Travelog for: Nami Geneveva

Today we took a tiny islandhopper (a propellor plane with place for 20 passengers) to Praslin.

Praslin below us:


We needed a rest in our new room.


Grand Anse, where we are gets a lot of sea grass during July/August, because of the way the winds blow into the bay at that time. They may even cause many small fish and with them small sharks come into the bay.



The sand plovers were very shy and most fled before one could even get a good look at them.


We walked along the beach toward the north-west. There's this place that brings up oisters for their black pearls and also raises some young or hurt fish and sea animals. It's Black Pearl of Seychelles. This is their boat, you can see the tanks behind the fence.

We looked for a few of their discarded mussels for the beautiful glittering ones. Some of them with half-formed pearls are sold, but with a bit of climbing and digging we also found a few beautiful ones here.
Here you can see Cousin and Cousine, two islands that are privately owned. Cousin(right) is a nature reserve for birds. We'll go there next week. Cousine(left) is a hotel island and has 4 villas for 2 person's each. The guests are flown in by helicopter and pay 1200€/night, minimum length of stay is 3 nights. Part of the money is used for the renaturalization of the island and bird and turtle protection. Each guest can plant a native tree (otherwise it is planted for him) to replace the introduced ones. Other people have to get the permission of the hotel management before they can come on the island.

We went around to the street side. This is their sign. We would have liked to have such a collier, but the prices started at a couple thousand Euros.

As you can see they are directly at the end of the runway of the small island airport where we also arrived today.


We went back to the house along the road and got a number of offers of rides or cookies, whatever kind of cookies they meant. We prefered walking, though. It's much calmer here then on Mahé and a car only passes every now and then. There'S also something like an unpaved sidewalk.

This sign warns you of the only stop-light on this island. The runway ends only a few meters in front of the road.

This morning we got ready and then went to the bus stop. The bus-ride took quite a long time. It was very full with both tourists and natives, most going to the other side of the island. We drove over the mountains, through the Unesco protected Val de Mai. That was a bit scary because it was steep and there were many curves. We arrived at Baie St. Anne on the other side and then turned east toward the port to La Digue. There the bus turned around again and we drove toward the west and the most touristy beaches: Anse volbert and Anse Lazio. We got out at the last stop. We wanted to go to Anse Lazio, but the last part of the way is so steep, that the bus won't drive there.
I also got to go snorkeling. The camera we had wasn't very good, though, so the pictures aren't even half as clear or colorful, as the real experience.



We found this funny bug on our patio tonight.

We chartered a boat to take us to Cousin Island this morning. It collected us at the beach and we had fun on the short way.

Cousin is dedicated to the preservation of endemic and other native bird specias and also a place for sea turtles to lay their eggs at the beach. To keep rats and other carnivores off the island, the boats need to anchor a few hundred meters off-shore and visitors have to get on a tiny island boat that runs up on the shore.
The first birds we saw were these noddies. It was nisting season. We were told that the male birds bring the females leaves for the nest. The females then have to accept or reject the leave. When they accept it they just take it and put it somewhere in the nest, when they reject it they drop it and the male has to go and find a new one to present it. We actually saw both happening. There was a collective groaning from the men in the group when the female bird rejected the leaf.



Here's a young tropic bird:

And older ones. They nist on the ground, so it's very important that no animals that would eat them get on the island.


White terns supposedly mate for life.

We left the way we came: first the island boat from the beach, then changing boats on sea and back to Praslin at high speed.

We took the bus to Mont Plaisir and then walked from there over the mountains to the other side of the island and Anse Lazio, a very beautiful, protected bay in the north-west of Praslin.


The mountains are quite green.


When we finally passed over the top of the mountain we had a great view of Aride in the distance:

And here's Anse Lazio and behind it Curieuse, an island where giant tortoises live under protection of wildkeepers. One can go there for a few hours to watch and pet them.

A little farm we had to pass by. The way got slippery on the way down.


Finally there:

My first host hasn't responded to messages, but Blurchen in Austria has kindly agreed to jump in and host me this summer. I got my passport ready and now I am off to Austria!
Vicky is leaving, too and collecting coins. We took a last picture together with a ten rupees note and the 25 Seychelles cents coin she'll take with her.

Today I arrived by my new Host Christina in Petzenkirchen, Austria.

I was so happy when I got my first breath of fresh air today! =)

Today was such a beautiful day that we spend the hole afternoon in the garden.
I was totally happy, when I first saw that my host has got a pool - A POOL! =) .. I couldn´t wait to go in, but we had lunch and so I had to wait a little bit to go swimming.



After waiting an half an hour I could go inside.
Here you can see chiling me on an airbed.



I also found a new friend! =)



After swimming I was lying in the sun and enjoying the sunshine! =)

Christina took us with her to our friends, where we spend a really nice evening on their balcony. The best thing was the christmas-candle, which they alight. =)

Today we have been to a Heuriger with our host and their we got some typical austrian dishes.

Here I´m drinking some Almdudler.



The Heuriger was on a hill and I had a great view to Wieselburg, which lies next to Petzenkirchen.



We had a really funny dinner and I ate so much that I had to take a long rest before I could go for a swim again! ; )

I saw the new Batman movie, can you believe that!? .. Christinas boyfriend´s a real fan of Batman and so we just had to go with them to the cinema.
And it was also a special cinema - an english cinema. The "English Cinema Haydn"´s the oldest english speaking cinema in Vienna - it was found 1914.



We have been early and so we had to wait a little bit. Next to the cinema there was the church "Maria Hilf".



And I also met my first indigenous animal in Austria - a dove! She was a little bit scared and so I couldn´t really say "Hello" to her, but I got as near to her as possible! =)



The seat next to Christina has been free and so we could sit on her backpack and enjoy the movie. We also got some sweets - Kinder Schoko Bons.. - they´ve been great! =)

Today we had to get up really early, because we had to get a train to Innsbruck at 7.55 a.m. in Amstetten, which´s about 20 minutes away from Petzenkirchen.
The good thing was that we had quite a long ride with the train to Innsbruck and so we could sleep during the ride! =)

After all of us´ve been awake we had breakfast.


The other time in the train we spend with reading, chating and watching outside the window.


We had to change the train in Salzburg and had a some minutes there. To less to go outside of the railwaystation, so Christian bought us a postcard from Salzburg - to show us how Salzburg looks like.






During midday we arrived in Innsbruck. We went to our hostel to check in, before we went to the "Golden roof" - the emblem from Innsbruck and through the beautiful Old Town of the city.









Later we drove with a bus to the castle Ambras, which´s next to Innsbruck.



Inside the castle there was a museum and a special room, which was called "Spanish hall".







After such an exhausting day we all have been hungry and went to a typial austrian restaurant in Innsbruck. It was called "Stiftskeller".

On the second day of our trip to Innsbruck we had a great breakfast in the oldest café house in Innsbruck - Café Mundig.
We ate quite a lot, but we also needed power for the next day! =)



After breakfast we went to the railwaystation to get a special bus, with which we could drive to the Swarovsky Crystal World.



We had really fun inside of the Crystal World and saw so many beautiful and sparkling crystals. But they had also a really beautiful garden arround in which we found those nice tent. =)





I could also swim in the nice pont in front of the Crystel World. =)



From the Swarovsky Crystal World we drove back with the Shuttle Bus to Innsbruck and to the Ski Jump Stadium on the mountain Isel.



From there we could see all over Innsbruck. =)
It was quite high up their and I felt a little bit worried, because I´m a delphine and not a bird!
Luckily nothing happened and I was really lucky when we´ve been back in the city.

Sadly we had to leave already. It´s quite a long ride home and we had to get our train.
Before the train came we posed in front of the Innsbruck-marker on the railway station.



Innsbruck´s a really nice city and I´m happy that I could go there! =)

Here you can see us in the "Schloßpark Laxenburg" - it´s the park arround the castle in the town Laxenburg. This park´s huge!!!! You can find there a lot of interesting things - a castle, a grotto, riding-area, watherfall... and a big sea with some rivers across the hole park. It was amaing! =)

Here we´re sitting on a bridge across one of those rivers. We´ve been on our way to the castle - in the middle of the park-area.



After quite a long walk we arrived the Island in the middle of the park. We had to take those boat to get there.



Here we´re near the castle.





We visited the castle, but we couldn´t make photos inside, so we can´t show you how it looked inside.
But we went on walking trough the great park and found the watherfall! =)



After a long and hot afternoon walking through the park we had a short break. We had to relaxe before we went all the way back to the entree of the park.

Today Christina had a free afternoon and  it was such a nice day that she made a walk with us trough her hometown Petzenkirchen. It´s just a small town and there´s not much to see. But at least they got an old castle and a nice church. =)



Christina also told us the legend about the name of the town and the church.

Once there was a knight and he met a bear in the forest. He prayed to god that he´ll build a chapel on this place, when he can fight the bear. He could and so he built  on that place a chapel. This chapel grow to the church of Petzenkirchen and also the town was named after this legend. “Petz”´s a name for a big bear and “Kirche” ´s the german word for church. So the town´s called “bear-church”, badly translated.

Today we all have been at the reading from the german book author Ingrid Noll in the Thalia-Shop in Vienna. =)
I havn´t read any book from Ingrid Noll before, but my host Christina´s a fan from her and so she took us with her.
Ingrid Noll´s writing crime stories and just released her new book "Kuckuckskind". At the moment it´s only avaible as a hardcover-book, so Christina didn´t bought it, but she liked, what Ingrid Noll was reading from it.



After the reading we´ve been also waiting to get the books of Christina signed. There´ve been sooo many people that we couldn´t pose with Ingrid Noll, but at home Christina took time to show us her books and the signature she got from Ingrid Noll.