Muayen Island is the smallest national park in the world. We tell this incredible story
Why do people buy large plots of land? Some do it from an overabundance of money and the dream of having their own tropical island. Others, like The North Face founder Douglas Tompkins, are for conservation and national parks. Brandon Grimshaw falls into the second category. One day he bought a useless island in the Seychelles. Now Muayen is the smallest national park in the world. Translated the BBC Travel story about Brandon and his island.
Brandon first comes to the Seychelles in 1962. He is on vacation, and the Seychelles is then a British colony and an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. People only live here. Grimshaw is 37 years old and a successful editor working with some of East Africa's biggest newspapers. The continent is very interesting, countries are becoming independent one after another, and the entire African world is about to change beyond recognition. Grimshaw is at the forefront of this change and even talks to Julius Nyerere, the future first president of Tanzania.
Grimshaw wasn't just here to relax. In 1960, Somalia declared independence from Britain and Italy, followed in 1961 and 1963 by the British colonies of Tanzania and Kenya. As a subject of Queen Elizabeth, the editor understood that soon such important working positions as his would fairly go to the locals. So Brendon was thinking about what else he could do, preferably closer to nature. So there was a dream of owning a plot of land in the Seychelles, ideally buying your own tropical island.
After a few weeks on the islands, Grimshaw's fervor and confidence subsided: there were few islands for sale, and the paradises he found were worth exorbitant amounts of money. On the penultimate day of his vacation, Brandon was lucky. In Victoria, the capital of the state, he was approached by a stranger and simply asked if the Englishman would like to buy an island in the Seychelles archipelago. The Englishman decided to take a look.
Together they went to explore the territory of the island of Muayen, whose area was only 0.099 square kilometers. This small piece of land is located four and a half kilometers from the largest island of the archipelago, Mahe. Grimshaw liked the island immediately, because it was quiet. He would later say of Moyen: "The island was both close to the Seychelles metropolitan life, but at the same time as if thousands of kilometers and light-years away from civilization."
"This island was unlike any other. I experienced a special, indescribable feeling, — these words Grimshaw told the crew of the documentary in 2009. "It was exactly the place I was looking for."
On the last day of his holiday in the Seychelles, just four minutes before midnight, Brandon Grimshaw signed an agreement to pay eight thousand pounds for the ownership of Moyen Island. So he became the official owner of the uninhabited island. Everything seems to have gone easily.
But it was hard to take care of the island. The territory of Muayen was abandoned for decades, only a family of fishermen lived on the island. Even then, it was clear that the Seychelles archipelago would become attractive for tourism and even Muayen would turn into a five-star resort. Before that, however, there were still a few years left — the international airport in Victoria would be completed by 1971, and the islands would gain independence from Great Britain in 1976.
Muayen is one of the smallest inland islands in the Seychelles. It is only 0.4 kilometers long and 300 meters wide. The length of the coastline is almost two kilometers. The highest point of the island has a height of 61 meters. A small piece of land is covered with the same snow-white sand and granite boulders that are found on the shores of the entire Seychelles archipelago.
Despite the island's modest size, restoring its ecosystem has been a real challenge. Moyen was so overgrown that the falling coconuts did not reach the ground and remained on the branches of wild plants. There were no birds living in such thickets, only occasional rats in the undergrowth.
Along with Grimshaw, Seychelles resident Rene-Antoine Lafortune, a 19-year-old boy, the son of a local fisherman, landed on the island. The two men became allies and together began to transform the island: uproot shrubs, plant trees, and make paths deep into the forest. It was painstaking and exhausting work, but it became Grimshaw's main focus and consumed him for the rest of his life.
The original goal of the Englishman was to protect the island from rapid and excessive development. Brandon wanted to restore the original beauty of this place and build a modest house on the territory of Moyen, where he and Renee could spend the rest of their lives. But longer-term plans included creating a true natural paradise that could survive Grimshaw himself and remain so even after the death of its owner.
"His idea was to leave the island untouched and show it to all the Seychelles people and visitors from all over the world," said Suketu Patel, who first met Grimshaw in 1976 and has since become a close friend. — He wanted to keep a mini-replica of the Seychelles. He was trying to replicate what the archipelago was like before he met the tourists."
It wasn't just hard physical work. While taming the overgrown northwestern part of Moyen, Grimshaw discovered two graves. The gravestones bore the inscription: "Unfortunately Unknown". After gathering information, Grimshaw came to the conclusion that these were the graves of corsairs. One of the beaches on the north side of the island was known as Pirate Bay. According to local legend, the graves were two pirates who were executed for an unknown offense by their leaders. The spirits of the dead roamed the island and protected the treasure.
It is not known how much Brandon Grimshaw believed in legends. "He found it funny to start your day by saying,' What am I going to do today? I think I'll go on a treasure hunt!""Patel recalled. Today, there are two places on Moyen maps that are marked with the skull and crossbones symbol. There Grimshaw and Lafortune tried their luck in search of pirate gold, but did not find the coveted treasure.
With the rapid development of tourism in the Seychelles in the 1980s, the name of the archipelago became synonymous with tropical paradise. At this time, investors turned their eyes (often very greedy) towards the small territory of Moyen. Grimshaw received an offer to sell the island for more than $ 50 million, but declined.
As Grimshaw grew older, he became increasingly aware that he had less and less time to defend the island's territory. He had no children to leave a legacy to. After Lafortune's death in 2007, Grimshaw knew it was time to act. Together with Patel and other initiators, he created an indefinite fund to protect the island. In 2009, Robert signed an agreement with the Seychelles Ministry of the Environment, which officially included the territory of Muayen in the Saint Anne's Marine Park and granted the island a special status. This is how the Muayen Island National Park, the smallest national park in the world, was created.
One gets the impression that Grimshaw was quite an eccentric person. He bought an island, moved to another part of the world on his own, believed in pirate legends, and spent most of his life rebuilding a seemingly insignificant piece of land. However, many Seychelles people are still deeply grateful to this Englishman. After all, he had bequeathed this area to their nation.
"Personally, I don't think he's crazy," said Isabelle Ravinia of the Seychelles National Parks Authority. — He returned the island to our country, it was a real act of generosity. Usually people try to sell land before they die to get money. Instead, he did an incredible thing."
Robert Grimshaw died in 2012. His grave is located next to the graves of two pirates and his father, who also lived on the island for several years. At Grimshaw's request, the following lines are written on his tombstone: "Moyen opened his eyes to the beauty around him and taught him to believe in God." In his last will and testament, Robert expressed his wish: "Muayen should remain a place of prayer, peace, tranquility, recreation and knowledge for the inhabitants of the Seychelles and all visitors from abroad of any nationality, skin color and religion."
The task of carrying out Grimshaw's last will has been handed over to the Moyen Island Foundation, which is headed by the deceased's friend Patel. The territory of a small piece of land remains untouched. There are only a couple of buildings: the Jolly Roger restaurant, which serves local cuisine-grilled fish and seafood curry in red creole sauce, a small museum dedicated to the life of Grimshaw, and two nurseries for baby giant turtles.
How to visit Muayen
The best way to get to the island is a half-day or full-day tour, which can be purchased from local operators Creole Travel Service and Mason's Travel. The tour also includes visits to other islands in the St. Anne's National Park. You can also rent a boat and explore the Moyen area on your own.
There is no marina on this island, so arriving here creates an unforgettable magical experience. Only here you can get off the boat barefoot and walk through the shallow water to the snow-white shore. When you reach the dry sand and take your first steps along the gentle forest path, the trees will close in behind you, and then you will find yourself in a new world. Diffused sunlight breaks through the dense crowns of trees and gently reflects on the green bushes, the temperature is lower here, and you are surrounded by 16 thousand trees that fit on the territory of a small island. Among them are, for example, mango and papaya, planted by the hands of Grimshaw and Lafortune. According to some estimates, there are more plant species per square meter of Muayen than in any other national park in the world.
From time to time, you may encounter one of the 50 giant turtles from the island of Aldabra, which move freely through the territory of Muayen. Follow the example of these unhurried animals, take your time, and watch how smoothly they make their way. When you return to the shallow waters of Pirate Bay Beach, you can experience the Hawksbill sea turtles. They often come ashore to make a nest.
Even at the peak of the tourist season, the island rarely has more than 50 visitors at a time, and this number never exceeds 300 people during the day. Saint Anne's Marine Park includes six islands, but only on the territory of Muayen there are no hotels and other entertainment places. Thanks to the work of Grimshaw and his friends, this is likely to remain the case in the future. "There is something special that completely captures you when you get there," Patel said. — If you think that you have a lot of serious problems, then when you find yourself on this island, you realize that these are not problems at all. Muayeen is what real life should look like."
