A large, windswept volcanic archipelego in the middle of the
Indian ocean, thousands of miles from the nearest populated landmass. Despite it's area, it is almost always missing from maps of the world.
Port Couvreux (formerly a whaling station, an experimental
sheep farm and a geomagnetic station, at 49°17′S 69°
42′E), on Baie du Hillsborough, on the southeast coast of Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye. From 1912
sheep were bred to create an economic basis for settlement, but the attempt had to be abandoned in 1931.
The Îles Kerguelen (Kerguelen Archipelago, Kerguelen Islands) are located in the subantarctic regions of the far southern
Indian Ocean, lying around 1,340 km east from the Crozet Islands and 5,310 km southeast from South Africa. The nearest islands to Kerguelen are the Australian owned Heard & MacDonald Islands located 440 km to the south. The islands are a French territory — forming part of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), which also includes Terre Adélie (French claims in Antarctica), the Crozet Islands and the
small islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul...
The Îles Kerguelen are dominated by the main island of Grande Terre (often simply kown as Kerguelen) with an area of 6,675 km². Off its coasts are several hundred smaller islands (usually quoted at
300 in number), islets and emergent rocks with a total area of some 540 km², bringing the overall land area of the group to 7,215 km². The largest of the
minor islands is Île Foch at 206 km². Most islets
lie close to the mainland shore, although several groups
lie at farther distances — these include the Îles Nuageuses in the northwest, the Îles Swain in the northeast and Île Ronde in the south. The vast majority of the
minor islets however, can be found off the east coast of Grande Terre, where the highly indented and fractured coast is split by the
two large bays of Baie du Morbihan and Baie
des Baleiniers.
