The Real Robinson Crusoe and His Island

The real Mcoy? Or the real Robinson Crusoe. In 1962, Yorkshireman Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne – a small island just half a mile wide in Seychelles.

Moyenne Island is a small island (9.9 ha or 24 acres) in what has been addressed as now the Ste Anne Marine National Park off the north coast of Mahé

A haven in Seychelles: Brendon Grimshaw bought his tropical island for £10,000 on a whim.

Brendon Grimshaw the real Robinson Crusoe was a 49-year-old newspaper editor when he did what others do only in their dreams: he bought a deserted island in the Indian Ocean that came complete with rumours of buried pirate treasure.

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The man himself

Brendon Grimshaw was a newspaper editor in his late thirties when he did what others do only in their dreams:

He bought a deserted island in the Indian Ocean that came complete with rumours of buried pirate treasure.

Five decades later, Grimshaw, 86, owns Moyenne Island still, having transformed it from a £10,000 “hunk of waterless bush,” into a haven for birds and tortoises that reportedly drew offers of $50-million or more before it was declared a national park in 2008.

Grimshaw was the only inhabitant of the island until his death in July 2012. Currently, the island is a National Park and can be visited as part of organized trips

The story has it, that in the early 1960s, as the Yorkshire native was enjoying the second-last day of a month-long visit to the Seychelles Islands, when a boy passing in the street asked whether he wanted to buy an island.

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The dream began

So when did the Robinson Crusoe dream begin: It took until the early 1970s before he was able to move to Moyenne Island full time, becoming one of the few people to ever live on the island.

He puts the number of his predecessors at three, and there is no reason to wonder why there were so few.

After a lot of rejections for buying, his previous efforts to buy one of the archipelago’s hundreds of islands had met with no success.

However, he concluded one through Yorkshire persuasiveness, he had finally found his dream.

In interviews, he has described the island as an impenetrable bush with few signs of fauna. Getting from one side to the other required swimming around or boating.

The dream continued

The first challenge, then, was to cut a path through the undergrowth so he could see exactly what the island had to offer and what needed to be done.

Since then, and with the help of a local man he hired to help him, they planted 16,000 trees, attracted thousands of birds, and fostered a thriving community of giant tortoises, none of which were around when he first bought the island.

After 20 years of persistence, Grimshaw and his assistant Lafortune achieved their goal of making Moyenne Island a National Park in its own right, separate from that of the Ste. Anne marine park.

The island is now known as the Moyenne Island National Park. The island is 4.5 kilometers (2.8 mi) away from the main island of Mahe.

The dream had been concluded.

Grimshaw died in Victoria, Mahe, in July 2012.

In 2013, after the island received its own national park status, a new hut was built and a warden was posted on the island, collecting the entrance fee from tourists

“I’m sure there are people who would like to see this island taken over by one of the multi-millionaires,” Mr. Grimshaw told the Financial Times.

His stance has made him a darling of conservationists and he is the subject of a documentary A Grain of Sand , that pushed to have the island declared a national park of Seychelles.

That goal was achieved in 2008 and Mr. Grimshaw continues to tend to his island and his giant tortoises.

“The babies are kept in my bedroom,” he told the Financial Times in 2008. “If you let them go, you’ll never see them again.”

As for the rumoured buried treasure, he hasn’t found any yet.

Hats off to this explorer/influencer/environmentalist and one of the real-life Robinson Crusoe’s all the way from Dewsbury UK

See What’s Out There and Enjoy the Excitement!

Watch the documentary here about the real Robinson Crusoe

Ways to experience Moyenne Island and similar attractions

St Anne Marine Park & Moyenne Island Full day boat trip from Mahe (Private Boat) …
Starfish – Odezir Catamaran. …
Semi-Submarine Tour in Saint Anne Marine National Park. …
Snorkeling & reef Safari Seychelles Marine park.

There are two main ways of getting to Moyenne Island (about 4.5 kilometers from Mahe), either by renting a boat yourself or booking a half-day trip to one of the travel agencies in Victoria.

Such as the oceanfront office of Marine Charter that offers a 4-hour trip, including snorkeling in the nearby waters.

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