Tour remote South Pacific islands
Pacific Expeditions Ltd is offering a tour of "five extremely remote islands," in the Cook Islands chain. One of these is Suwarrow (shown in photo above. More here), the island that Tom Neale lived on alone for many years. I would love to take this trip.
RAKAHANGALinkThere are few written accounts of life on Rakahanga. An Englishman, Julian Dashwood, who went there for a year in the early 1930s, reported that food was frequently a problem since it consisted chiefly of coconuts and fish. In his book which he wrote under the nom-de-plume of Julian Hillas, "South Seas Paradise" he said:
"I spent a year on Rakahanga and put on 18 pounds, which I lost again within six months of leaving. I developed a marvellous appetite and have never felt better than I did during that period."
He attributed this mainly to the fish and coconuts which formed 80 per cent of his diet, as well as a complete absence of worry in any form. He wrote in 1964:
"Looking back over nearly 30 years, I still give Rakahanga top rating. If there are places left where a man can grow old contentedly, it is on some such quiet, drowsy atoll, where today is forever and tomorrow never comes; where men live and die, feast and sorrow, while the winds and the waves play over wet sands and gleaming reefs."
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Mark Frauenfelder
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