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A Breadfruit Tree! You have to try breadfruit fries,
they are delicious. |
March 2017
On Saturday morning, Gym asked the guide if she had ever eaten a fruit bat. She said no but told us that her mother eats them all the time. She said her mom recommended that when one cooked fruit bats you should purchase two bats per person because one bat didn't have enough meat on it.
In addition to passing on the fruit bat anecdote, our guide provided us with a wonderful tour of the second and third most populated islands in the Seychelles. She was an expert on the traditional methods of manufacturing coconut oil and all of the endemic flora and fauna of these two unique islands. The tour itself however was arduous to say the least, especially in the +30C heat and humidity. We started at 0600 in the morning and didn't get back to our villa until 2100 that evening. We were so tired we skipped dinner and crashed that night.
To start the tour we were to go down to the lobby to pick up a takeout breakfast that the hotel had prepared for us and then jumped in a cart which took us to the main entrance. At the main entrance, we were met by a mini-bus which spirited us up and over Mahe's central ridge and down into the capital where we picked up our tickets for the ferry to Praslin. This was all arranged by the Creole Tours Company. We then zipped across to Praslin in a modern high-speed ferry and made the landing there only to jump on another smaller ferry to cross over to La Digue. When we hit the terminal at La Digue, our heads were spinning a little bit from the multiple precise transitions between various forms of transportation, but we were ready to tour.
La Digue is the smaller of the two islands we visited that day. Our itinerary would have us tour a traditional coconut oil manufacturing plant and then visit the iconic Anse Source d'Argent. The scenes of this beach show up on numerous post cards of the Seychelles Islands because of the unique granite boulders that stick up out of the sand and the surf. Gym went snorkelling here but it was low tide and the pickings were slim. After a couple of hours on Anse Source d'Argent, we then drove through town, which reminded Gym of many places in the Caribbean. Then the tour stopped for lunch at an open-air restaurant where they served a nice, complimentary buffet-style meal. All was well until it was made known to Mrs. Gym that the drinks were extra and she was forced to fork over 210 rupees (about 20 loonies) for two sparkling waters. In hindsight we should have had a beer, like our new American friend Dave had. Dave savoured a Seybrew which is of course the local lager. The consensus seems to be that it stacks up well against most tropical brews.
After lunch we got back on the inter-island ferry and returned to Praslin. We were processed trough the terminal and jumped on a tour bus with our Creole Tours guide. The next stop was Praslin National Park and the very impressive Vallee de Mai Nature Preserve. This was the climax of the day because we were to tour through a palm forrest where the Coco du Mer and five other endemic palm trees grow naturally. The nature preserve has a very high quality interpretive centre and a series of good quality and well sign-posted hiking trails. Our guide gave us an excellent lecture on the life cycle of the Coco du Mer and the other five native palm trees in that forrest. It turns out that one species of gecko in its travels from the male tree to the female tree is responsible for fertilizing the seed of the Coco du Mer and propagating the species. We also spotted the endemic Black Parrot feeding on one of the other native palms and apparently you have to be lucky to see one of those. There are less than 1000 birds in the whole world and the entire breeding population lives on Praslin.
We had finally found the home of the Coco du Mer but there was one more stop before leaving Praslin. We would speed across the island on our tour bus to spend an hour at another iconic Seychelles beach, this time we were to invade Anse Lazio. As our tour bus driver pretended he was Ricky Bobby and he sped past the doddling ex-pats in there rented KIAs, we had just about reached our limits and were getting tired. It had already been a long day. So, when we finally lurched into the beach we only had time to take a couple of pictures and then tried to rest up a bit for the bone-jarring return trip across the island.
After winning the rally across Praslin we were poured out onto the terminal dock and queued for the ferry. Our friend Dave grabbed another Seybrew and we all sat in air-conditioned comfort during a smooth one-hour crossing back to Mahe. From there we jumped back into a minivan and drove back up and over the spine of Mahe to our home above Petit Anse. We had completed the two-island tour in one very full day and we slept very well that night.
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| The ferry terminal on Mahe |
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| Sighting a tall ship on the crossing to Praslin |
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| Landing on Praslin |
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Crossing over to La Digue and just offshore of it you can see
examples of the boulders that are unique to that island. |
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| A European "volunteer" dehusking a coconut |
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His name is Victor and he walks around in circles powering the grinder
that extracts the oil from the dried coconut meat. |
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| Mrs. Gym emerging from the drying shack |
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The cool traditionally built house was claimed by the former
President of the Seychelles. It has since been given back to
the people and you can now check out the island construction
techniques that were used in times past. |
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| This is a panorama of La Digue's Anse Source d'Argent |
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The boulders of Anse Sourc d'Argent. Gym snorkeled here.
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| looking the other way |
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| The really cool pathway to the beach |
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| This is the view from the restaurant where Mrs. Gym paid $21 for bottled water |
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| This is a live Coco du Mer tree growing in its natural habitat on Praslin |
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| Coco du Mer trees owe so much to these geckos. |
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This is actually a picture of a black parrot. Sorry it is not clear but
it is authentic. |
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| Praslin's iconic beach of Anse Lazio |
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| Anse Lazio |
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Gym took this picture last night on the eve of his mom's birthday.
It is a view looking out towards Africa from Mahe.
It was as if she painted it herself. |
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