Due to different reasons, humanity has chosen to settle in nearly inhospitable places far from the charms and comforts of the city, town or village. Amazingly enough, after finding ways to survive, they immediately start searching for a place…to get a drink.
Here is a list of “bars at the end of the world” where you can lift your spirits if you ever find yourself in the middle of nowhere.
1. The world’s southernmost bar – Vernadsky Research Base Bar on Galindez Island, Antarctica
The base was originally founded in 1947 by the British Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey and named after Soviet mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky. The UK sold it to Ukraine in 1996 for a symbolic price of one pound as the cost for dissembling the facility would have been too high.
Its tiny, one-room social area is located among the base's research facilities, where scientists first discovered the hole in the ozone layer.
British carpenters constructed the bar to recall the rustic pubs of their homeland, but after it was purchased by the Ukrainians, it became a purely Ukrainian facility. Fresh beer and other alcoholic drinks are delivered from the mainland, but the bar also makes its own vodka using the surrounding glacial ice. A visit to the facility is included in almost every tour of the Antarctic.
2. The Albatross Bar on Tristan da Cunha Island in the south Atlantic Ocean – the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world
The archipelago lies across some 2,000 kilometers from the nearest inhabited island, Saint Helena, and 2,400 kilometers from the nearest continent, South Africa; it is 3,360 kilometers from South America.
The main settlement on the island, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, accomodates some 300 people and is an overseas territory of the UK. The settlement is located dangerously close to an active volcano.
This mix of isolation and natural danger would make anyone need a drink, and thus the Albatross Bar was created.
3. The Old Forge Bar on Knoydart peninsular, Scotland — the proud title holder of ″Most remote bar in the world″, according to the Guinness book of World Records
The facility is Britain's most isolated pub. Originally built as an actual blacksmith’s forge on the shore of Loch Nevis, it later developed into a social club for local workers.
If you want to go off the beaten path, this is exactly the place to choose – it doesn't even have a road. “Getting there is half the fun,” the website says. One may reach the facility either by ferry (which runs only twice a day) or by private boat.
You may also get there by car, but there is literally no road to the actual destination; only 27 kilometers of wild coast, heather and rock.
4. The Irish Pub at the Namche Bazaar Village in Nepal – the highest bar in the world — at 3,440 metres high
The Namche Bazaar is the final major outpost of civilization before the desolate mountain climb begins on Mount Everest.
The facility was built along the side of a Nepalese hill, and has increased considerably in size with the swell in demand for supplies and equipment that came with the influx of explorers.
To reach the Irish Pub at Namche Bazaar you will need to fly into the only airport in the Everest region and trek into the village on foot. The hike can be done in one day, but it is suggested that travelers take up to two days to avoid altitude sickness.
5. Sunland Baobab Bar in Sunland Ranch, South Africa – a bar inside one of the oldest trees on Earth
In one of the largest baobab trees in South Africa, and at a whopping 21 meters high and 47 meters in diameter (the widest in the entire continent), the van Heerden family, who own the land, built a bar the size of a railway car.
The tree can comfortably accommodate up to 20 people and features a dart board among other knickknacks placed along the tree's natural contours. The space even features a natural cellar to keep the drinks cool.
The Sunland Baobab has been carbon-dated to be over 6,000-years-old, and may even be one of the oldest living organisms on the planet.
