Is this paradise? Well at least the blog is working again

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(SC) Hello again and greetings from the Seychelles,

We're here for 10 days only, begining on Mahe (the main island), where we are staying in a delightful little 3* hotel right on the beach.

We hired a car at the airport and so far have checked out our immediate neighbourhood: Beau Vallon. Delightful with a long beach of white sand, palm trees and really warm water..

We have also investigated the "smallest capital in Africa": Victoria. Interesting but plenty of traffic for what is little more than a small market town with some interesting colonial architecture.

Today we toured right around Mahe checking out the beaches. There aren't that many as it is mainly a rocky coast but those that are there are simply delightful. See pix..

We believe that this travel blog site is working properly once again, so you SHOULD get email updates automatically......We'll see. For the second half of this trip we will tranfer over to Praslin (the S is silent).

(CJ): The beaches are better than merely 'delightful' - they are fabulous! White coral sand slopes gently into an azure sea. At ankle deep it's pleasantly cool with the sun beating down. At knee deep it's really nice and welcoming. And at shoulder deep - quite a long way out now - it's like a warm bath. Seriously.

So we've been in the water from about 4pm every day so far, gently bobbling about as one does, chatting of this and that ... Today Steve had to return to land to put something in the bag, and came steaming back out towards me. He raised his head to check how far he'd got ... One eye half closed, the other nearly a squint, mouth cocked up at one side as he tried to focus through the water streaming down his face. All of a sudden, and quite shockingly, he looked a lot like Jeremy Corbin. (SC oh, how we laughed...not!)

I think the thing that's surprised us most is the price of everything. There must be a high proportion of imported foodstuffs of course (steak on the menu last night was Australian - you'd be hard pushed to keep many cattle on these steep slopes), but £20 for a club sandwich? (SC..... And beer at £8.00 per pint - and that just for Heineken! Still the weather is good and the tans are coming on, building on that Ozzie foundation)

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