As 2021 slowly made way for 2022, I walked, courtesy of Simon Winchester and YouTube, the tropical sands of Boddam Island, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
As Simon Winchester writes in his book "Outposts - Journeys to the surviving relics of the British Empire", a long time ago, Boddam Island was to be turned into the greatest free port in the entire Indian Ocean - a port to rival Hong Kong, and where all transoceanic liners would be bound to call so passengers could buy silks and perfumes and wines.
But nothing came of it until, at the end of the Sixties, something very strange happened to the people of Boddam Island. Let John Pilger, Australian journalist, writer, scholar, documentary filmmaker, explain:
Go to John Pilger's website www.johnpilger.com for more information
But back to Simon Winchester's book, which was also published under the title "The Sun Never Sets : Travels to the remaining outposts of the British Empire", and which you can read online. Simply SIGN UP (it's free!), then LOG IN, and BORROW. Then go to page 26. Meet you there!
