09.09.2011 - 25.09.2011
The last time I was in the Seychelles was in 1981 or so and I was working on a cruise ship called the MS Vistafjord. The main island Mahè was a quiet place with not too much traffic so we rented a mini Moke to drive around where we found beautiful, white sandy beaches with no people, huge rock faces, giant boulders and lot's of green forest everywhere. But the thing I remember most were the beautiful rock formations, the huge boulders and large spider webs hanging from the telephone lines so we were always wondering if one might fall on us as we drove by.
On this trip we came by air so this time I had a bird's eye view of some of the beautiful islands surrounding the coast of Mahè, some not far from the capital city of Victoria, with white sandy beaches surrounded by clear blue water and coral reefs. After a rather turbulent landing we picked up our bags and headed for our next fight which would take us to the island of Praslin some 15 minutes flying time from Mahè or 44km north east of Mahè.
After landing we were driven along the west side of the island before starting our climb through the lust green forest of the Vallee De Mai and down the winding road the coast again at Baie St Anne. We continued up the coast to a long beach area call Anse Volbert and at the north end was our hotel Le Duc where we would be staying for the next week.
The Le Duc is a small hotel set back from the beach with beautiful gardens, large rooms, a swimming pool, fish pond, lot's of friendly staff and good food especially the Art Cafe that offered great food and service. While walking to the beach we found out they had 7 or 8 giant tortoises who lived in a enclosed area and were very fasinating to watch. The weather was still a bit unstable at this time of the year so we did have a few rain showers and the seas were quite rough, but in general the bay area was nice and calm, and the long beach gave us plenty of space to enjoy the sun and the water. Sadly at this time we were restricted to swimming too far from the shore as there had been a couple of shark attacks a month earlier. Also snorkelling was not allowed.
After some time on the beach it was time for some diving, Sadly due to the rough condition and the shack attacks diving was limited as we were also not allowed to dive the Marine park at this time. I did three dives between the islands of Praslin and La Digue (a smaller island close by). We were battered and bruised and a little bit sea sick by the time we arrived at the dive sites but did have some good dives and saw some interesting thing: On the this trip we dived: Ave Maria, Channel rocks, Baba rocks and Booby island. Things to see: Eagle rays, sharks, turtles, crabs, octopus, trevallies, batfish, unicorn fish, humphead parrotfish and much more. There is definitely some good dive sites here but due to the poor visibility (still about 10 to 15 m), rough seas, surge and current the diving was not so good at the time.
We had some good days on the beach by now so it was time to see some of the other wonders on Praslin. Our first stop would be be at Vallee de Mai, one of the worlds smallest World Heritage sites and home to the Coco de Mer palm. We decided that we would travel the cheaper way with 5 Seychelles rupees per person for the bus). The drive up into the hills was fast and windy but pleasant. At the entrance er were met by two choices, one is to join a guided tour (beware that the tour starts when there are enough people and depending on what language you speak) which will take you about 2 hours and you will get lot's of information or you just pay for the park entrance, grab a brochure and have nice relaxing one hour or so walk.
Vallee De Mai is home of the Coco De Mer palm and can grow up to 30 meter with very large palm leaves 10 m in diameter and 2 to 4 m in length and also produces the world largest seed. This is not the only thing to see here, there are other palm types, small streams, wild life like the black parrot, big spiders and the walk is fantastic.
We hopped onto the bus for a fast paced ride to the north western tip of the island to Anse Lazio, having chosen the bus we soon found out that the bus does not go all the way to the beach! It's a long hot uphill walk and a steep downhill before you reach a dirt road that leads to the beach and as the sweat runs taxis and rental cars pass by (if you're lucky someone will pick you up and drive you over the hill or you can hitchhike). At the top of the hill we caught a glimpse of what was to come and when we walked onto the beach we knew it was worth it, pearly white sand stretching to the east where it ends with large granite boulders.
The water is clear with different shades of blue, to the west end of the beach there are more granite boulders but beyond that a smaller more secluded beach. This is a very beautiful beach and it's safe to say it's one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. At the time due to the shark attacks you were advised by the police to only swim in the net area but there were people who chose to swim out side the enclosed area. After we had lunch we headed back and had another steep climb before we reached the bus stop only to find out it had already left, this time 15 minutes early.
Our time on Praslin was almost over so after a day on the beach we decided to take a trip over to La Digue. On a rainy morning we took the bus to the ferry where we arrived in a heavy downpour. After a rocky boat ride we on the sunny shores of La Digue, where we found a relaxed place with a few cars, lot's of bicycles, ox carts (to drive the tourists around in) and people just out and about. We first stopped at a small beach to dry off and take some pictures, then to a bicycle rental to pick up our transport. La Digue is a small island and there is a paved road that is fairly flat with a few small uphills on the west side of island.
We started off south to Anse Union, a beach with the famous granite boulders on the south end. There is also a old coconut plantation (L' Union Estate) at this location that will charge you a hundred rupees to enter the Estate and the beach (there is a way around this, we just walked through the water and unto the beach). Sadly we did not get too many good pictures as it started to rain heavily and we had to run for cover.
After waiting for the rain to stop we hopped on our bicycles heading north, and after a quick lunch we headed further north enjoying the scenery before stopping to look at a large giant land tortoise that you find on the various islands in the Seychelles. At this point we decided to go snorkelling as we had heard that this was a good place.The first problem was low tide, so we crawled our way out into the water, second problem the sea was rough and the waves were making it difficult to get further out, third because of the rough sea we were getting many small cuts from the rock, fourth problem with the low tide we were having trouble finding a safe way back to shore, fifth problem when we found a break in the reef the waves were pushing a bit too fast to stop. We made it safely with a few more cuts to patch up.
After drying off, it started raining and not just a shower it was pouring and it went on and on and the ferry was leaving in an hour! After a long wait we hopped on our bicycles still in bathing suits and headed off to the ferry, about half way there the rain stopped and by the time we reached the ferry we had changed into somewhat dryer clothing. It was a different ferry, smaller and a bit slower and it rolled a lot making quite a few people very queasy. The rain started again as we came into the harbour so we grabbed the nearest taxi and headed for the hotel and a hot shower, enough is enough.
It was time to say goodbye to the wonderful people at the Le Duc and take the plane back to Mahè and new adventures (we were lucky to be flying back we would have hated to be sea sick for two hours). Arriving in Mahè our bus took us north through the streets of the capital Victoria then up a small motorway (with no guard rail) through the granite hills and then descending on the west side of the island, our destination Beau Vallon. We stayed at a really nice B&B 50 meters from the beach. Beau Vallon is the most famous beach stretching for 2 km or so with beautiful granite boulder on the north where there is also excellent snorkelling where you see lot's of different fish and sometimes turtles. Towards the south end of the beach you can see the beautiful granite hill covered in green that fall towards the blue green waters below.
Life was easy staying at the Bordmer Villa, we would get up, get dressed, sit out on the terrace and after a little while breakfast would be brought up (the manager at the Bordmer Villa was fantastic and very helpful and to our surprise was married to a man from Denmark). After breakfast we grabbed our stuff, walked across the road and we were on the beach. As the sun had decided to come we spent most of our time on the beach and swimming and later in the afternoon long snorkelling excursions. The snorkeling on the north end of the beach by the granite boulders was best you could see lot's of fish and a couple of times turtles. We also did some diving though there was not very much to see as the visibility was poor and there was very little macro life to find and it's hard to see the larger fish when it's snowing underwater.
We only did three dives, as it was not worth it to dive more with the conditions as they were, we dived the marine park, Northern Rock, and the twin barges. Twin barges was the best as there was a fair bit of macro life and lot's of fish around the two wrecks. Things to see: Humphead parrotfish (over two meters long and very close), pipefish, snake eel, moray eels, turtles, a few nudibranch, crabs, leaffish, flatworms, friendly bat fish and much more.
We had heard a lot about a walk to a small secluded beach (Anse Major) on a nature trail in the direction of the marine national park so it was time to do some walking. We tried to catch the bus, as the trail started much further on, but we just missed it and it was getting late so we jump in a taxi for a short ride to the beginning of the trail (lucky for us too as it was getting very hot and from the bus stop to the start of the trail it was all uphill!). After passing a number of construction sites and a few small tastes of the views that were yet to come, the first part of the the trail was in the shade of the trees but once we started the upward climb we emerged into bright sun with a view over the granite hills covered in lust green vegetation on the inland side and to the other side the blue water that was so clear that you could see the coral below the surface. In the distance we could see Silhouette island, at one point the trail is blocked by two gigantic boulders but amazingly enough there was a large passage underneath them that also gave us some shade from the hot sun. After an hour and fifteen minutes we reached our destination, Anse Major, with two small beaches with crystal clear water, lazy palms hanging over the white sand and a little tidal water back under the trees.
While there we met a friendly national park policeman that gave us some helpful advise about the area (he took this walk every day! ) before he walked on to check the area. We rested in the shade under the palm trees, took a swim and hung our clothes out to dry in the bush (lot's of big spiders in the bushes), but it was getting late and it was time to return. We retraced our tracks once again enjoying the view but not stopping as much as we were running low in water. At the end of the trail we filled up with water ,walked to the bus stop to catch the bus and back for some rest and relaxation.
The evening meals were pleasant and the La Plage restaurant was right on the beach so you could watch the sunset with drinks and watch the moon and the stars come out. Some of the other good places were The boat House (a good fish place with a buffet in the evening), the Black Pearl, a couple of pizza places and a Chinese place at the Berjaya resort.
After a morning on the beach we decided to do do some snorkelling further up the coast so we took the bus going north and got off close to the Sunset Resort where we heard that there was some good snorkeling. It was a very pretty area but it was not very good for snorkelling and either the resort staff or the guest feeds the fish to make sure there are a lot of them around. After a short swim around we decide to return to Beau Vallon for some good snorkelling and later to watch one of the beautiful sunsets.
The Seychelles is also known for it's whale sharks and there is a dive centre that does monitoring and have whale shark safaris. We thought this would be fun, as it's been a great experience the other times we've seen whale sharks. Sadly after over 2 hours in a small boat we saw no whale sharks, even with a ultralight plane trying to spot them from the air. This cost a fair bit but a good deal of the money goes to whale shark conservation so we suffer the lost (we could have gone again another day for half price!! get real!).
Our flight did not leave until late in the evening so we spent the day lounging around on the beach and just enjoying the last bit of warm sunshine before we headed back to a much cooler Norway.
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