“Curieuse – The island is home to giant tortoises!“

The following day we visited Curieuse Island, a small granitic island in the Seychelles close to the North Coast of Praslin Island, which is uninhabited and was once a leper colony. The island is home to giant tortoises and is a sight to behold, here we had the opportunity to take a picture with the tortoises but were advised not to sit on their backs or scratch on their shells as they are very sensitive. We had a guided tour through the mangrove forests and experienced numerous interesting things like various crab species and tasted a fruit that literally has no taste – if you can believe that something can have no taste. We ended the day with a delicious barbeque on the beach under the trees and plenty of time to relax and swim.

The next morning we sailed for Cousin Island, a small granitic island of the Seychelles, lying 2kms west of Praslin. It is a nature reserve protected under Seychelles law as a Special Reserve. Here we went on an excursion to the bird sanctuary that is home to around 250,000 birds. The island also has several nesting beaches for turtles – but beware as there are millions of mosquitoes on the island, so be sure to cover yourself with copious amounts of insect repellent and wear light coloured clothing, as the mosquitoes are attracted to dark colours.

In the afternoon we sailed onto Anse Lazio, located on the island of Praslin. Anse Lazio is a beach situated in the North West of Praslin Island and is considered by Lonely Planet to be the best beach on Praslin, and one of the best in the archipelago. Crystal clear warm waters, clean white beach sand and palm trees everywhere you look – exactly how you imagine a tropical island! At Anse Lazio we swam and snorkelled in the azure waters and saw numerous brightly coloured and unusual sea creatures.

The following morning we set sail for Aride Island, which is a nature reserve that is leased and managed by the Island Conservation Society of Seychelles. The excursion took us all the way to the top of the island for an amazing view of the island. The rare Wright’s Gardenia is found on this island and grows nowhere else on Earth, as well as bird species like the Seychelles Warbler. After a tasty lunch on the ship we were off to the small island of St. Pierre. St. Pierre Island is a raised reef island West of Providence Atoll and part of Farquhar Group, which belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles.

We stopped for an afternoon of swimming and snorkelling, once again taking in the wonderful underwater scenes and fish species that swim all around you. This evening was our first evening in dock at Baie St Anne, after being at anchor on the previous nights, we took the opportunity to take a short walk to the little town and found a quaint little restaurant where you can get a bite to eat as well as something cold and refreshing to drink.

An optional tour to the Vallée de Mai was available the following morning. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is so remarkable that it was once believed to be the original site of the Garden of Eden. It is here that the legendary Coco De Mer, the world’s heaviest nut, grows high on ancient palms. The Vallée boasts six endemic palm species and several other indigenous trees and is the last habitat of the endangered Black Parrot.

After the excursion there was time for a swim stop at Cote D’Or beach. The beach of Cote D’Or is a stunning 2.5km stretch of pristine white sand wrapping around the bay of Anse Volbert. Spread along the length of the beach are a number of accommodation options, from large luxury resorts like the Paradise Sun Hotel or the boutique hotel Duc De Praslin, through to simple self-catering bungalows and guesthouses.

It may be one of the more touristy areas of the island, being more of a ‘resort’ than a village (like Grande Anse or Baie Sainte Anne), but as resorts go Cote D’Or is low density and sleepy. The beach is long and the hotels spread thinly, with a handful of shops and restaurants clustered towards the middle to West end of the bay. The vast majority of buildings are set back from the beach and obscured by trees, with just a handful of resorts opening onto the beach front, keeping the beach looking beautiful and empty, and in the evenings and weekends you are likely to see just as many local families as tourists wandering the beaches or the shops.

There are a number of boats moored on the bay, and from the beach you can look out onto the islands of Curieuse, St. Pierre and Chauve Souris. Chauve Souris is the closest, and it’s possible to walk or swim out to the island and enjoy great snorkelling around the rocks, again in beautiful blue waters.

That afternoon we sailed to Félicité Island for more snorkelling and swimming. This is a small heavy forested granitic island 4kms east of La Digue Island and is the fifth largest island in the Seychelles archipelago, measuring 2.68 square kilometres.

The following morning we went to what was without doubt our favourite of all the Seychelles Islands – La Digue. La Digue is known for its beaches, like Anse Source d’Argent, dotted with granite boulders, on the west coast. To the south, isolated Anse Bonnet Carré Beach, with calm, shallow water, is accessible only on foot, as is Anse Cocos Beach, in a protected bay on the east coast. La Digue’s diverse wildlife can be seen in the Veuve Nature Reserve. This picturesque island is one of the most photographed in the world. The island is fairly flat and bicycles by far outnumber motorised vehicles. We hired bikes at a very reasonable rate and took our time to explore parts of the island. Due to time constraints we couldn’t explore as much as we would have liked but it was enough to whet our appetite. Later we relaxed on the beach and enjoyed freshly squeezed fruit juice from one of the vendors on the beach, and we also found out that the original Emmanuelle erotic films featuring Sylvia Kristel were filmed in an old plantation house on the island.

The next day we headed back to Mahé however not before a stop at Moyenne Island which is within view of Mahé. Moyenne Island is a small island in the St. Anne Marine National Park, just off the north coast of Mahé.  Since the 1970s it has been a flora and fauna reserve and has had various eccentric owners over the years, one of the most interesting was undoubtedly an English lady, Miss Emma Best and her menagerie of stray dogs and other animals. Old relics provide a hint of what the island’s Robinson Crusoe lifestyle must have been like more than a century ago. We spent the last night of our cruise in dock in Mahé where we enjoyed the Captains farewell dinner with live music and dancing.

The next morning we bid farewell to our fellow cruise travellers who were heading back home. We on the other hand were fortunate enough to have booked one extra night in Mahé and stayed at the very pleasant Avani Barbarons Resort & Spa. This establishment had all the amenities one would expect and was located right on the beach were we relaxed and made the most of our final hours in paradise.

Our flight back to Johannesburg departed at 09h20 the next morning, and as some would say “You have to go back home to be able to come again”, but I could have easily stayed in paradise…