British tycoon Richard Branson may have lost his race to the bottom of the ocean, but not his sense of humour, declaring Friday a faux plan to top his rivals by voyaging to the centre of the earth. The impossible adventure was announced, tongue jammed in cheek, with the seriousness of a real campaign.
“Sir Richard Branson to launch journeys to the centre of the earth through Virgin Volcanic” the website virginvolcanic.Com claims, in one of two teasingly-timed announcements ahead of this weekend. An early clue that this was a joke was that a press release from Branson’s PR people cannot be published until April 1.
The announcement came days after Hollywood director James Cameron grabbed headlines by making history’s first solo — and real — trip by submarine to the deepest point of the world’s oceans: the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. It was an exploit that Branson, known for his pursuit of ballooning and sailing records, had had his eye on too. Never mind: Cameron will eat his heart out hearing that Branson says he’ll take trendy singer will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas in a special capsule down into a volcano and from there to the molten centre of the planet.
“I have long held a fascination with volcanoes having read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth as a young boy,” Branson said on the website. “Volcanoes are the next great unexplored terrain. What can I say, I lava challenge!”
At the same time as the relatively subtle volcanic spoof announcement, Branson also unveiled a more straightforwardly crackpot plan on his blog — for a Virgin-branded time machine. “We’ve had a slightly frightening breakthrough with a time machine. I’ve found that we can now go backwards in time but not forwards. Fortunately we can get back to the present,” he wrote. Underneath a picture of him dressed in a white coat inside a cubicle-style machine labelled “Virgin Time Travel,” he added: “This could be one of the greatest breakthroughs Virgin have ever worked on. “Even more exciting than Virgin Galactic or Virgin Oceanic.”