Ever wanted to know how to survive on a desert island? Tom Williams is offering lessons, the hard way.
Ever wanted to know how to survive on a desert island? Tom Williams is offering lessons, the hard way.
A tour company is offering a Robinson Crusoe-style survival challenge in Tonga that is a far cry from a Pacific Islands “fly and flop”.
The Robinson Crusoe fantasy of the desert island has never been so popular. The idea of making do and living off nothing but your wits and coconut husks looms large in the imagination of armchair survival experts.
However, the simulated near-death experience of being stranded on a Pacific atoll is likely to be a more niche proposal.
Desert Island Survival, which was founded by game show winner Tom Williams, promises what will likely be “one of the toughest and most physical challenges people have ever endured”.
Williams spent 34 days in the Canadian wilderness to win $200,000 as a competitor on the TV show, Alone.
The UK survival guide has now branched out with tours into some of the wilder sports on earth.
He has ploughed his winnings and survival knowledge into creating the Desert Island Survival tour company. Providing “adventures” in Panama, Indonesia, the Philippines and now the South Pacific, each trip involves five days’ training, followed by three days surviving on your own wits.
The experience for up to 10 guests promises to be life-changing, if not actually life-threatening.
At $7400pp for the privilege, it seems like bush beer at champagne prices.
Desert island accommodation: For three of the days, guests will be expected to find and provide their own shelter and food.
Taking place on the island of Uoleva, it’s about twice the cost of an eight-night stay in one of the caye’s two beach resorts. The experience seems even more dear, considering half the time there’s not even shelter or food provided.
However, Desert Island Survival says it’s the training that is invaluable.
Guests will be taught how to make hāngī earth ovens and prep raw fish to eat, if the fire fails to take.
“Hunger, thirst, and discomfort, which are all offset by the euphoria of successfully starting a fire or finding food,” reads the promotional material.
But is the experience all wild-caught ‘oka ‘ika or just plain ick?
The majority of instructors are better known for appearances on reality TV or cultivating Instagram followers with a ‘Robinson Crusoe’ aesthetic that is both more polished and more composed than anyone has ever looked after being pulled out of the bush by a LandSAR team.
There’s something that sits uneasily about parachuting in guides from Europe and the US into the motu to fulfil guests’ Castaway fantasies. Because it is a fantasy. At the end, there is a guaranteed rescue boat and beers.
But Williams says there is something that is very real captured by the simulated life-or-death ordeals.
He says that the stranded experience is a natural high that we have known for “99 per cent of humanity’s existence”. One that he says has inspired many return bookings.
“When you revert to living this simple existence in nature, it is not surprising that, despite some hunger and discomfort, many castaways say they have never felt happier than living the simple island life.”
‘The Tonga Adventure’ start from A$6948 per person, including a crash course in survival training, two nights in a lodge (with all meals included), all food and drinks on the island during the training phase, and transfers from and to Ha’apai.
