But by then the contract had been signed."Gwyneth Edwards, whose land was used by the film company to park a trailer, is also unhappy with Disney. She said the £1,500 she was paid had to be spent on repairing boundary poles. "It seems to me that Disney don't care about the people on the island," she said.Patricia Barnett, director of Tourism Concern, said this is not the first time that filming in "paradise island" locations has generated controversy. The Beach, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, which was filmed on the island of Phi Phi in Thailand, was criticised for relandscaping the beach, removing natural vegetation and installing palm trees which fulfilled Western perceptions of how a paradise island should appear.

"Like the Thai government, the government of St Vincent saw a good opportunity in having filming on the island but local people are often the last people to be consulted," she said.Disney and First Mate Productions Inc are both registered at the same Californian address. A Disney press officer refused to comment, but Rene Baptiste, minister of tourism and culture for St Vincent and the Grenadines, was full of praise for the Hollywood film company, its boost for tourism and the economy - and added he would welcome a sequel.. With nominations in five categories, the makers of Pirates of the Caribbean have every reason to look forward to a night of glory at tomorrow's Oscars ceremony. Every night the northern lights, like a green and white diffuse laser show, made the sky miraculous.

We lay on our backs on the sand (we always tried to camp on mid-river sand islands) and watched the mechanical dart of satellites for hours.The first summer involved building the boat and paddling to the remote start at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca The next summer we paddled the Peace River. At night, after a swig or two of rum, we'd forget our differences and sit around an enormous fire of driftwood and talk until the small hours. We got on pretty well, using a circulating stock of paperbacks as a substitute for argument, everyone reading and only Paranoid Dave ranting against the system, the loggers and the manufacturers of his tent (which was now leaking). Paranoid Dave, Lucky Joe and Barney the ex-Bath rugby player, the only one with any real muscle.

To his credit he replied, "I'm interested but could you give me more than 10 days' notice next time."By the second summer of the trip (we could travel only when the rivers were ice free) I had a tight-knit team of unemployed 25-year-olds, all casual acquaintances or friends of friends. I even asked an old college friend I hadn't spoken to for 10 years who was fully employed, overweight, married, with three small children and living happily in Australia. I didn't know any French Canadians, and advertising involved the additional problem of interviewing and testing applicants It was a real headache In the end I was clutching at straws. Because I wanted to stick faithfully to his route, I, too, would be going against the current.I needed a team. He used a birch-barker, as I had started calling them, though his was a little longer, 25ft, with six men paddling, short barrel-chested French Canadians, voyageurs, who paddled 55 minutes every hour, smoked a pipe for the five remaining minutes and continued, one paddle stroke a second, 60 a minute, 10 hours a day, rain or fine, with or against the current until the rivers froze.Against the current...