Most people have a list of destinations that they dream of travelling to ‘one day’. When questioned, I would rattle off places like Mexico, the Far and Middle East, South America and the poles, counting them off on my fingers as I dreamt of faraway places that I would ‘one day’ set foot on.
Did Seychelles make an appearance on this list? The answer, politely, would have been a confident no as Lonely Planet images popped into my head depicting romantic getaways; honeymoons and couples waltzing along sunset beaches hand-in-hand. But as fate would have it, adventure knocked on the door and I answered – first stop - Seychelles.
Flying east for five hours we descended down onto Seychelle’s main island, Mahe. The capital, a very colonial name of Victoria, where one got a feel of the extreme beauty of this tropical nirvana during the early September Spring period. Turquoise oceans, golden beaches filled the plane’s windows. Clambering out of the small plane passengers were hit by the inviting climate, glancing around paintbrush perfect palm trees surrounded us. The ground staff all wearing Hawaiian style shirts, welcomed the latest arrivals to their slice of heaven.
The first challenge of my global and galactic adventure was arriving at a destination and not having a flight ticket departing from the destination. Customs officers globally are very aware of people over staying their welcome. Having a flight ticket departing from New Zealand five months later added to their confusion so travel 101: make sure you have all your paper work in order, and if you are sailing get a crew ticket with detailed information of your itinerary.
Having successfully gotten through border patrols and customs I headed towards town eagerly looking around, soaking up as much as possible I caught glimpses of the honeymoon resorts lining pristine beaches side by side with the everyday Seychellois way of life. But for the adventurers which included my global explorer and experienced skipper from Sydney Robi Ferenczi and a mixed bag of crew from Britain and Switzerland and me, our accommodation was a magnificent monohaul 55 foot yacht aptly named Topaz. She stood gleaming as she bobbed not far offshore from the Seychelles Yacht Club.
We spent our first days travelling and discovering Mahe going from one end to the other. On our side of the island residents had water restrictions as the island was coming out of the dry spell and that was the talk amongst all of the locals. That and the islands had run out of flour, not an unusual occurrence for the island. Every day on the other side, near Grand Anse tropical showers would fall like clockwork.
The crews contact with the outside world was nestled in the midst of the downtown market precinct. The internet café was run by a funky Indian chap who was an absolute cricket fanatic. This was an obvious connection with an Australian and South African and Ferenczi and I were welcomed to enjoy a training session with the only cricket club on the island. Whilst touching base with folks back home, we would refuel on the Creole chapattis and freshly squeezed lemonade, both a speciality of our cricket mad friend.
Fellow yachties shared news of whale sharks not far from Mahe and this ignited our travels, leaving Mahe behind after five days on the main island we sailed north towards the second largest island, Praslin that was 45km away. Topaz dropped anchor in a bay framed by immense boulders of granite that protruded out of the crystal clear water. Once settled, we all jumped in the water, paddling around observing the colourful array of fish that swam contently around us. Excited, we pointed out everything we spotted, even sea turtles swam nearby, they turned out to be residents in the bay and we swam with them every morning. But alas no whale sharks.
Praslin is legendary for the Coco-De-Mer that grows abundantly on this Garden of Eden; this palm’s fruit is a double sided coconut that rather resembles a bottom or as we fondly nicknamed it, ‘bum juice’. The rich flavoured milk from the Coco-De-Mer is made into a delicious liqueur that is found in almost every cocktail sipped on exotic beaches around the archipelago cluster. An absolute must for anyone that finds themselves wandering around this paradise.
The spectacular island of Praslin is home to two of the top ten beaches in the world that often features on lists like Destination360 Top Ten World Beaches. Tossing Frisbees amongst bronzed bodies then diving into refreshing waters, I had to agree with the ratings as I observed the beauty from behind trickling waves splashing onto silver glistening beaches! On the idyllic Anse Lazio beach we came across a fellow traveller from Hawaii who quietly poured sand onto his hand building rustic hand sand castles. His simple art moulded naturally into the beauty of the surroundings.
The desire to swim with the whale sharks took over, so we raised Topaz’s anchor and set sail again, while island hoping for a few days, we would cast a line off the back of our boat and catch fish, attempting different Seychellois recipes that the hungry crew would devour.
Stopping off at several small islands that were either uninhabited or rumoured to be privately owned we tucked into coves and here we relished in the Indian Ocean, swimming, snorkelling or just jumping in for a dip. The uninhabited islands were protected by the local parks authorities with the lush green wilderness thriving without any human interference and tropical birds glided colourfully over head. It was frowned upon setting foot on these untouched bits of land and majority of folks obeyed these laws. The privately owned spots had the same feel, if you explored uninvited you could get into rather large amounts of trouble. Staying on the safe side, the Topaz team just enjoyed splashing about surrounded by truly tremendous settings.
Our next stop amongst the Inner Islands was La Digue Island. Having a smart little harbour that welcomed big cruise boats, the island however was stuck in a pleasant time warp and didn’t have any vehicles polluting the environment. If you didn’t find yourself on the back of a bicycle, or walking you could hitch a ride on an ox-drawn cart that drew you around the fourth largest island.
As we ventured onto land, we got caught up in a political rally that had the red party marching, promoting themselves ahead of the upcoming countries elections. Enjoying the festivities around the march, our group eventually wandered off in search of the heaviest land tortoise that roamed the island and the earth. We were not disappointed, finding these giants at the L’Union estate. The massive herbivores ate unashamedly from visitors’ hands as everyone plucked leaves from nearby trees to feed these dinosaur type reptiles.
L’Union Estate is also home to historic traditional local industries such as vanilla farming and curing as well as the production of copra and coconut oil. Hiking up granite rocks that hang high over windswept beaches, I stood astonished by the natural beauty that I was immersed in. Heading back our crew discovered hidden in a dilapidated boat shed, a real life pirate’s vessel that brought us back to reality with the looming first leg of our trip to be sailed through pirate infested waters.
We packed up and sailed back to Mahe to say our goodbyes to both crew members that were departing the boat and returning back to the UK and locals that we had befriended during our stay. The last day was spent stocking up the boat for our voyage. Our final stop had us dock at the posh new Wharf Hotel and Marina where it was easy for us to refuel the boat and lug groceries onboard. This time the talk amongst the locals was the devastating reality of the island having run out of toilet paper which rather amused us as we keenly listened while loading groceries for our first leg to Gan Island in the Maldives, just south of the Equator.
Having spent three glorious weeks, our final evening was spent at a local connection of Ferenczis, a sail maker simply named Maxwell. At his home the lucid sounds of Youssou N’Dour wafted through the air and the tantalising mouth-watering smells of Creole cooking greeted us. The menu was an assortment of local cuisine including grilled shark and chilli tuna, dished up on a bed of rice, served on banana leaves. Maxwell had acquired the small shark at the local fishmongers; the shark had unfortunately got tangled up in a tuna net. Our daring palates demolished the grilled shark and it tasted heavenly.
A perfect ending on this inspiring island that was not all about honeymoons and couples!
Topaz departed as the sun rose warmly over the capital of Seychelles. Our odyssey had begun with Ferenczi guiding us into the great big blue, zigzagging through tuna vessels anchored for safety due to the rampant pirate attacks.
Sunset with Topaz silhouted in the distance.
Topaz anchored off Praslin.
Rob and Claudia feeding the giant tortoises on La Digue.
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