Brendon Grimshaw and his quest to restore the beauty of Moyenne Island

Posted by Tsoku Maela on 1 February 2023

Brendon Grimshaw was not like most people who purchased their own tropical island in the name of luxury. Instead, he had a different motive when he bought Moyenne, an island in Seychelles, in 1962.

Brendon Grimshaw and his quest to restore the beauty of Moyenne Island

Picture: Screenshot from “A Grain of Sand (USA 2009) Brendon Grimshaw”
Directed by Joseph Johnson Cami

As an editor working for some of the largest newspapers in East Africa, Grimshaw was aware that his job would soon pass to locals with independence being declared in Tanzania and Kenya. He searched for a new direction and dreamed of owning land in Seychelles, eventually finding Moyenne through a chance encounter with a young man in Victoria.

Grimshaw immediately fell in love with the island’s silence and wild vegetation and purchased it for £8,000 just before the end of his holiday. However, restoring the island’s natural beauty proved to be a massive task as it had been abandoned for decades and was overgrown with weeds, with no birds and rats foraging in the undergrowth. He worked alongside Rene Antoine Lafortune to clear the scrub, plant trees, and forge paths, turning the island into a paradise for future generations.

Grimshaw’s vision was to leave an unspoiled island and replicate Seychelles before tourists came. He was not just all work, however, as he found two graves while taming the overgrown part of the island and became convinced that they belonged to pirates. Whether Grimshaw believed the legends or not, he lived each day with excitement and purpose.

‘It was a special feeling,’ Grimshaw said. ‘This is the place I’d been looking for.’

‘His vision was to leave an unspoiled island for future generations of Seychellois and the world,’ said Suketu Patel, a lifelong friend of Grimshaw. ‘He wanted a mini-Seychelles. He wanted to try and replicate what Seychelles and its islands were like before tourists came.’

a grain of sand – TRAILER from Wandering Eye on Vimeo.

 

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