Brendon Grimshaw: The Real-Life Robinson Crusoe

Have you ever dreamt of living on an island surrounded by nature and natural beauty? For most of us, it’s a fleeting fantasy, a distant paradise we imagine but never pursue. But in the 1960s, a Yorkshire man named Brendon Grimshaw, a former newspaper editor from the UK, took a trip to the Seychelles that would change his life forever.

For $13,000, Brendon Grimshaw, bought an uninhabited island in the Seychelles and completely transformed it into his own little Eden. The story of Brendon Grimshaw is like a real-life “Robinson Crusoe” adventure, filled with passion, dedication, and an unwavering love for the nature. This is the tale of how one man turned an abandoned island into a thriving natural paradise.

Brendon Grinshaw and his dog

How It All Began?

Brendon first came to Seychelles in 1962 while on holiday. At the time, he worked as an editor for some of the biggest newspapers in East Africa. During this exciting period in Africa, he had the opportunity to meet Tanzania’s charismatic new leader and future president, Julius Nyerere, as part of his job.

But Brendon wasn’t just seeking a vacation, he was looking for something more.

Tanzania had declared independence the year before; Kenya would follow a year later. Brendon Grimshaw, an Englishman, realized that jobs like his would soon be taken over by locals. Anticipating unemployment, Brendon began searching for a new path in life, one that brought him closer to nature. He dreamed of owning land in the Seychelles – ideally, he would buy his own island.

However, finding an island to buy wasn’t as easy as he had hoped. Many of the islands that were on the market came with exorbitant price tags. As his holiday neared its end, Brendon wondered if he would ever find his dream island. Then, on the second-to-last day of his trip, a young man approached him in the Seychelles’ capital, Victoria, with a simple offer: “Would you like to buy an island?” Just like that. Intrigued, Brendon agreed to visit Moyenne, a 0.099 sq km island located just 4.5 km off the north coast of Mahé, the Seychelles’ largest island.

As soon as he set foot on Moyenne, Brendon fell in love immediately with its wild, untouched beauty. At that time, the island had been left untouched for 50 years. But for Brendon, Moyenne was perfect, a little slice of wilderness where he could live out his dream

Brendon Grimshaw
Moyenne is a 0.099sq km dot off the coast of the Seychelles’ largest island, Mahé (Credit: imageBROKER/Alamy)

“It was totally different. It was a special feeling,” he told a documentary film crew in 2009. “This is the place I’d been looking for.”

On the final day of his Seychelles vacation, Brendon signed an agreement to pay $13,000 for Moyenne.

Moyenne Island, one of the smallest in the Seychelles’ inner islands, measures only 0.4 km in length and 0.3 km in width, with a coastline runs for less than 2 km. Its highest point rises to just 61 meters above the sea level. Like many of the Seychelles islands, Moyenne boasts idyllic white sand beaches and striking granite boulders, but what sets it apart is its dense, unbroken wall of trees that cover the island. From a distance, it looks like a lush green pyramid rising from the ocean, surrounded by cobalt skies and sapphire waters, a tiny rainforest oasis in the middle of the sea.

He bought the island not knowing what was awaiting him next. When Brendon first set foot on Moyenne Island, he found it far from the tropical paradise he had imagined. Restoring the island’s natural beauty was a massive task. The island was so dense that it was nearly impossible to walk through, and the native plants had been overtaken by weeds. Falling coconuts couldn’t even reach the ground. The only wildlife inhabiting the island were rats. It was a far cry from the idyllic island retreat most people dream about, but Brendon was undeterred. What lay ahead was a monumental task of reviving the island, and he was ready for the challenge.

Brendon hired Rene Antoine Lafortune, the 19-year-old son of a local fisherman. With Rene’s help Brendon embarked on the Herculean task of clearing paths through the thick undergrowth and planting new trees such as palm, mango, and paw-paw. Together, they stored rainwater, pumped it up the hillside by hand, and occasionally rowed back to the main island to collect a barrel of fresh water.

The man who bought an island and turned it into the world’s smallest National Park

At first, the island had no animals, so Brendon brought 10 birds from a nearby village, but they flew away. He tried again, and this time a few stayed. As he started feeding them, more birds came to the island. Now, there are over 16,000 trees and around 2,000 birds living on Moyenne. Brendon also brought giant Aldabra tortoises to the island which were once common in the Seychelles but had disappeared from many islands. He took care of them and started a breeding program, and now the island has about 50 tortoises. They even hatched baby turtles in their bedroom to protect them from predators.

Using local materials, Brendon and Lafortune built small structures, including a house for themselves, and turned Moyenne into a self-sufficient paradise where they lived off the land while creating a safe haven for animals.

Brendon and Rene relaxing on the beach of their island
Brendon and Rene relaxing on the beach of their island

His vision was to leave an unspoiled island for future generations of Seychellois and the world,” said Suketu Patel, who first met Brendon in 1976 and later became a lifelong friend.

In 1972, Brendon made the decision to permanently move to Moyenne Island. After settling in, he installed a water supply, electricity, and even a phone line. Many assumed he would turn the island into a luxury resort, but Brendon had different plans. He wanted to preserve it as a nature reserve. It is said that a Saudi prince offered him $50 million for the island but he refused to sell his little paradise, choosing conservation over profit.

I don’t want the island to become a favorite vacation spot for the rich. Better let it be a national park that everyone can enjoy.” he said

Grimshaw was a former newspaper editor-turned-conservationist
Credit: Marion Kaplan/Alamy

In 1981 when his mother died, He invited his father to live with him. For the next five years, Brendon and Rene shared the island with Brendon’s 88-year-old father, Brendon Senior. Father and son grew closer than ever, and when Brendon Senior passed away in 1986 at the age of 93, they buried him on Moyenne Island.

In 2007, Rene passed away and Brendon began to worry about the future of his beloved paradise. Brendon, then 81 knew his time was limited and decided to act. With Patel and others he set up a trust and signed an agreement with Seychelles’ Ministry of Environment that included Moyenne as part of Ste Anne Marine Park. As a result, in 2009 Moyenne Island became the world’s smallest national park, ensuring that the Island would be protected for future generations to enjoy its natural beauty.

Moyenne is like a tiny rainforest erupting from the ocean (Credit: PhotoStock-Israel/Alamy)

The Legacy of Brendon Grimshaw

For 39 years, Brendon and Lafortin planted 16 thousand trees with their own hands and built almost 5 kilometers of paths. Brendon passed away in 2012 when he was 86 and was buried next to his father on the island. At his request, Brendon’s tombstone reads, “Moyenne taught him to open his eyes to the beauty around him and say thank you to God.” In his last will and testament, he expressed his final wishes: “Moyenne Island is to be maintained as a venue for prayer, peace, tranquillity, relaxation and knowledge for Seychellois and visitors from overseas of all nationalities, colors and creeds.”

photography by: Omri Westmark

By the time of his death on July 3, 2012, just three weeks before his 87th birthday, Brendon had owned the island for 50 years. He wrote the story of his connection with Moyenne as a book, ‘A Grain of Sand’ and published in 1996. It provides rich detail on Moyenne Island and his experience in living there for nearly half a century.

Today

Today, Moyenne Island remains undeveloped, retaining the natural charm and tranquillity that Brendon worked so diligently to preserve. According to BBC, the island has a restaurant called Jolly Roger which serves local dishes like grilled fish and seafood curries in a red Creole sauce, a small museum on Brendon’s life, and two nurseries for giant tortoise hatchlings. these all managed by the Moyenne Island Foundation, which is overseen by Patel.

Fifty free-range giant Aldabra tortoises roam Moyenne
Fifty free-range giant Aldabra tortoises roam Moyenne (Credit: Kit Day/Alamy)

The island has no jetty and has close to 50 visitors on the island at a time. As you reach dry land and take your first steps along the gently climbing forest trail, the trees close in behind you and you enter another world. visitors can explore the well-maintained paths and observe the thriving population of giant tortoises. It has been more than 10 years since Brendon’s death but the island is just the way he left it – undeveloped and brimming with nature’s diversity.

Thanks to Grimshaw and Lafortune’s work, Moyenne is crisscrossed by nature trails today (Credit: PhotoStock-Israel/Alamy)

There’s something that grabs you when you go there,” said Patel. “If you think you have a big problem, when you’re on the island you realise that it’s not a problem after all. Moyenne is what life should be like.”

Rosie Gabriella
Rosie Gabriella

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