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How Lang Walker got the most out of life

From burnt toast to knock-off panama hats, time with Lang Walker at his great passion project Kokomo Private Island revealed what made this old-school Rich Lister tick.

Fiona Carruthers
Fiona CarruthersTravel editor

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It’s the small things, the incidental details, that tell a story best. Especially when it comes to old-school Rich Listers. And that was Lang Walker to his bootstraps, or rather to the salt-encrusted laces on his battered old docksiders.

In 2019, I watched as Caroline Oakley, head chef at Walker’s Kokomo Private Island resort (and formerly the personal chef on his super yachts) burnt his breakfast until it was a plate of ashen crumbs. “Mr Walker – you know, Lang – with his toast; he likes the shit burnt out of it,” Oakley said with a wink on noticing my surprise as she torched his toast.

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Fiona Carruthers has written and edited travel for the Financial Review for almost a decade. She has held senior roles with ABC Radio National, Deutsche Welle Radio, TIME and The Australian, and was deputy editor of Traveller. Email Fiona at fcarruthers@afr.com

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    Original URL: https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/travel/how-lang-walker-got-the-most-out-of-life-20240128-p5f0k6