Robinson Crusoe Island

Enjoy a day on a remote tropical island. Become Robinson Crusoe for the day.
It was too tempting.
I signed up.

Memories stirred of a similar experience offered years ago by the John Ridgeway Adventure School in the north of Scotland where I had been sent on a magazine assignment . One day each participant on the course was offered a chance to do anything they wanted for the day.

One woman chose to go to a remote empty island. She was deposited there by boat early in the morning (Ridgeway had everyone out by 6am every day) and collected later that evening.

She found the experience particularly moving, even spiritual.


Maybe I had hoped for something similar today.
But I had reckoned without the 50 cruise passengers also seeking a similar Robinson Crusoe experience.


The island turned out to be a big rock about a mile off the island of Antigua with a sandy beach and not much else.

It belongs to Miguel, a local man who leased the island 40 years ago and everyone including his wife, thought him mad. But he anticipated tourism and that the day would come when people would like spending a day on an empty island.

And time has proved him right.

Prickly Pear Island is now one of Antigua’s most popular tours.

So what did we all do? Drink rum, swim, snorkel and tell stories….