| CYBER DIVER Search for Snorkeling in the British Virgin Islands: Only $14,000 Per Day by Ben Mallalieu The hammock, I am reliably informed, was invented by the Arawak indians who once inhabited the Virgin islands, and in 1783... actually it doesn't matter a fig what happened in 1783 because, when you own a private island, history, geography and just about everything else are whatever you choose to make them. If you like Bali but have got fed up with the journey, the climate or possibly the government, you can, like Richard Branson, create your own Balinese island in the West Indies. And if you want to call one of the buildings Bali Hi and another Bali Lo, no one is going to stop you. Branson first saw Necker in 1979 when, posing as a multi-millionaire, he was given a red carpet tour of available islands by some very upmarket estate agents who installed him at an expensive hotel and flew him around by helicopter. The asking price for Necker was £2m. He offered £175,000. The red carpet was pulled from under his feet and he had to pay his own fare home. Later, when he really was a multi-millionaire, the island was still hanging on the market, and he was able to buy it in 1981 for the comparatively knock-down price of £200,000. Not that Necker was anything special as West Indian islands go. About three-quarters of a mile long and half a mile wide with a hill some 100ft high running down the middle, it had two good beaches but no buildings, no fresh water and very few trees. The only previous known residents had been the journalist Andrew Alexander and the photographer Don McCullin who were landed there in 1968 to write an article for the Weekend Telegraph on what it was really like to be marooned on a desert island. And a miserable time they had of it. | |
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