of the fittest. Today Humans are not fit to live that kind of life. Society has changed us, and we cannot survive without technology and means of production.”
In Wilderness Surveys, author Anne Norwell proposes a gentle solution that’s no less interesting than going straight to wilderness life. She believes that people can look for “wilderness” in themselves or around them, such as going for a walk in the forest or doing gardening, carefully observing how plants take root and sprouting, or watching birds. These seemingly mundane activities can actually make people feel the boundary between our world and wilderness. “During the research process, I found that I needed to face my fears, such as walking alone in the forest,” Norwell said. There is a green community in Haut-Garonne, where most of the residents used to be doctors or engineers or architects. They bid farewell to the city and brought their children here to live in chalets or yurts. Norwell had been to the community to research, and the people here had reduced their needs to the extreme. “On the way back, I asked myself if I had the courage to live such a minimalist life. Can a person who has been isolated from the world for a long time really return to society? I can’t give an answer,” she wrote in the book.
Dalgarondo and Fournier argue that we can also find wildness around cities. They said, “The reason why we long for wilderness utopia is that we don’t want to face society. We might as well take this opportunity to find a place to enjoy the vast starry sky alone, to repair our sensitivity and vulnerability. We can also go to the wild to pick—now, In Paris, there are more and more institutions organizing such activities. These activities can let us find resonance in nature and inject vitality into our daily life.”
