Seychelles - Vallée De Mai & Praslin

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We wake up with the noise of familiar sound of birds. They are everywhere. Today's plan is to catch the local bus to Valle De Mai. The bus journey takes forty five minutes to run around the entire island. The bus services are regular and the ticket price is fixed to 5 rupees, regardless of where you get off. My first experience was not that much pleasant in terms of taking buses. They drive off the road. You feel it. When the bus reaches a sloppy hill, or sharp bends the drive accelerator and drive crazily. All you can do is, hang on to a seat and pray that you don't end up 100 meters below in the sea. (Such a painful death could be unlucky indeed)

Today's sky was clear and the atmosphere was hot. We were pleased to reach the entrance at Valle De Mai. The bus shoot off down the hill and disappeared into the thick forest. The road was newly build in the middle of this nature reserve in order to cut the journey time from the pier to the north of the island.

The scenically superlative palm forest of the Vallée de Mai is a living museum of a flora that developed before the evolution of more advanced plant families. It also supports one of the three main areas of coco-de-mer forest still remaining, a tree notable for having the largest of all plant seeds.

Having spent half a day visiting Vallée De Mai, it was time to hit the beach again. We were a bit exhausted by the time we end the complete walk. Obviously this place isn't a top of the list for most tourists who come to Praslin. They were a couple of families and us. We had also enough of seeing trees and leaves and roots. It is now time to discover a new sandy beach and touch of blue water. This time, it is Anse Kerlan which is situated up beyond Praslin Airport on the north west coast of Praslin.

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