Travel Blog by 
Don’t ask me why the ‘choice’ of appearing on a reality television show seemed appealing, it just did. Push aside the degrading thoughts of Big Brother, discard ideas of irritable X Factor contestants and put yourselves in the shoes of a final year uni student who hadn’t been on holiday in a long time and had had to settle for camping in Cornwall three years in a row. (It rained two out of the three.)
So idly watching the infamous ‘Shipwrecked’ on Channel 4 last year on a hung-over Sunday, the option to apply for ‘Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands 2007’ popped up on my screen and I duly applied in-between tea breaks and typing up my dissertation.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, Shipwrecked is a reality TV show that has been running for a while, but picked up speed last year when islands were forced to compete against each other. Ten castaways were marooned onto two desert islands in the South Pacific (Aitutaki in the Cook Islands to be exact) – the ‘Sharks’ on one and the opposing ‘Tigers’ on the other. This year the two teams were split into five Shark boys and five Tiger girls. Over a period of five months, a ‘new arrival’ is sent out each week spending half their time on one island, and half on the other (a mixture of boys and girls). At Sunday’s beach party, they then have to decide which island they want to spend the rest of their time on. At the end of the five months, the island with the most inhabitants wins £70,000 prize money to share. Unlike other reality shows, you can’t get kicked off – perhaps an incentive – and have the chance to live out your time there trying to win new arrivals and competing with the other island.
I initially applied for the show in May and was asked to my first audition in August. I was lucky enough to get through the next two rounds, which were followed by a third audition involving a psyche test with the in-house doctor, just to assure Channel 4 you wouldn’t have an ‘issues’ if stranded on a desert island in the South Pacific. (If you’re wondering, I had a clean bill of health!)
In December – three and a half months after my first audition - I was given the go ahead to say I would be leaving in a week, beating over 100,000 other applicants to be there. (I don’t know about you, but if you’ve ever tried shopping for a bikini in December it is more than a nightmare, especially with the thought of appearing on national television at the back of your mind!) Luckily heading out on December 15th gave me the chance to dodge the Christmas choccies and avoid getting any paler than I already was. Touch down Aitutaki, December 16th.
I was so nervous about initially going out onto the islands; I’d watched the show but like any experience, you can never really grasp the reality of the situation until you do it for yourself. The boat ride out was incredible – clear blue waters, crystal clear skies and a turtle swimming by made me so grateful to be there. It may reek of mature cheddar, but only 48 hours previously I was sitting in the IT support desk of Twining’s – in Andover – so things were looking up. Pulling up to an island with 22 bronzed 20-somethings was a little intimidating but everyone is so excited to meet the new arrival – you bring news from home and something new to talk about for all.
I spent my first three days with the Sharks and my latter three with the Tigers – both of whom were now mixed-sex islands and completely different in personality and layout from each other. Alcohol is a limited commodity – we were given two small cans of VB beer twice a week, so entertainment was created using initiative and island props. Competitions, undivided attention, luxury food brought out in your honour – both teams surpassed themselves in trying to win me over as a new arrival.
Let me just quickly fill you in on the food situation. When I say ‘luxury’ food I’m talking about two Crunchie bars split up between 13 people, once a week. Other luxuries included Tim Tam biscuits, porridge, dried fruit and tea bags. I never saw a piece of cheese in the five weeks I was out there, and can honestly say I missed it more than family and friends. Breakfast consisted of rice pudding and banana, lunch of sweetcorn, tuna and rice (no sauce) and dinner of lambs tongue or corned beef with chopped tomatoes, rice and cabbage - day in, day out. We used to talk or ‘dream’ of the food we would eat on our return (hence having lost ¾ of a stone out there I then put on a whole stone in my first week back!)
So back to the competition – at the end of my six days came crunch time. It’s inevitable you have to let one side down, and I was fine with that - others found it harder to do -but I knew who I wanted to be with and stuck with them to the end. For those who don’t watch the show, Shark Island became my home for the latter four weeks I was there. I preferred the people overall, the island itself and the fact they were already in the lead was an incentive.
Choosing the Sharks put them in the lead at 13-10 with four weeks left to go, and meant the Tigers would have to put in a lot of effort to make up for lost ground. Unfortunately for them our next big competition was the raft race – the biggest race for both islands throughout the show. We had to build our own rafts with limited materials, and couldn’t use the resources from the islands. When we attempted a team practise the day before the race we sat everybody in position on the raft, which ultimately meant its demise as it collapsed through the barrels used to keep us afloat. Luckily we managed to resolve these issues well enough to gain an impressive quarter mile lead over those pesky Tigers to win two hammocks and a CD player. Some of the team hadn’t heard music in four months and when we pressed play to have Toploader blaring out back on dry land it was the most incredible feeling.
Of course there were many twists and turns leading up to the end – notably the Shark boys stealing food from our rations resulting in us going without proper meals or meals at all in some cases. Learning to live island life was fantastic – from waking up with cameras watching your every move to fishing, washing (ish) and sunbathing and making some incredible new friends - the list is endless. The Tigers also made an incredible comeback to being just one down at 13-14 to the Sharks with one week to go and two new arrivals left to make a joint decision. (Unfortunately I can’t reveal who wins as it hasn’t been announced on Channel 4 yet.)
The experience was an incredible and obviously a once in a lifetime opportunity which won’t be forgotten in a hurry. If you want to find out more about island life, then keep checking back as I’ll be uploading some more about my experience shortly...
Comments
Hugo says...
Wow. What an experience. Not sure I would want to do it...or would I?
Posted 1808 days ago.
madisteps says...
incredible photos...how do you get there?
Posted 1787 days ago.
JonSevers says...
Haha you are brave person. A guy i know tried and failed to get on the show. You were saved from meeting avery irritating young man.
Posted 1737 days ago.
Alison says...
I have to ask - didn't you end up with the worst post-trip depression?? I've had incredible hols before and coming back to normal life is always such a let down - and it must have been magnified a hundred times for you after this experience..... (!!)
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