| Seychelles: Sept 2001 |
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| My partner, Nella, and I decided it was now or never: we both needed a holiday, and where better? BUT the challenge was to spend 2 weeks in Paradise on a South African sized budget- so no package tours, no travel agents, no frills; only self-catering... |
| They call it Paradise in all the brochures... and for good reason: the secluded beaches, palms, tropical ambience, incredibly clean water and real slow pace of everything, all combine into an irresistable package... |
| A key to being able to afford the trip was that we took our own food- only eating out 3 times. Here I try my hand in the kitchen.... :) |
| The islands have masses of idyllic bays like this one (on Mahe)- we snorkelled the reefs in the background, and saw some nice tropical lobsters in a cave |
| The islands are famous for the "Coco de mer" - and they get maximum mileage out of the resemblance to the female pelvis. You can buy one for a mere US$400. Here we get to know them, and explore the World Heritage site "Vallee de Mee" on Praslin- a dense jungle of 10 species of palms- including the coco de mer. It is a very special place- and one gets a feel for what the islands might have been like when first discovered... (Note: All except 2 of the pics showing us together are digitally fudged- we usually took 2 pics, and combined the images) :) |
| La Digue held a very special charm for me: The whole population gets around by bicycle, and we hired two to explore the island. This is an old plantation house, and Nella meets the introduced tortoises. The original giant tortoises on the Seychelles were all killed off for meat by the late 1800's. |
| Very special memories for both of us... of a very special place...... the obligatory sunset pic- This one at the beach in front of our accomm on La Digue, with Praslin in the background.... |
| This is why I loved La Digue- this is near Anse Source d' Argent, an increadibly beautiful and unspoiled beach area, accessible only by foot or bicycle... It is the combination of huge granite boulder configurations, pure white beaches, and dense tropical vegetation and palms right up to the water's edge, that make the islands so special for me... they say this was Robinson Crusoe and Friday's island- I hope they also enjoyed their stay! :) |
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