Seychelles: Creole spirit, beautiful islands and stunning beaches

The 115 islands of the Seychelles are spread out in the Indian Ocean in various groups. Most people focus on the so-called inner islands and so did I, taking into account I was staying for only 8 days.

I was planning to visit at least some of the inner islands including Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, the latter offering world famous beaches. As with Mauritius the year before I had booked only the flight and was planning to explore the islands on my own. However, during the preparation of my trip I quickly realised that the Seychelles are not backpacker-friendly at all. Both transportation and accommodation are rather expensive and at least similar if not more expensive than in Europe. I decided against backpacking and went for a cruise on the SV Sea Pearl.

The SV Sea Pearl was built in The Netherlands in 1915 as a sailing-fishing vessel. Today the 35m long 2 mast schooner serves for charter operations and is run by Silhouette Cruises. The 8 guest cabins accommodate a maximum of 18 people. The crew consists of some further 10 people including a dive instructor. Besides snorkelling and diving equipment there were two canoes aboard which I used sometimes to go ashore. Further equipment included water ski and windsurfing however I never used them - the beaches were far too fantastic to spend any time with that type of activities.

Sailing on the Sea Star wasn't a cheap but a truly unique experience to explore islands of the Seychelles. Altogether, I spent 6 nights aboard before returning to Mahé where I stayed for another night in a bungalow near Beau Vallon.

Day 1 - Is it real? Arriving in paradise...

I arrived on Mahé in the early morning of 24 June 2006. My first impression was that of a quite mountainous island with dense vegetation and a lot of humidity. After immigrations I went straight to the domestic terminal to catch my connecting flight to the island of Praslin. This island is located some 45 km north of Mahé and the flight took only 20 minutes. However it was quite an interesting one since the small Twin Otter plane reacted quite different to the strong winds than the large Boeing 767 in which I had arrived earlier. To be honest I was quite relieved when we finally touched down on the small airport strip of Praslin.

Outside the airport a taxi was waiting for me to take me to Anse (meaning beach) Possession where the SV Sea Pearl was anchored. We drove across the island and passed the Vallée de Mai, a nature reserve that I would visit a couple of days later. Continuing through St Anne village and along the coast I got a first impression of the slow and relaxed atmosphere of the locals.

When the taxi arrived at Anse Possession two crew members were already waiting with the tender boat. They took me to the Sea Pearl where I met the other guests. Including me we were only nine guests on a ship that could accommodate double as many so we were quite lucky. There was Lars, the Danish captain and a crew of a further 8 including the dive instructor. Beside myself there were only two other divers aboard: Karin and Markus, an Austrian couple (thanks again for the underwater photos!).

My cabin was below the salon on the main deck. All guest cabins and bathrooms were here whilst the crew had their quarters below the aft deck. The salon was used only for breakfast, lunch and dinner since we spent most of the remaining time including the evenings on deck - reading, sunbathing, chatting or just relaxing and watching the sea.

The aft section of the SV Sea Pearl offered comfortable chairs on deck and the possibility to climb the wooden roof of the steering house for sunbathing. On the main deck, it was possible to climb on the roof of the salon and read or sunbathe below the shadow-spending canvas of the main mast. This roof also figured out to be an excellent place for some wide jumps off the ship into the water. Continuing to the bow, it was allowed to carefully climb over the reeling and onto the net that was spanned from the reeling to the far end of the bowsprit. I quickly found this to be my favourite spot to lie down and sail into the sunset (although it felt a little bit like a roller coaster ride being at the very front of the ship during sailing).

The first afternoon was spent swimming and snorkelling around the ship whilst we waited for the remaining guests. Once everybody was there, Lars introduced the ship and the crew. Short briefings followed every subsequent evening to inform us about the plan for the following day. We were always offered the possibility to decide what we wanted to do or how long we wanted to stay at each place, which was good. Democracy at its best.

Day 2: Curieuse and St. Pierre - A leper colony, a fairy-tale island and diving with sharks

As I had feared I felt a little bit seasick after my very first night on sea. However, the healthy breakfast with plenty of fresh fruits accompanied by a strong black coffee helped me to recover quickly. After breakfast we lifted the anchor and set sail for Curieuse which is located just 1km north of Praslin and about 3km long and 2km wide. We anchored off the eastern tip of the island, a place called Point Rouge.

I got ready for my first dive in nearly a year. The dive instructor gave us a briefing; diving suit, booties and weight belt were put on quickly. Meanwhile, some of the deckhands loaded the tanks and BCDs in the tender boat. I grabbed my fins, mask and snorkel I climbed down the rope ladder into the tender boat. A quick but bumpy ride on the tender boat brought us to the dive site where we jumped into the water and went down to the seabed at -18m. Unfortunately the underwater world was nowhere near as colourful as in the Red Sea where I had done all my previous dives. In fact, it was rather dull as a result of coral bleaching. However, there was plenty of sea life to watch, including fishes and turtles whilst the massive granite underwater rocks offered a spectacular setting to watch these animals.

Back on the Sea Pearl we had a quick shower before we set off in the tender boat to explore Curieuse. Close to the beach, we had to jump in the warm, knee-deep water of Baie la Raie. I felt like entering paradise and waded ashore in what I felt was slow motion. But this beautiful small beach was only the first of much more to come that fulfilled the cliché image of the Seychelles: smooth white sand, clear water, bend coconut palm trees and giant grooved granite rocks cutting off one little bay from another.

When I had crossed the beach and reached the palms I discovered lots of big turtles crawling around: Curieuse hosts a turtle-breeding colony with some 100 animals. A guide just fed some of the really big adult turtles with fresh coconut whilst on another spot some small baby turtles could be seen crawling around.

I watched for a while before leaving the area on a beautiful path which led to Anse St. José at the southwest part of the island. It took me about an hour to get there since there were plenty of reasons to stop: starting from Baie la Raie the path led up and through some massive black granite rocks - climbing these offered a beautiful view of the surrounding sea and Praslin. Further on, the path led over sandy patches as well as wooden catwalks through mangroves. Plenty of crabs could be spotted along the way, hiding quickly in their sand holes when being approached. Continuing over a small saddle the path finally ended at Anse José, the site of a former leper colony. All roofs, windows and doors of the colony, which was founded in 1833, have long gone and the remaining stone walls were covered in creeping vines and moos. Wandering through these romantic ruins and arriving at the beach I was again taken aback by the magnificent views and impressions. A short walk up the beach a remote museum informed about the natural history of the Seychelles and the leper colony. Nearby, the Sea Pearl staff had already built up a barbecue on the beach. When everybody had arrived we enjoyed coconut slices as a starter followed by a variety of freshly grilled fish and meat, accompanied by a big salad buffet and the ever-present, hot chilli paste.

After lunch, we went back aboard Sea Pearl and set sail for the small island of St. Pierre. Well, it was actually a few rocks rather than an island. Despite its tiny size, St. Pierre offers it all: a perfect beach, grey granite rocks and a couple of palms surrounded by turquoise waters - a fairy-tale island. It was here I did my second and actually most thrilling dive in the Seychelles. After diving for some 15 minutes our instructor suddenly gave me the well-known sign for sharks! Electrified, I spotted them briefly before they vanished - but only a few minutes afterwards we saw another three sharks hiding in a crevice under a rock. We identified them as white-tipped reef sharks, more than a meter long and quite spectacular for me, never having seen sharks before during diving. After quietly watching them for a couple of minutes we left them on their own and continued our dive, thrilled by the experience.

Back on the Sea Pearl, we sailed back to Anse Possession where we moored for the second night. Nightfall came quickly at 7pm and I was already tired after the exhausting but exciting day and went straight to bed after dinner.

Day 3: La Digue - The most beautiful beaches in the world

After breakfast we left the sheltered bay at Praslin and headed for the island of La Digue. Although quite small it features some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, the best-known being Anse Source d’Argent. The first recorded discovery of the island was made in 1768 by French captain Dufresne, captain of a ship named - La Digue.

It did not take long to get there, since La Digue is located only some 4km off Praslin. We arrived there at around 10am. The tender boat brought us to the jetty in the north west of the island. Here, we rented some bicycles since this was an ideal and in fact the only way of exploring the island in a single day. 35 Rupees bought me a mountain bike for a couple of hours. Even though I was cycling rather slow, I was still going much faster than the local people on their bikes. Some of them actually had a pedalling frequency that was just fast enough for them not to tip over! I stopped at the small Gregoire’s supermarket to top up my supplies - and found out that this was in fact the only supermarket on the island that is home to just 2,000 residents.

Continuing south I entered L’Union Estate offering a variety of things to do and see. There is a small tortoise pen at the base of the massive L’Union rock, a few vanilla vines, copra production and a scenic graveyard with old tombs of the first settlers, all in the shadow of plenty of palm trees. Shortly behind the graveyard the road became a dirt track, which ended at a small beach café. Abandoning the bike here I continued on foot around a few bends of a small path. I walked through some palm trees along the beach and arrived at what I would like to describe simply as paradise.

Turquoise sea. Snow white sand. Coconut palms. Beautifully shaped rocks. At Anse Source d’Argent, everything is just perfect and fits to each other like if an artist had designed it. Stunned, I walked into the warm water and continued along the beach, taking in the ever-changing scenery with every step. After an hour or so I arrived at the southern end of the beach. I very much enjoyed lying in the shallow water there and took in the spectacular scenery. Walking back along the beach I had to shelter under the palm trees during one of the regular heavy but warm and nice rain showers.

Arriving back at the café I opted for a fresh fruit juice that gave me enough energy to continue cycling. The 2km journey across the island to the south east offered an insight into the local living style. Plenty of family houses are located on either side of the street; people were in their gardens or on the street.

The dust path led me to Grand Anse in the south east of La Digue. From here it was possible to continue to a couple of other beaches, but due to lack of time I decided to stay at Grand Anse, which wasn’t a bad idea. Quite different to the calm Anse Source d’Argent, Grand Anse is rather wild and rough. Huge waves crashing in from the Indian Ocean made it impossible to go for a swim. Instead, I decided to climb the rocks at the northern end of the beach, which resulted in suffering some minor injuries and sweating a lot. Climbing barefoot, I realised for the first time that the rocks may look smooth, but feel rather rough when one steps on them. After quite a bit of climbing I ended up high above Grand Anse and could actually see the next beach from there, Petite Anse. I enjoyed the view for a few moments before going or rather climbing back to the beach.

It was around 3 pm when I arrived back at the jetty and returned my mountain bike. After a quick late lunch on board Sea Pearl the tender boat took us back to La Digue for some snorkelling. We jumped off the boat off Cap Barbi. There was no beach, just big rocks. I spotted a turtle and followed it for a while. The tender boat picked us up after 30 minutes or so and I went for a hot shower aboard the Sea Pearl. The ship was already on its way back to our anchor place off Praslin when I came back on deck. I decided to climb in the huge net at the bow of the ship. Clamped from the top of the bowsprit to the reeling along the bow the net was actually a very big hammock. I lay down here and looked back at La Digue whilst we sailed away of this beautiful island.

Day 4: Praslin: The largest seed in the world and more diving

After breakfast we took the tender boat to Anse Possession, where a minibus was waiting for us. A short drive brought us to the entrance of Vallée de Mai, a national park in the centre of the island. Here, we were about to see the most famous plant of the Seychelles: the Coco de Mer palm (Lodoicea maledivien). The seed of the female palm is actually the heaviest fruit of the world, it can weigh up to 30kg. The name Coco de Mer derives from the fact that the fruit was first discovered when washed ashore on the Maldives. As a result it was wrongly assumed the nut would grow under water: a coconut from the sea (coco de mer). But it actually grows on a palm which only exists on a few of the Seychelles islands.

Our guide took us on a two-hour tour through the dense vegetation whilst we enjoyed the sound of cracking palm leaves and the cries of bird bulbuls. After a short while we were shown the first of plenty Coco de Mer palm trees, both male and female. The sheer height of the palm trees was quite impressive, and so were the fruits. At the exit of the park some Coco de Mer nuts were on display and obviously everybody had to take a photo of these special shaped fruits.

On our way back to the SV Sea Pearl we stopped at Anse Volbert, a long stretch of white sandy beach. Despite it was not as untouched as other beaches of the island (e.g. like Anse Lazio) the length of the beach together with its numerous palm trees and the white sand made it very impressive.

The afternoon was spent with a dive at Pointe Zanguilles, after which we were hungry for some of the delicious fresh cake which was freshly baked for us every day.

Just before dinner we did a night dive at Anse Lanzio. There was a strong current and sometimes it was quite challenging to follow the beam of the instructor's torch. We saw a giant turtle feeding on sea grass and for the first time ever I spotted a Spanish dancer and a beautiful, transparent octopus.

Day 5 - Cousin: Birds, birds, birds. Bird droppings. And mosquitoes...

Cousin is located just beside its sister island Cousine off the south west coast of Praslin. Cousin is a small, round-shaped island with a diameter of less than 1km. Back in the early 1960s Cousin island was bought by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation with some financial help from the World Wildlife Found and the UK chocolate manufacturer Christopher Cadbury (so eating loads of chocolate can sometimes help to save the environment - a very good excuse that is!). Nowadays Cousin is a marine protected area with fully restored natural vegetation and a bird sanctuary.

We anchored off the island and a tender boat arrived to pick us up. There was no jetty visible on Cousin so I expected the tender boat to stop a few metres off the beach, allowing us to hop into the water and wade onto the beach. But the boat accelerated to full speed shortly before reaching the beach and shot straight on the beach like a bloody hovercraft. Everybody was shit-scared and expecting to be thrown outside when we hit the beach ... so we all screamed and held on wherever we could. The boat driver lifted the aft motor out of the water just metres before we hit the beach and - the boat did not crash but raced up the beach surprisingly smooth. It came to stop after an enormous 10m or so away from the water. Here, it was immediately grabbed by some of the local guides so that it could not tilt to one side. Stunned, we disembarked and watched the guides turning the boat around on the sand and pushing it back into the water in a matter of seconds. All other day visitors were brought on the beach in the same exciting way. However, we were the first during that day so we didn’t know before and were ... well, a little bit shocked actually.

With trembling feet (ok it wasn't that bad...actually it was good fun to race up the beach) we walked a few metres to a shelter where we waited for the others. The whole island was covered with dense vegetation of trees and palms. Once everybody was around we went for a guided tour. There were thousands of fearless birds on the island, sitting on tree branches or just beside the path on the ground. In the next 90 minutes I learned more about birds than I had during my previous life (whether I wanted or not did not matter). There were also some of these giant turtles and small crabs - and millions of bloodthirsty mosquitoes in the damp forest. Luckily they seemed to be only male since they preferred to stick to the women (as you can probably see biology has never been my favourite subject in school). I was bitten only three times and had two bird droppings on my hat that meant I was actually well off compared with all others. Eventually we arrived back at the shelter and walked along the natural beach. Literally tons of mussels and corals were scattered around since nobody is allowed to pick them up. Once we had boarded the tender boat again - this time in the water as usual - we raced back to the Sea Pearl.

We lifted the anchor and headed to the western tip of Praslin. Here, we did a dive after which we had a late lunch. After that we continued to Anse Lazio, the most beautiful beach on Praslin. Most people went ashore however I went for a second dive off Anse Lazio. After the dive I joined the others on the beach for a short while before we went back on the boat for coffee and some more of the delicious cake. The rest of the day was spent with some adventurous jumps from the boat, we started from the main deck (piece of cake) continued to the higher aft desk (intermediate) and ended up at the end of the front beam (crazy, since it involved some climbing around masts and sails with wet feet - just to end up some 8m above the water and having to jump). It was very good fun, though.

Day 6 - Praslin and St. Pierre: Anse Lazio

We anchored off Anse Lazio for the night so the next morning gave us the possibility to head for the long, fantastic white beach straight after breakfast. Limited by big granite boulders on both sides this secluded beach is also scattered with rocks and palms along the beach, making it breathtakingly beautiful.

The waves were significantly higher than the day before so going ashore with a canoe wasn’t the best idea I ever had. I tried it but didn’t quite manage to reach the beach - instead, the canoe capsized when one of the crashing waves hit it from behind. Luckily all - canoe, paddles, towels, my floating sun cream bottle and I myself were washed ashore. We spent the morning on the beach, swimming and trying to surf on the high waves, laying on the beach or just walking around and enjoying the beauty. When we did the latter we found a film production crew nearby, as far as I understood they were just shooting a new advertisement for Bounty chocolate bars - I have to admit the location was well chosen. We headed back to the Sea Pearl for lunch where Lars asked us how we would want to spend the last afternoon aboard. We decided to return to the tiny island St. Pierre for some more sunbathing, snorkelling and rock climbing.

Even the tender boat couldn't get anywhere near St. Pierre due to the strong currents so we had to jump into the deep water and swim to the small strip of beach. When I arrived I decided to do some rock climbing, scaring dozens of crabs that were napping away. The high rocks offered a nice view on the tiny St. Pierre Island with its handful of palm trees. I tried to climb up one however it was too steep but someone else shot down two coconuts with some stones (these were later taken aboard and we had fresh coconut slices as a starter for dinner). After coconut-hunting and rock-climbing we went to the small strip of sandy beach and did some snorkelling, but the visibility was rather poor due to the current and except for rocks and some small fishes there wasn’t that much to see. And the white-tipped reef sharks that we had seen here during diving 4 days ago did not bother to show up. Still, the island itself with its sandy and rocky beaches, big rocks and palm trees surrounded by clear water really is a paradise in miniature.

Back on the Sea Pearl, we set sail for Anse Possession where we anchored for our last night aboard.

Day 7: Mahé island and Victoria, the smallest capital I’ve ever been to

I enjoyed my last breakfast on the SV Sea Shell on deck whilst my luggage was already transported to the beach. I took the tender boat to the beach where a taxi driver was waiting for me to take me to the airport. Originally I had planned to explore Praslin during the day and fly to Mahé in the late afternoon, however I had already seen to the main sights of Praslin: the Vallée de Mai and the beautiful beaches including Anse Lazio which was why I decided to opt for an earlier flight to Mahé.

Changing my flight at the small domestic airport of Praslin was surprisingly easy. I just asked the friendly Air Seychelles check-in staff to put me on the next available flight and already 30 minutes I left the island.

On the short flight to Mahé I enjoyed the view of Praslin, Cousin and Cousine before the pilot turned south. After landing at Mahé at around 11am I got my luggage back at the smallest luggage belt I’ve ever seen. Actually it wasn’t a belt but only a wooden desk where each piece of luggage was handed out by airport staff. Outside the airport, I negotiated a two day car rental deal for EUR 50,- per day. Now I was ready to explore the island during the afternoon and the complete next day before having to check-in for the late evening flight back home.

Mahé is the biggest island of the Seychelles, some 27km long and 8km wide. It is possible to drive almost all the way around the island. This means travelling some 120km which can easily be managed in a single day, even with plenty of stops for sightseeing or rather beach walking. The island is quite mountainous with the highest peak reaching 905m. As one would expect, Mahé offers plenty of beaches with coconut trees, granite rocks and long strips of soft white sand.

I found driving around the island was a bit dangerous, since there were deep channels on both sides of the roads and no protective barriers at all. Further, there were plenty of bends, steep climbs and the easygoing attitude of local drivers which sometimes made them stop in the middle of the road for a chat. Oh and I would highly recommend to drive on the left side of the road since all the others do that as well :-) However, people drove rather slow which was good, especially at night since some of them drove without lights. There was just one place on the Seychelles where I could drive my car in the fifth gear: on the short stretch of dual carriageway between the airport and Victoria, maximum speed here was 80kph.

Although Victoria is both the capital and the biggest city of the Seychelles it is home to only 25,000 people and one one of the smallest capitals in the world.

After a short 10km drive I arrived in the capital and parked my car in front of the famous Pirates Arms in a pay and display car park, a thing which you wouldn’t normally expect on a small island in the Indian Ocean. After a quick lunchtime snack at the Pirates Arms I walked along the Independence Avenue to the very British clock tower (actually a replica of the one in London on Vauxhall Bridge) which stands in the middle of a busy roundabout and marks the centre of Victoria. Quite a few things reminded me of the UK whilst I was there, like driving on the wrong side of the road and a lot Victorian-influenced architecture. This is obviously due to the fact that the island became a British colony in 1814 and has been independent only since 1976.

Turning right at the clock tower into Albert Street and then left into Market Street I ended up at the smallVictoria market which is designed in a colourful oriental way. Beside plenty of fish there were some fruits and vegetables as well as spices including chilli, cinnamon and vanilla on offer. I continued to walk around Victoria and went into a few of the shops. Most of the goods including electronics, cloths and food have to be imported, mainly from Far Asia or Dubai. These goods were either not the best quality or rather expensive - or both. As a result the Seychelles are not a very good place for shopping.

I spent a few hours in Victoria before I drove across the island to Beau Vallon on the west coast to look for some accommodation for the night. Beau Vallon is only 3km away from Victoria but the road leads over a steep hill with nice views of the coastline. I had a quick look at the Coral Strand Hotel but I thought that it was a fairly standard, very touristy type of hotel so I decided to see some smaller, quieter ones. Luckily I found a perfect room at Romance Bungalows just down the road (there were only six bungalows, all built on the slope of a hill and I got the one where the natural rock face protruded into both the sleeping room and bathroom!)

In the evening I had an Italian dinner after which I went to the beach where I sat down on the warm beach. From a risk reduction point of view I made sure to be well clear of any palm trees so that none of the coconuts could fall on me (more people are killed every year by falling coconuts than by shark attacks). It was my last night on the Seychelles so I stayed there for quite a while, enjoying the dark but starlight sky and the sound of crashing waves.

Day 8 - Beautiful beaches

After breakfast I had to drive back across the island to Victoria before crossing the island again back to the east coast on a more southerly route - there is no direct road from Beau Vallon along the west coast. I drove past the highest peak on the island, Morne Seychellois. Again, I made a few stops during my drive on the bended street through the Morne Seychellois National Park before I arrived back at the west coast. I turned right here, now heading north into a dead end. Soon the street became a single-track road and I ended up at Port Lunay Marine Park with its small beaches shaded by palms. I had a quick walk along the beach and through some sort of mangrove forests before I headed back south. I stopped numerous times at beaches like Grand Anse, Anse à la Mouche, the lovely Anse Soleil and finally Anse Takamaka. Here I had lunch at the remote but nonetheless expensive nut very good restaurant Chez Batista.

After a walk along Anse Takamaka I drove to the east coast and headed north. Some more stops included Anse Royal and Anse aux Pins and although it might sound a bit boring to stop at so many beaches, each of them was somehow unique and different and there wasn’t a single stop which I regretted or a beach which did not impress me somehow. The surreal beauty and sheer number of the magnificent beaches on the Seychelles as well as the friendliness and easy-going atmosphere of the locals make the Seychelles a true paradise.

---

---