Marshall islands

The Marshalls are made up of more than one thousand flat coral islands of white-sand beaches and turquoise lagoons. Like other Pacific paradises there’s spectacular diving, lush tropical greenery and beautiful beaches. The flipside is that many of the Marshallese still struggle with the after-effec ts of the 20th-centurey’s Atomic Age. Bikini Atoll is the most famous of the nuclear-testing sites of the 1960s, though inhabitants of other island also suffer from radiation poisoning. Many iaslands remain too contaminated to be resettled or visited.

Diving is at best May to Octo ber, when the water is calmest, though water temperatures are bathlike year-round

Deep-sea fishing off Longar Point on Arno Atoll Witnessing the night-time pyrotechnics of missile-testing on Kwajalein Atoll, the world’s largest coral atoll relaxing on Majuro Atoll’s chilled-out beaches Swimming and fishing off Mejit lsland Discovering history on Maloelap Atoll among the twisted wrecks of WWll bombers

Read Man This Reef by Gerald Knight-transted legends of an elderly Marshallese storyteller

Listen to local boy band, Contry Light-their debut album Jambo combines English and Marshalleses songs

Watch shocking documentaries about Bikini Atoll including Dennis O’Rourke’s definitive Half Life

Eat fresh seafood

Drink coconut milk straight from the source

Yokwe yuk (love to you-the traditional greeting)

Bikinis; warmly welcoming Marshalleses; ‘secret’ US bases WWll wrecks, stunning but uninhabitable beaches; big game fishing

Visiting the traditional small village of Laura on Lajuro Atoll; camping out on the outer islands in absolute serenity

The Marshall lslands consist entirely of slender coral atolls and islands sprinkled with coconut pandanus and breadfruit trees. Few oher crops grow in the atolls’ salty sand, so the Marshallese long ago turned to the sea their resources. They became, of necessity, expert fishers and navigators.