Travelog for: Vicky Mouseham

We decided to spend the day at the beach.

Not far from the house there's this craft village.

They paint pareos, make bags and hats from palm leaves and other souvenirs.


We drove on to Anse à la mouche



and to Anse Boileau.





When we got back home there was a big swarm of common mynahs in the garden.

We wanted to visit the tea plantation up in the mountains today.
This is the view going up the road above Victoria.

Here we are at the ruins of a boys' school run by monks. When there are no clouds one has a beautiful view but the mountains were hanging int he clouds once again giving the ruins a haunted atmosphere.





We walked around a little way through the forest. Sometimes I could see only outlines in the fog. I got so scared that I had to be blindfolded and led some of the way.



Next we drove to the tea factory. We could already see the tea fields passing by.

We wanted to have some tea. It was 3:30 and they were supposed to be open until 4, but...time is relative here and the ladies were closing up the tea room already and the truck with the workers from the tea factory left when we arrived.
We just had a quick look around and then drove on.



A few people were still working at planting new fields.

We found a great point for a view of the next bay and the small islands before it. It was sunny but the light was filtered by the trees and then by the camera.





We drove up to Port Claud. Here's the church. They'd just had a funeral and we saw the procession. People weren't dressed darkly but in their sunday best with hats and flower prints.




Cows seem to be held with a halfter and a long chain here, so they can move a bit without needing a fence.

Our last day on Mahé was spent near the house. We went to the beach when the water was at its lowest point.





The rocks are great for sunbathing or for watching teh small fish that live around them.


The coastal road runs directly along here, but there's never that much traffic so it doesn't matter.





The trees give more shade than the palms.

You can see the waves breaking at the coral reef. We walked some way out towards that to see what we could find hidden now that a lot of the sand was swept away.

a sea-cucumber

many small deeper pools

corals are always good for a surprise...

A little sea star with heagehog-like spikes was hiding in this one.

Who wants to touch her?

Look how far away from the beach we are.


We also took photos around the area...






... and after the bags were packed we could relax in the sun.

Today we took a little island-hopper, a propellor plane that flies between the different islands of Seychelles, one like this but not as brightly colored.

It has place for only 20 passengers. We sat all the way in the back and could still see into the cockpit.

On the runway:

We had a great view at the smaller islands.



On Praslin everything seems much calmer. We got settled in our house for the week.

Then we visited the beach closest to us, Grand Anse. At this time of the year the wind brings a lot of seagrass to this side of the island. For swimming we'll have to go to the other side but we knew that.


Here you can see Cousin and Cousine, two islands that are privately owned. Couosin is a nature reserve for birds. We'll go there next week. Cousine 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.

This is on the beach, directly at the airport. Black Pearl brings up pearls from the ocean. They have a tiny aquarium of native, partly hurt sea animals that are occasionally cared for before they get released again you can see the open tanks from the beach.


Behind the sign is the runway of the small airport.

It nearly ends at the road and the beach, so here's the only stop light on the island.

The holes the crabs make directly next to the road.

Today we found this funny bug on our patio.

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.

Coiusin 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 nisting were these noddies.

Here are two native lizards. Can you find them?

Some Aldabra Giant Tortoises were brought here and still live here, but now freely on the island instead of in a walled area.

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:

Today we took the bus to Mont Plaisir, which is a place in the mountains where there's only a few houses. At the last bus stop we followed a dirt road further up the mountains. There were little springs by the road that supply the tap and bottled water for Praslin and some of the surrounding islands.
We had a wonderful view of Aride in the distance when we climbed down again on the other side.

Anse Lazio and Curieuse Island

A small farm we still had to walk down there and then climb a bit  to reach the beach.



Finally there, isn't it beautiful?

A few last pictures of our house and garden before we have to leave for the airport:







We had a jambose rouge tree in the garden. The birds seemed to like it a lot.

After lots of delays we finally arrived on mahé late at night. Now we are waiting for our flight to Dubai.

We spent some time being carried around the airport before we flew on to Düsseldorf.

We're back in Germany. Here our trip ends. I said good-bye to everybody.

I am on my way now to the USA. I got my coin in my bag (it'S 25 cents from Seychelles) and pictures with a ten rupees note from Seychelles. 

Hello fellow shoppers! I arrived in New York this afternoon and I'm happy to be here. I heard that my host likes to shop (shhh....don't tell her husband) so we should get along just fine.

I'll update again soon!

Smooches!