Blogs from Seychelles, Africa - page 10

I’ve got my meditation date and like a child in a custody battle, I’m handed off from one party to the other in car park of ‘Freshcuts butchers’, high glamour in the Seychelles, as I’m way too chicken (boom boom) to drive the hills of La Misere, especially not knowing where I’m going. I feel guilty as my meditation buddy drives in and clocks me behind the wheel (getting in practice with the other one) so much so that I spend the rest of the journey explaining in torturous length my driving history (or lack of it) that given she’s at the wheel, she cannot but listen to, bet she was regretting her decision already. I admire her house and engage in more interesting chit chat (having established the baseline of boredom with my car whining) ... read more

An email from my meditation buddy alerts to me a major issue for socialseychelles.ning.com as Ning, the company that hosts my site (and about a million others) has decided to pull its free networks and charge instead. As I don’t work nor earn any money from Social Seychelles, this is news I could do without. Unbelievably, the same day I find this out, Social Seychelles goes down and tweets from Twitter suggest that I’m not alone; even the Ning creators network is affected. Rumours abound; have they pulled the rug from underneath already? I sit glued to the internet and start to examine other social network alternatives but the honest truth is I don’t really want to change from Ning with the hassle involved but neither do I want to be out of pocket and on ... read more

‘I DON’T F’in BELIEVE IT’ The tyre’s gone down AGAIN. Any zen and karma like auras achieved have been ditched and replaced by a seething inner rage expressed by a well aimed kick (or two) at the wheel in question. We return to our tyre expert who diagnoses flaking paint on the rim as the cause of a slight leakage of air between the two. This time he fixes it more thoroughly than at the Roche Caiman petrol station and as I wait, I notice a large puddle near the door of the car. Nope, I haven’t wet myself in excitement that the sodding thing might be fixed, it seems to be rather water leaking from our back car door. I open the door and fiddle about with the rubber sealing and behold, a gush ... read more

(N) Wow. This is Disneyland. Impossible to capture in words, so we’ll just post lots of pictures to prove this place exists, and say BIG THANKS to: 1. Captain Kemble, who skilfully negotiated our Catamaran through pirate-infested waters 2. Poseidon, who granted us fresh fish for every day trawling, including approx 5kg of Yellowfin Tuna sashimi one evening 3. The Seychellois turtles, doplhins, fruitbats and stingrays for making such frequent appearances 4. A legendary crew that made the whole experience so great And last but not least, CONGRATULATIONS to Lauren and Jonty, who got engaged at Source d’Argent, La Digue (the postcard island!) PS: went on my first salt water dive, encountered two sharks and didn’t freak out!  (M) Wow indeed. What a privilege to spend 11 days sailing around what must surely be the ... read more

The bag arrived eventually. It landed in Joburg the day after we left, (handy that and no explanation given) and landed in Seychelles a week later after my flobber feet in Praslin we did, by which time we’d forgotten what was in it. It was a nice surprise then when we opened it and Mary Poppins like, the Calitzdorp Port, throws, candle holders and small rugs (all courtesy of sheet street) came popping out, along with the dirty pants. I amused myself for a few hours (with the new stuff not my pants) and the house is now a lot cosier though this brought its own dangers. Reclining on our new living room day bed (aka a single bed nabbed from the upstairs bedroom) I managed to smash the tea light holders that we’d had for ... read more