From boardroom to bicycle

Executives in need of downtime are investing in a tiny Seychelles island where wearing shoes is considered overdressing. Toni Younghusband is beguiled
BAGGY board shorts bunching around his knees, the company chairman hoists himself onto the saddle and wobbles uncertainly into the tropical forest. He's headed for the bar, familiar territory for a man who relies on single malt to de-stress, though in Sandton it's a silver-grey Aston Martin, not a purple bicycle, that delivers him from boardroom to Johnnie Walker Blue.
Here on blissfully remote Desroches island there is no cellphone reception and internet connections are patchy. There are no cars, no clubs, no conference halls. Yet despite its mid-ocean location, corporate South Africa has quickly snapped up almost all of its six-star US dollar-priced villas.
"The owners holiday here with their families because it's secure; they love the space and the privacy," says general manager, Mark Leslie. Even in family-sized villas, whole sections can be discreetly partitioned off. They come here, too, for the exceptional service, which Leslie hopes will soon earn Desroches a place among the world's top three resort destinations.
Located 230km southwest of the capital, Mahé, in the Amirantes archipelago of the Seychelles, Desroches is held on a 75-year lease from the Seychelles government by Durban property mogul Kenneth Collins. There are 20 luxurious, sea-facing hotel suites, and more than 30 private villas, 90% of which have already been snapped up for more than US$3.2-million each. Part of the investment attraction is a rental pool, which Desroches will manage on behalf of owners, with income shared 50/50, and no annual levy.
Desroches' obvious attraction is its natural beauty - sugar-white sand, lush tropical forests, turquoise sea and bounteous coral reefs. But paradise comes at a price. Villa owners may spend millions for their slice but they must live by the rules: no speedboats, no jet-skis, no boats on the sand; no Harleys or 4x4s. And architecture conforms to a resort blueprint. "I sit down with everyone who wants to buy and explain what is and isn't allowed. We are very aware of the fragile infrastructure of this island," Leslie says.
Indeed, just a few metres from where he and I sit talking, greenback turtle nests are incubating clutches of eggs and just a kilometre down the beach guests are snorkelling with these magnificent creatures.
Desroches was also once home to hundreds of Giant Tortoises, a population virtually wiped out during the island's tenure as a copra producer. (Copra is the kernel of the coconut from which the oil is extracted. It also yields coconut cake used in animal feed.) Now, with the assistance of the non-governmental Island Conservation Society, Desroches hosts a Giant Tortoise breeding programme and much of the coconut-palm plantation is being felled.
Even the small, apparently unremarkable shells washed up on Desroches' spectacular beaches are special to conservation officer Tony Jupiter. "I ask guests not to remove them - to the many crabs on this island they provide homes and shelter." It's remarkable how many sizes and colours of crab there are here - from giant olive green to thumbnail-size pink, and the ubiquitous white ghost crabs that scooting across the sand. Ecological protection efforts extend to an alien vegetation eradication project - hardwood casuarina trees (a pine native to Australia and Asia) are cut down to make the floors, doors and furniture in the resort. Seawater is desalinated at the island's plant, grey water is recycled onto gardens, and food waste is mulched for compost or fed to the pigs and chickens which will grace Desroches' fine dining menu.
Fine dining is the one constant the executive can rely on when swapping the city for Desroches. In fact he'd be hard-pressed to find anything on African soil as worthy of Michelin recognition. Food and beverage manager Andrew Clark's fixation with authenticity is the secret, say some. The Tandoor chef was hired in Bangladesh; the Thai chef is a specialist fruit sculptor; Indonesian, Asian and Malaysian specialists produce dim sum delicacies for breakfast, marlin and palm-heart salad for lunch and searingly hot tom yum soup starters for dinner.
Our bicycle-riding executive at the bar may opt for a glass of chilled Dom Perignon at cocktail hour, wine from New Zealand, Italy, California, South Africa, France or Spain with dinner, and a fine Remy Martin XO Cognac with his thigh-rolled Cohiba cigar before bed.
"We can source and serve almost anything a guest requests," says Clark. Whether it's caviar or Krug Champagne, rabbit or fresh rocket, his global network of agents can usually deliver within 24 hours. Much of what is dished up comes via Dubai, Australia or South Africa. The island's two restaurants use around 500kg of fruit and vegetables every week and between four and five tonnes of frozen and dry goods are shipped in once a month.
Villa owners can choose to eat in either the hotel's restaurants or in their own spectacularly designed and decorated homes, where food has been pre-ordered, delivered and unpacked in time for their arrival.
"We can also prepare candle-lit meals on a secluded beach, lunchtime picnics in the forest - anything, anywhere - as long as we're given a bit of notice," says Clark.
The resort is popular with honeymooners, especially because of that "little something extra" that Clark and his team are able to dish up. Prince William and Kate Middleton were rumoured to be spending their honeymoon there but instead chose the much smaller and more remote North Island to recuperate after their globally celebrated wedding.
Because of its size and location the island is a more taxing target for the long lenses of the paparazzi, though Desroches staff are fiercely protective of their guests and, if you're a journalist, annoyingly discreet. No matter how I pleaded and cajoled, all guests' and villa owners' identities remained secret.
There is round-the-clock security, though after several days I was hard-pressed to find a reason and concluded that the Nepalese security chief who patrols the island several times a day must have a pretty boring job.
However for the executive craving an adrenaline injection, Desroches is the battleground of big-fighting marlin, sailfish, tuna, and kingfish. "It's virtually impossible not to catch anything," says ace fisherman, boat skipper and diving instructor Jacques Louw. Specialist saltwater fly fishermen come here to lure bonefish, trevally and permit. Or Louw will take you deep-sea diving, or snorkelling along the island's spectacular reefs that teem with neon-blue, red, purple, yellow, orange and black-and-white striped fish.
Desroches' isolation can be a little unnerving at first to some corporate heavy-hitters, says Leslie, and having no cellphone reception makes them jittery. "But it lasts only a few days."
Having successfully swapped his boardroom for a bicycle, my Sandton chairman has also given up his snakeskin brogues. "Everyone here is barefoot," says Leslie, looking down at his own toes in the warm, white sand. "What's there to wear shoes for?" - Younghusband was a guest of Desroches Private Island and Air Seychelles
