The Robinson Crusoe experience

Uninhabited island, wilderness life, living in total isolation …

Those were the motives that pushed Andre "Yul" Bronner to ask for an authorisation to live on Staten island for 3 months, uninhabited Argentinian military territory.

They declared him crazy, a lunatic, a madman, but his insistance and persuasion enabled him to finally obtain the approval of the Armada and to drop off his bag, his bow and his fishing net on the island.

For two years sheltered in his small house in La Rochelle he had invisioned this expedition, learned archery, carefully made up lists of equipment…

One morning in December 1994 hegets ashore from the yacht Kotick and finds himself in contact with the reality envisioned time after time.

You don't become an indian with improvisation

Things don't turn out as planned!
The storm immediately renders the painstakingly selected equipment wet, soaked and unusable. When he finally finds one of the sparse flat areas of only a few square meters there is no ground. It is so soggy that his camp site is sinking during the night. He swims! It is impossible to spendthe three months in a tent.

He is looking for shelter at the rock outcroppings, find a cavern. The conditions look promising, the soils is dry. Except that … when he light a fire to enjoy the warmth and the beauty of the flames, the smoke is biting his eyes, irritates his throat et pushes him to abandon this lair.

In the middle of this luxuruous and abundant vegetation, slowed down by 35 kilos of equipment on his shoulders (5 hours for 1 Km) … Between impenetrable forested areas, very dense peat zones where he sinks knee deep.

A child's dream

A buddy of wind and rain, lover of sandy beaches, despite his phenomenal adaptability, he feels the necessity to have a pit, a den to shelter.

He achieves a boyhood's dream: building a treehouse, on the slope of Caleta Baiud, overlooking the bay where he can go fishing. The building materials (planks, ropes, etc...) are found on the beach. He covers the structure with a tarp he had in his bag… the trick is done!

In his bags he packed rice, cereals and dehydrated food, the ingredients for a daily meal. This will be completed with the proceeds of fishing or bow hunting, an approach or lying in wait hunt. It turned out that fishing was the most productive.

A great idea

From his treehouse, Yul explores the island.

One evening he finds himself at Cap San Juan, on the ruins of the lighthouse discovered two years earlier. Alone in the onlit night, scrutinizing the horizon, he imagines himself the guardian of the lighthouse.

The idea was born: Relight the lighthouse!