Seychellles

We flew to the Seychelles from Mauritius in late October and arrived at our pre-booked accommodation in Beau Vallon in the dark. The Seychelles are within 5° of the equator and they are warm. Our accommodations were all air-conditioned, but that meant the sitting areas were fan cooled and only the bedrooms were air-conditioned.

Our arrival in Mahé , coincided with the annual Creole Days parade in Victoria, so we caught a bus and took in the normally sleepy capital.

Beau Vallon is generally quiet during the week, but there was plenty of action on Sunday. There were many family picnics and food stalls were also set up as part of Creole Days.

Sheila was still resting up her ankle, so Glenn went solo for a Beau Vallon diving experience. We went out to a wreck out in the bay. Wrecks often provide a habitat for a variety of sea creatures and this one was no exception.

One morning, we made an early start and caught a bus going west from Beau Vallon and walked about an hour with open views of the ocean. When we reached the beach at Anse Major, we did some less-than-spectacular snorkeling. We returned to the trailhead and Beau Vallon as the heat of the sun kicked in. Other people started to arrive as we were leaving Anse Major. "Anse" is a bay or cove in French.

After four nights at Beau Vallon, we changed islands with a bus into Victoria, and a catamaran ferry to Praslin, then a transfer onto a smaller craft to La Digue, arriving by early afternoon. When you walk off the La Digue town wharf, you immediately reach "downtown" and the main street and our first impression was of tourism. A fellow had been sent to greet us and bring us to our nearby accommodation of the Veronic Guest House that we had booked for seven nights. It was sparkling clean with nice gardens and a friendly proprietor.

We spent the first afternoon on bikes having a look around the immediate vicinity and did some grocery shopping in small local shops and the town supermarket. We were not far from Anse Severe which offered fine sunsets and surprisingly interesting snorkeling. La Digue was looking good.

Days at the beach tend to blur, but we were good tourists and visited most of the attractions, ie beaches. We rode to the end of the road and then walked to the SE side of La Digue to see Grand Anse and Anse Coco. The north side of La Digue is well served with a paved road, ideal for a morning bike ride.

Anse Severe was a short distance from home base and we spent many hours in the water. Although there wasn't much in the way of coral, it was surprisingly productive.

Anse Source d'Argent is a tourist magnet. At the south end of town, a fee is required to pass through the private land of the Union Estate, to the white sands and granite boulders. The bicycle parking area was bursting when we returned to our bikes.

There seemed to be only one dive operator on La Digue and they were also catering to a liveaboard audience, so we were only able to dive one day. Ave Maria was a world class dive and the highlight of Seychelles for us.

We also made a snorkel excursion to Felicité and Ile Cocos. The snorkeling was mediocre by our standards, but topside at Ile Cocos was sublime.

Our week on La Digue went fast, and it was time to head for Praslin. It was a ferry then a short bus ride to Anse Volbert and our large guesthouse, with a reasonable kitchen set-up. Anse Volbert was certainly beautiful though we did find the snorkeling to be a let down.

Fond Ferdinand Reserve was the jewel of Praslin. A bus brought us to the entrance and we joined a park tour that wound its way through beautiful forest and up to views of the NE aspect of Praslin (Baie St Anne). The main attraction of the reserve is the rare, endemic coco de mer trees that produce the largest seeds in the plant kingdom.

We dove a couple of days with a dive operator based at the Paradise Sun resort on Anse Volbert (Cote d'Or beach). The diving was very good but did not measure up to our dive experience out of La Digue.

A bus brought us to the northern end of Praslin on a warm but drizzly day. It might look better in the sunshine, but on the other hand, we didn't get fried by the equatorial sun that particular day.

We were on the Seychelles home stretch and caught the ferry back to Mahé and this time, we set out for the west side of the main island and stayed at the Orchard Sunset Guesthouse at Anse a la Mouche. On our first afternoon, we caught a bus up the west coast road and took in the Sunday action at Anse Port Lanay.

On our second day on the west side, we went south on the West Coast road and roamed the beautiful Baie Lazare beach and then made a long, hot walk to Anse Soleil. It was a sweaty walk up the hill back to the main road and home.

Our guesthouse had some WIFI issues that were later resolved. In the meantime, I was surprised that our room was quite small. Once, we had web access, it was apparent that there had been a "bait and switch". The owner had a longer reservation for the main apartment and had booted us into the smaller suite but had not informed us of such. We had a conversation that resulted in a significant rent reduction.

On our last morning, we caught a bus to Victoria and disembarked at the airport quite early for our flight, but such was the bus schedule. Our Air Seychelles flight to Mauritius gave us sufficient time to catch an evening flight to Rodrigues that same day. The Rodrigues flight ran late, so we spent most of our day waiting in airports.