Frozen in time

Who needs explorers when you can google for any spot on the planet?' you think. And then you find a breed of people who would rather breathe the rarefied air in places that hold time in their crevices and never let it go. The Lonely Planet Guide to the Middle of Nowhere is a compilation of firsthand experiences of such people.

Craig Scutt was alone. And, hold your breath, under water - 10,834 metres of sea water, to be precise. His GPS read 11°N 142°E.

Scutt, attired in a pressure suit, exited the bathyscaphe - a kind of deep sea diving vessel with portholes made of reinforced glass - and stepped onto the sea floor.

As the sea water swirled around him, he looked around in amazement at the new fantastic world that he had stepped foot upon.

It was dark, mysterious and almost surreal. The lamps of his bathyscaphe struggled to illuminate the watery world deep down in the bowels of the earth, but even in the liquid white light he could see some absolutely spectacular fish and other marine creatures, some of them yet to be identified, swim past him nonchalantly.

For them, Scutt must have been truly foreign. After all, how many people have walked on the Mariana Trench - the deepest part of the sea floor? And these were surely marine fauna that survive only in the deep seas.

The beauty, tranquillity and sheer brilliance of this untraversed spot overwhelmed Scutt, and a sense of peace and calmness washed over him.

"In this formidable darkness ... I cannot escape feeling how insignificant every individual life is in such a vast and still unexplored planet,'' he would later write about his experience.

Though he was standing on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, he was, in a sense, right on top of the world. In Lonely Planet lingo, he was in the Middle of Nowhere!

So, is the middle of nowhere at the bottom of the sea?
Well, it is there too, the contributors to Lonely Planet's recently released coffee-table book, The Lonely Planet Guide to the Middle of Nowhere, would have you believe.

The 38 travel writers whose 55 first-person narratives are featured in this exciting book will tell you that you can also find the 'middle of nowhere' at 16°S 143°W (Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia). And 27°S 109°W (Easter Island in Chile).

And 27°N 28°E (western desert in Egypt) ... the list stretches on to include some absolutely spectacular places that are relatively lesser known to travellers - both armchair and real-time.

Flip through the pages and you will be amazed to find Middle of Nowhere places in the depths of the earth, on the summit of a mountain, at the foot of a monument, in the midst of an evergreen forest ...

To some people, an MoN spot is one they arrive at when they stray off the beaten track. For others it's a destination that does not figure on most popular maps.

"If somewhere is the destination, then perhaps nowhere is the journey,'' writes Ben Saunders, in the introduction to the book. A record-breaking long-distance skier with three North Pole expeditions under his belt, he should know.

Saunders has been on many adventures - he is the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole and holds the record for the longest solo Arctic journey by a Briton.

Very often the first question people ask him when they come to know what he does (or rather where he goes) for a living, is "Why?", writes Saunders.

The answer to this question could perhaps be what George Mallory, the ill-fated Everest mountaineer, said before his final expedition in 1922: "... What we get from this journey is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life.''

So, where would Saunders find his Middle of Nowhere place? The Middle of Nowhere is, in my experience, the best place in the world for reflection and contemplation, he writes.

Obviously, to reflect and contemplate on life and life's issues, what you need is a place that is calm and quiet.
And to hoist an MoN flag in a place these two conditions, apart from a few others, have to be fulfilled, argue almost all travel writers in this book. Another mandatory factor is that the place should be relatively unknown.

That said, it is not impossible to find a Middle of Nowhere place rubbing shoulders with a tourist magnet, like the spot Gregor Clark found when he visited Machu Picchu.

"Everyone probably should have a chance to see this remarkable place,'' he writes of his experience in the ruins of Machu Picchu, "and hundreds and thousands of lives are enriched by the experience every year.''

Clark did the obligatory tour on foot up the mountain following the Inca trail and was not surprisingly overawed by the grandeur and beauty of the place. But it was his team's last overnight stop - a site called Huinay Huayna - that literally and figuratively took his breath away.

The vertigo-inducing terraces and the deep green gorges that had a mighty waterfall as a backdrop cast a spell on the traveller. Clark made up his mind - he would break away from his team and spend some time in the place in "silent and meditative contemplation''.

And that's exactly what he did late that evening. When all the visitors began to weave their way back to the camp, Clark stayed back and requested the night watchman to allow him to spend some time, "maybe an hour or two'', to absorb the beauty of the mountains that now lay bathed in moonlight. That place, to him, was an MoN place.

But in a world that is fast being overrun by man and machine, how many spots remain where you can sit back and reflect on anything without being disturbed by the sounds of humans or of machinery or both?

Very few, agree many travel writers.

One quality almost every Middle of Nowhere place boasts is stunning natural beauty. This feature alone is sufficient to lull a person into a state of contemplation and introspection.

Sometimes such a place can be found in the very depths of the earth's bowels - like the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. This well-known but rarely traversed spot that lies 338 km off Guam set Craig Scutt thinking about life and the sheer insignificance of man.

Of course it is not easy nor is it possible to just dive down into the depths of the ocean to revisit the MoN spot that had overwhelmed Scutt. For one, it would require immense preparations and also, you would have to dig deep into your pockets to finance the trip.

(For those interested in the facts: the hydrostatic pressure at the deepest point in the Trench is over eight tonnes per sq inch - the equivalent of a person trying to balance 50 jumbo jets on his head, offers the Lonely Planet book.)
But you can also find an MoN place in the middle of the desert.

Jeff Campbell, another contributor to this book, makes a trip to Paria Canyon (36°N 111°W) in the US of A and finds it to be one of the most surreal desert terrains in the world.

Straddling the Utah-Arizona stateline, this stretch of land has an almost other-worldly ambience - tattered mesas, rugged high plateaux, slot canyons which appear to change colour with the sun's passage across the sky ...

The Paria Canyon rarely features on a tourist's must-see list simply because of the overwhelming popularity its neighbours - the Grand Canyon, the Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell - enjoy.

Inhabited by a sparse population of native Americans, this region drew few people, except solitary poets and artists, says Campbell. And that may be the reason why it still preserves its pristine beauty.

But if the definition of a Middle of Nowhere place is one that is well and truly isolated, then Easter Island must also be a top contender.

Situated almost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (27°S 109°W) this little patch of land has piqued the curiosity of almost everybody who has seen pictures of the famous stone giants that stand dotting the shoreline.

Gregor Clark has penned what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience of circumnavigating the coastline of Easter Island on foot, camping each night at the feet of the Moai (the Polynesian name for Easter Island's famous statues)!

He visits one of the lesser known areas on the island - the ancient quarry where the figures were said to have been carved before they were transported to the coast.

Hundreds of carvings still litter the area, he writes, remnants of a mysterious culture that lived far away from any known landmass.It was a place, he says, which made him feel as though he was the last man on earth.

Quite in keeping with the spirit of the book, the writers subtly encourage people to find their own 'nowheres' - it could be just halfway around the world, in the neighbouring country, just around the corner ... why even just off the road.

The book also carries essays contributed by some of the most respected names in travel writing describing adventures they had in such diverse locales as the Atacama Desert in Bolivia, Las Vegas in Nevada, and Aappilattoq in Greenland.

All essays about the places are well supported by stunning visuals which capture that feeling of finding an untouched gem in this well-trodden world.

And just in case you would like to visit any (or maybe even all of the places) featured in the book, the publishers have thoughtfully added an index which details how to get to the places, what to bring along and things you can (and cannot do), among other things.

So, how can you find your own Middle of Nowhere place? Simple, say veteran adventurers. "Spin the globe, throw away the map, head out and find your own Nowhere.''

Great advice. And what's even more great, you can follow it ... to the end.