This is a photo of the ‘Hill of Difficulty’ on Pitcairn Island. Pitcairn is where Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers aboard the HMS Bounty crashed the ship and set it ablaze. Mutiny was a crime punishable by death, so they found an inaccessible island where the British navy could not pursue them and stayed there for the rest of their days. Today there is a population of about 50 people, many direct descendants of the original Bounty crew and still bearing the same family names. The photo above is of the only harbor on Pitcairn, accessible only by longboat, and shows the single paved road on the island. It is the only route to bring in supplies such as diesel fuel, which provides all the island’s electricity. It was paved in 2005 with the help of the crew of a 180-foot barque out of Nova Scotia named The Picton Castle. Before that it was just dirt roads and a lot of, well, difficulty.
Another island with only one road is Koh Lipe, the southernmost island in Thailand. This road is also relatively new, and has changed the island dramatically. For those of you who have seen The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, you are familiar with the island of Koh Phi Phi. Before the movie, it was a haven for backpackers looking to get off the beaten path. After, it became a giant tourist trap and the backpackers started migrating further and further south through the island chain until they got to Koh Lipe. Just a few years before this picture was taken, Koh Lipe was fairly undeveloped – just bungalows, beach bars, some dive shops, and a few places to eat. With the road came the storefronts, and then came the tourists who previously didn’t want to trek through the jungle on a dirt path.
Pitcairn has also seen a growth in tourism since they paved the Hill of Difficulty. I think it’s interesting how a single road can result in many different metaphorical roads: a road to prosperity, a road to an easier lifestyle, a road to ecological damage (Koh Lipe is having serious problems with waste, contamination, environmental deterioration, water shortages – it is simply overpopulated), a road to a blending of cultures, a road to the loss of a culture…
urban media lab: traffic 