La Digue
This small island, no more than four square miles in size, is Praslin’s beautiful neighbor and presents a picture of peaceful seclusion. Apart from a few minivans, the only other means of transport here are oxcarts or bicycles. The island has two centers, La Passe where you come ashore via the ship’s tender and, just half a mile to the south, Anse La Réunion. Both are on the island’s west coast and neither has more than a handful of dwellings, a few shops, and bicycle and oxcart rentals.
A perfect place to explore on one’s own, some of the beaches near La Passe are within easy walking distance. There is good diving practically anywhere in the waters around La Digue, as well as excellent snorkeling at Anse Patates and Anse La Réunion. Protected on all but its southeast shores by a magnificent encircling coral reef, La Digue retains all the fascination of an untouched world.
The road leading south from La Passe takes you past the charming La Digue Island Lodge and continues to l’Union Estate. The grounds feature a copra factory and an impressive tumble of granite rocks, at the foot of which live several giant tortoises. Farther along the beach at Source d’Argent, a dirt path winds around heaps of giant granite boulders which present a popular subject for photo buffs. From Anse La Réunion a road heads inland, skirting a nature reserve established specifically for the Seychelles paradise flycatcher.
Mahe
Like jade-colored jewels in the Indian Ocean, the more than 100 Seychelles Islands are often regarded as the Garden of Eden. Lying just four degrees south of the equator, the Seychelles are some 1,000 miles from the nearest mainland Africa. Little more than 200 years ago, all 115 islands were uninhabited.Then in 1742 a French ship dispatched from Mauritius sailed into one of the small bays. Captain Lazare Picault was the first to explore these unnamed islands. He encountered breathtaking vistas of rugged mountains, lagoons, coral atolls, splendid beaches and secluded coves. After Picault sailed away, the islands remained untouched for the next 14 years. Then France took possession of the seven islands in the Mahé group. During an expedition Captain Morphey named them the Sechelles, in honor of Vicomte Moreau de Sechelles.This name was later anglicized to Seychelles.
The first settlers arrived at St. Anne’s Island in 1770; 15 years later the population of Mahé consisted of seven Europeans and 123 slaves. Today there are about 80,000 Seychellois, the majority of whom live on Mahé; the rest are scattered in small communities throughout the archipelago.The people are a fusion of three continents — Africa, Asia and Europe.This has created a unique culture and the use of three languages — Creole, French and English.
Mahé is the largest island in the archipelago and the location of the capital, Victoria.
Praslin
This tropical Eden covers 14.5 square miles and lies a mere 21 miles from the island of Mahé. In addition to glorious beaches and fantastic marine life, Praslin is best known for the Vallée de Mai World Heritage Site where the botanical rarity, the coco de mer palm, grows wild. In fact, this incredible palm forest earned the island its original name of “Isle de Palme,” accorded by the French navigator Lazare Picault who had to carve his way through the tangled undergrowth of the inland hills.
In 1768 Marion Dufresne led an expedition to the island and renamed it Praslin. He placed a Deed of Possession in a bottle which he buried in the sands of the northern coast. In the early 1800s the total population of the island amounted to ten families. Nothing noteworthy happened through most of the century, except for the arrival of General Charles Gordon in 1881. The hero of Khartoum thought he had found the biblical Garden of Eden and pronounced that the coco de mer was the biblical tree of knowledge.
By 1990 the population had increased to more than 5,000 people, and since the Seychelles’ independence Praslin has seen some additional development. This affected the island’s civic and tourist infrastructure, including the building of roads and installing public electricity in 1981. A new airport was opened in 1975 which was soon followed by the construction of hotels to help cope with an unprecedented tourist boom.
Seychelles
The Seychelles entirely live up to their reputation as the true paradise islands of the Indian Ocean. The beaches are as white as you’ll ever see, the waters are clear and warm and the skies almost unfeasible blue.
Victoria (Mahe)
In the capital of the sultry Seychelles, explore stall after stall of luscious fruits and vegetables, aromatic spices and exotic seashells. Or head for the beach and snooze in the shade of gently rustling palms. Paradise.
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