By Grant
The island is around 1400 acres in the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines and it is privately owned by the Mustique company which in turn is owned by home owners through a shareholding system. Nice and simple but was not always this way. The island was the vision of Colin Tennant who first envisioned a place for the privileged to come and enjoy the Caribbean. He gave a piece of land to Princess Margaret which help put the island on the map. Later his autocratic style of leadership didn’t sit well with many of the elite home owners and he was unceremoniously hoofed off the island. A sad ending to obviously a visionary chap. Anyway today the island remains true to his vision and brings a unique collection of people who enjoy being on an island away from those that search to gawk and pry on the rich and famous.
Anyway, as most of my friends know I don’t like being treated like second grade citizen so I made a few calls and we were greeted onto the island as guests and we got to have the most incredible 5 days. I would definitely stay longer if it not for the need to get to Martinique for Alexandra’s birthday on the 4th.
The island has been sparsely developed and largely kept natural which is part of its charm. There are only a little over 100 plots of land for development and most of these have beautiful homes built on them. The architecture is different from house to house and you could write a book about each of them. However each find a way to make their houses fit into the nature and topography but I would say the general masterplanning is what brings it all together. The simplicity and the non commercial nature of the Island. There is Basils Bar which acts largely as the central hub of the island and if you were to have a meeting you would meet them here. The bar was recently renovated by Philippe Starke and has a pretty authentic feeling about it. After this there is Cotton House which was the originally an old cotton warehouse now is the home to a beautiful little boutique hotel. Cotton house also hosts the Verandah restaurant and the beach cafe. We ate at the Beach cafe for one lunch and it was a fabulous meal.
The island is extremely picturesque with varying different fauna and topography. Obviously the windward (east coast) side is created by the wind and you will find cliff and vast hills with far less growth and trees than the leeward side however both sides have wonderful white beaches which can only be described as postcard like. If I am sounding like a marketing leaflet it is not surprising. This place reminds me what all places should look like before humans come and mess it up.
We were very lucky to be invited onto the island and we got access to numerous events which wouldn’t normally be available for the general public. This helps truly get a flavour for the place. But even more lucky was we arrived the day the annual Blues festival began and we enjoyed a variety of shows over the 5 days and 4 nights. Joining us was Magic Dragon (Rod, Jane, Dorothy and the twins Peter and Vera), Six&Half (Blaz, Masa, Filip and Leonard), Nenya (Vidar, Anna and the two little girls), Luna Bay 2 (Adam, Mara, Kenning and Ryan). We were a great crowd and we did almost everything together. The first of which was the opening party for the festival. We decided to do this with no kids. Adults night out on the rum punch. It certainly came back to haunt us because on day 2 there was very little talk on the radio until late in the afternoon when we all went in for dinner at Basil’s Bar with kids in tow. This really set the rhythm to our stay on the island with the Blues events often defining our day.
However on the 3rd day Delphine and I got a tour of the island by the Managing Director of the Mustique Island Roger Pritchard. What a lovely man he is. Very understated and frankly a pleasure to hang around with. He certainly has to deal with all types and his personality seems to manage this with ease. During our tour we took a look at a few different properties to get a feel and I started understanding the real Caribbean life. To be honest we had spent very little time on land and this was a chance to see how others choose to live in this incredible place. It is one thing sailing through a place and another completely seeing how people would live should you fly here and spend a month. I get it now and I buy into it.
Roger suggested we do some hiking to get a better feel so we decide on day 4 to hike all the way around the island. A cool 16km and another incredible experience except my feet didn’t enjoy being locked up in shoes. It has been many months since I wore shoes and my feet told me as much. The hike we chose has very royal markings (see pics attached) labelling the walk as Her Majesty’s Commonwealth Walk. For the most part the hike was on track but for large stretches we would traverse the beach and occasionally climb some rocks. Every now and again we would pass a house which was in immaculate condition and always looked ready to have guests… imminently. It is hard to describe but you have the feeling that this huge place must have someone looking after it all but you seldom see anyone. You feel alone with the nature and you enjoy the waves breaking and the sound of the sea and birds as if it is all to yourself. Something rare in this crowded world.
And if that wasn’t enough for one day we decided to join the Saturday afternoon blues in the park with the kids and the playground. A little hobnobbing with Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Mick Jagger amongst other celebs I probably don’t know but we didn’t care. We were the party and we had a great time. However having James Bond catching his daughter on the slide whilst I was helping my girls on the monkey bars was a little surreal.
Thank you Mustique. You have opened my eyes to a new world. I like 🙂