,, Outside
of the capital, there aren’t really any towns or cities, just
individual farms or little hamlets of a couple of houses, and these
are all close to the main coastal road. From the houses and their
surroundings, you can see that people here are more prosperous than
those on the African continent 1500km away, but from a European
perspective, you still wouldn’t call it a rich country. From the
19th
century until 1976 Seychelles were a British colony, and that’s
why they still drive on the left. Traffic, however, is negligible:
Apart from a few tourists, there isn’t much besides some small vans
and mopeds. There’s only one road, so it’s impossible to get
lost, but we didn’t want to accidentally drive past an important
stop, so I switched on the GPS. It took us to our first destination,
the bay of Anse à la Mouche. The recipe here is the same as
elsewhere: Take one part sandy beach, add some gigantic rocky cliffs,
sprinkle on some palm trees and thick vegetation. If you’re lucky
there won’t be big waves and you can take a relaxing dip, or look
at the fish through diving goggles.
After a few photos, we drove
on to Anse Soleil, where we parked the car. This and the neighboring
Anse La Liberté is not so secluded, and we decided to travel on
towards Anse Gouvernement. This is very close, but on the other side
of the hill, you have to descent a steep slope. Still, the beach is so
beautiful that it’s worth it.
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Likes&Dislikes by Nora (2017)
Likes
1. The sorts of beaches I always dreamed of seeing one day (my personal favorite is Anse Patates!)
2. Most self-catering bungalows are spacious, air-conditioned, and in perfect condition
3. There is Wi-Fi in more places than I had expected
4. Clear waters in captivating shades of blue, and much colorful fish in totally unfamiliar shapes and sizes
Dislikes
1. The chaos which reigns in the grocery stores on La Digue island – unpleasant smells, a small range of options, rotten vegetables, unrefrigerated dairy products etc.
2. The range of food offered by street vendors is also pretty thin, and what they do sell isn’t great
3. Big nettles by the roadside are an annoyance when walking in the dark
4. In April the sea is really too warm
5. The locals are not, in general, the friendliest
6. Rays lurk in the sand on the beaches along the Côte D'Or, which apparently usually only lead to minor irritation, but can occasionally – as in our case – cause more serious injuries
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Anse,
by the way, is French for ‘bay’. This is a reminder that there
were already French-speaking settlements here in the 18th
century, which remained when the British took over. The most widely
spoken language today isn’t exactly French, but rather a modified
creole version unique to the islands. The official language of
business and administration is technically English, but the policeman
who stopped us wasn’t really able to say what he wanted, and after
a few tries he decided it was wiser just go give me back my papers
and let us go.
Anse Takamaka is a great place. It’s easy to
park in the shade, there are hardly any people on the beach, and
there’s a cheerful little seafront bar where the beer is cold and
the view is first-class.
Anse Intendance is a private beach – a
good one – but for hotel guests only, so we drove on to Anse
Bazarca in hopes of something even better. Unfortunately, we found it
too rocky. Even more remote – almost hidden away – is Anse Petite
Police, which we couldn’t even get close to by car, because the
road was overrun with vegetation. One of the good things about the
Seychelles is that there are hardly any dangerous animals. No snakes
or malarial mosquitos, but also hardly a beach that you can get to
without a machete, so thick is the undergrowth that springs up thanks
to the warmth and tropical rains.
From
here we drove back to the east side of Mahé island, which is less
spectacular, or maybe we had just started to get bored of banana
trees. Certainly, there are more houses on this side and more locals
on the beaches. Driving through a village we saw a church, and beside
it a small school, so we stopped to take some pictures. Around 90% of
the locals are Catholic, but there are small Muslim and Hindu
minorities as well. A large proportion of the population is fairly
superstitious. Interestingly, they don’t like personal compliments,
especially towards children, because they believe that these will
bring bad luck. It’s pleasant for tourists to note that the local
culture has fairly relaxed views on dress code, and you can wear
whatever summer clothes you like without fear of reprimand. Still, we
did have the decency not to visit the churches in our beach clothes.
Close to the equator the sun rises around six in the morning and
sets around six in the evening all year round, so we made a habit of
returning to our hotel before dark. We would explore the capital,
Victoria, at the end of our trip, when we returned to Mahé, but the
next day we set off for the other islands.
Day
4: Praslin – the silver medalist
I
had arranged to hand over the hire car at the harbor, so as to get
rid of the Hyundai, and I was a little nervous, having heard tales of
the relaxed attitude people in this part of the world have towards
timekeeping. I needn’t have worried – two people from the agency
were waiting for us at the appointed time to pick up the car. That
same day we took a ferry across to the second largest island in the
Seychelles, Praslin. This island of 38km2
has 6500 permanent residents, as well
as a good number of tourists at any one time. Besides the many
beautiful beaches, there is also the Vallée de Mai nature reserve,
which is often visited by nature lovers who want to see the local
Lodoicea, or coco de mer, which grows here in greatest abundance: the
coconuts they produce look like nothing so much as a big human
backside. The whole reserve is a UNESCO world heritage site. We could
choose between three prepared trails, the longest of which is a
three-hour walk. It’s also possible to walk along the coastal
cliffs. Local guides led us through the most overgrown sections and
even cooked us a lunch of freshly caught fish.
There
are lively debates on online forums concerning which island is best
for sunbathing, but in my own view they’re all roughly as good as
each other, so it isn’t worth getting too worked up about it.
There’s also one alternative way to spend a holiday here, which is
to take a local cruise for one or two weeks and visit a number of
islands. These can even be booked through European travel agencies.
Still, it’s a good thing I didn’t choose this option – even the
one-hour ferry crossing caused me serious gastrointestinal issues.
There’s also a company which offers twice-daily catamaran cruises
for tourists. The ticket isn’t cheap – about $115 – but at
least here the sick bag is free. (I almost needed one, though I took
my Gravol before getting on board.)
After
disembarking, we tried to limit our expenses by taking a bus, which
arrived at the scheduled time, and with our suitcases on our laps, we traveled to our hotel on the Anse Petite Cour. This bay is in fact
entirely owned by the hotel. It’s a good little place, and when we
stepped out of our room, it was only a few paces down to the beach.
That day we didn’t go anywhere else.
Day
5: Because you can never have too much sunshine.
Many
say that Anse Lazio is the most beautiful beach in the country, and
as it happens our hotel was close by, so we decided to pay it a
visit! We hopped on another bus and took it all the way to the
northern tip of the island. The sandy beach is one kilometer from the
last stop, but the warm sunshine makes it a pleasant walk. The pure
white sand is made more idyllic still by the turquoise waters beyond,
and I understand why they call this Seychelles’ most beautiful
beach. It’s also a paradise for snorkelers, with a totally unique
atmosphere, though it’s becoming more and more popular with
tourists, and apparently, there are times when it gets pretty crowded.
That wasn’t the case at all during our visit, though that may have
been because of the stiff breeze. The bay isn’t well sheltered, so
the waves were quite high. Last year there was a shark attack here,
and in response, they put up nets; it’s not advised to swim out
beyond them. There are no shower facilities, unfortunately, but at
least there’s plenty of shade. There’s also a bar here as well,
where we were able to get a cold soda, and in the afternoon the
Indian staff even cooked two huge jackfish for us, as well as some
curry rice. Though the guidebook cautions against eating food
prepared in a shack with no running water, we risked it and survived.
In fact it was delicious.
The
trip back was pleasant enough, as we were the only travelers on the
bus – on all our other trips it had been full. We spent the evening
in front of the TV, where we caught the Hungary-Belgium game at the
European Championships and relaxed after an active day.
Day
6: La Digue
The
smallest among the larger islands. This really is an isolated place,
without much traffic, but with wonderful nature and almost two
thousand inhabitants. It’s thirty minutes from Praslin by ferry,
which departs seven times daily. Instead of a ticket, they give you a
plastic boarding pass, which they take off everyone at the end of the
trip. Invest in an online payment method!
La
Digue owes its isolation and authenticity to the difficulty of
reaching it. You hardly see cars here, but there are plenty of
horse-drawn carts, which are the official means of transport on the
island.
You
see bicycles on every corner, and around the harbor, there are several
places where you can rent one for around $7-10. So we leapt into the
saddle and set off towards the famous beach at the southern end of
the island. Our route took us through the Veuve nature reserve, a
small forest where many species of bird can be seen. The most
well-known of these is the paradise flycatcher, but others including
the yellow bittern, the zebra finch, and the Seychelles black parrot
can also be found here (and entry is free). The flora is no less
rich, with rare orchids, vanilla, Malabar almond, and takamaka all
present. The takamaka is used to prepare an excellent rum, which we
soon found the opportunity to sample.
Passing
through the village, we came across a wedding. Not wanting to sit
there like gaping onlookers, especially in our shorts and sandals, we
just took a few photographs of the ceremony from a distance. After
about four or five kilometers of cycling, we came to the beach, after traveling through some very pretty forest. No surprises, this too
was an unspoiled, idyllic beach. I’m almost ashamed to say that we
were beginning to take these things for granted. There was a
forgettable restaurant there, and we ate a meal. What did we eat? I
forget, but I remember that it was expensive. Neither of us was in
the mood to lie about on the sand for long, so we set off again to
explore the north-east corner of the island. The only problem was, it
turned out there wasn’t much to explore: a few hotels dot the
hillside, but the coast was steep and rocky, and at one point the
path just stopped. We still had plenty of time until our boat set
sail, and if it had been possible we would have settled ourselves on
some sandy stretch of beach, but we couldn’t find any route onward
across the sharp rocks, and the wind had picked up noticeably.
Day
7: The Capital
Returning
to Mahé, we chose a new hotel in the quieter, northern part of the
island. This was still close to the capital, however: Just ten
minutes by taxi. The city got its name from Queen Victoria, and it
surprises me that they didn’t change it after independence. Just
take a look at what happened back home in Hungary after 1989! Even
the word ‘liberation’ became tainted with communist connotations,
never mind Stalin or Moscow. Sorry if it seems as though I’m trying
to compare like with like, because that absolutely isn’t my
intention: This little city of thirty thousand people is barely the
size of Stratford-upon-Avon, never mind Budapest. The main attraction
is a clock tower that stands in the middle of a square, which is a
sheet-metal miniature copy of Big Ben. There’s also a Hindu shrine,
Arul Mihu Navasakthi Vinayagar, which has an attractively colorful
roof, and that’s about it. The whole town center can be explored in
no more than an hour or two. We whiled away a little more time in the
main square because the colorful fruit and fish on sale made good
photo subjects. There are also all the usual trinkets and souvenirs.
We
also climbed up to a Catholic church on a hillside, but it wasn’t
anything special. The most interesting discovery (for us at least)
was the seal of the Hungarian consulate on the main street. If I
remember correctly, the Hungarian owner of a travel agency doubles as
the consul. We walked back to the hotel along a path used by the
locals, and it was pretty tough going.
Days
8-10 infinite laziness
Even
to this point, we hadn’t exactly filled our days with sightseeing –
though of course we saw plenty of beautiful scenery – but during
the final three days, we did practically nothing. There were more
bathers on Beau Vallon Beach than on the beaches we’d previously
visited, but it still wouldn’t equal the numbers on a popular
European beach in summer, even on a weekday. Since everyone prefers
to go down to the beach, there’s no need for rows of sunbeds around
every hotel swimming pool, and nobody bothers to claim one for the
whole day while spending most of their time elsewhere. But I’m only
writing all this so I can post some links to the photos we took.
Bazar
Labrin is an event held every Wednesday evening and promised an
interesting little program. The locals light a fire, then sing and
play drums in cheerful groups – the atmosphere is unmistakably
African. There are also market stalls and lots of vendors selling
street food. One thing that makes the whole event less picturesque
than it might otherwise be is the lack of street lighting down by the
beach, and you’re always at risk of stumbling in the dark amid all
the youngsters hanging about around the edges. Some use their car
headlights to try to cast a little light on things, but this didn’t
help much. Finally, we got back to the little restaurant we were using
as our ‘base camp’, the Baobab Pizzeria, which has breathtaking
views out across the moonlit ocean. (2019)
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We suggest spending half of your vacation on La Digue and the remaining half split between Mahé and Praslin. We remind you that there are 112 uninhabited islands beside the three inhabited islands. If you can afford, visit by plane any of these: Bird, Desroches, Alphonse, Assumption or Denis islands.
