Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles is our port of call today. And a nice one it is. Actually there are 115 islands that make up the Seychelles located in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. It is also part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Scattered over one million square kilometers of ocean, they have what is described as talcum powder beaches lined with topaz waters, which earns them being named another tropical paradise. The capital of the Seychelles is Victoria with a population of 28,000 people but the total number of all islands is 93,200 people that speak Creole, English and French. Victoria is considered the smallest capital in the world. Who knew?
Diving and snorkeling attract most visitors here with healthy reefs, shelf-diving, purpose shipwrecks, and granite outcroppings with coral gardens to boot. Known for nesting sea turtles on Bird Island or the giant Aldabra tortoises, they are a must-see. Of course we have had the pleasure of doing many years ago over the years – some of those took us to the Botanic gardens where we saw these tortoises and had the chance to feed them. As well as endemic plants and trees, they house fruit bats and the coco de mer trees that produce the largest known seed in the world. You will have no problem finding many souvenirs and t-shirts with the most unusual shape of the coco de mer.
Tours offered today were a ferry ride to Praslin Island for 7 hours and $400, while another 7 hour tour took folks on a city tour, a visit to the gardens, and a Creole style lunch for $250. Two four hour tours were coral and cruise and coral and spice for $170 to $180 with no lunch. Since the city center is within walking distance of the pier, we could cover it on our own.
Common animals live here such as fruit bats, geckos, skinks, and a hedgehog named tenrec from Madagascar. There are small snakes, but none are dangerous. The French and English explorers just about wiped out the giant tortoises, but today their numbers are about 100,000….most living on Aldabra Island. Some rare birds inhabit some of the outlying islands such as magpie robins, the Seychelle warbler, paradise flycatchers, and endangered black parrots. Scops owls and kestrels live on the island of Mahe. Millions of sooty terns live on Bird Island – very appropriate. And there are sharks. From the Seychelles to Mauritius, and Reunion there is a concentration of sharks that thrive in these waters. It is called Shark Alley, and is a good thing to keep in mind with the water sports.
Food and drink here is unusual beginning with "civet de chauvre souris" or bat curry. Yes, cooked fruit bats. Thanks, but no thanks. Fish and rice dishes may include shark, parrotfish, grouper, tuna and numerous other varieties. The fruit sounds better to us like mangoes, bananas, breadfruit, papaya, coconuts, grapefruit and pineapple. Mixed with spices, they make a great chutney. By the way, much of the food here is imported from South Africa. Fruit juices are popular, but for us the local beer is better – Seybrew. Eku is also good, but harder to find.
The majority of tourists coming here are from Germany, France, Russia, and the UK. It is a great spot for them to escape the freezing winters. Some other facts include their religion which is primarily Catholic, with some Protestants, Hindus, and a small Muslim community. This area is subject to severe weather during the monsoon season from December through March. Ninety % of the population are of Creole descent. Their economy is driven by fishing, tourism, coconut and vanilla production, boat building , printing, furniture and beverage companies. They also produce cinnamon, sweet potatoes, tapioca, bananas, and poultry as well as tuna.
We came across a question doing some research, and it was where is the world's most expensive luxury hotel? Well the answer was right here in the Seychelles with a one night stay going for $6995. That's one day and night folks………….
The first thing we noticed after the ship was docked was the smell of not-so-fresh fish that permeated our room, and eventually the entire ship. Perhaps there is a fish processing plant nearby and we were downwind of it. The weather was not the best as we had showers on the way into the harbor and what looked like heavy rain on the highest ridges above Victoria. The chance of seeing some sun was next to none. It remained hot with a warm and humid breeze. Definitely a day to bring the umbrellas along with us.
Last year we were here for two days when the ship's itinerary was changed not to include the Suez Canal. Being that we have kept a diary of our trips over the years, we knew that the interruption of the internet did not occur in this part of the world. We were advised by the folks at the front desk that we would need to shut our computer off and log in again……over and over to keep the signal going. This seemed to work, but that never happened last year. The signal on the TV was spotty for the most part, and we had to turn off the TV and re-start it. Again, a mystery.
We did see some white birds in flight and thought they may be tropic birds. But at a closer look at the photos, they turned out to be egrets. However, one of the first birds we spotted turned out to be a tropic bird. It was the only one we saw all day. We did spot about five frigates flying really high, and we snapped a shot of a sooty tern. Just one.
So we left the ship at 10:30am and took the same walk we usually take to town. If we had more time, and if it wasn't so extremely hot, we would have liked to see the Victoria Botanical Gardens, but that is a half day hike by itself. We went to downtown instead.
It is a bit of a walk to reach the entrance to the pier at the main road. There is an xray checkpoint there, which we would have to go through on the way back. Many hopeful taxi drivers were in the parking lot offering cheap tours, but we have taken most all of them in the past and preferred to be on our own. No pressure, they left us alone. Turning right, we followed Lantanier Road to the roundabout and the Unity Monument. Turning right on Constitution Avenue we passed by the very modern National Library on the left and the Yacht Club on the right. This used to be a place where they served lunch and beers, but from the looks of it, this place had long since closed and gone into ruins.
We reached the Bicentennial Monument and the Peace Park on the right. This is here we crossed the road carefully, and followed the fenced off Gordon Square, a large grassy field. There is a wide canal on the left where we tend to see a lot of birds. One of those is a very colorful small seed-eating red birds appeared. Researching it later, we discovered it was a red cardinal fody, a native of Madagascar. We only saw here one today. Last year we happened to be here a few weeks earlier, so we might be missing the season for other bird sightings.
This trail led us past the backside of the Seychelles Natural Museum, where some of the employees were leaving on their lunch break. This trail led us to a taxi parking lot and right where we needed to be to see the rest of the downtown area. St. Paul's Cathedral was sounding their bells when we arrived. This small church is Protestant and it appeared there were parishioners inside singing. Turning right, we made our way up to Market Street and to the Sir Selwyn- Clarke Market, where everything can be found from produce to fish to meat markets. Surrounding the fresh food market were stalls of clothing, shoes, spices, island treasures….you name it, they had it. Inside the produce/fish market there is a second level with nicer island souvenirs. One of us did not have the energy to climb the stairs to access the treasures. None of the other customers went up there either that we could see.
We also passed by the Hindu Temple where we found the doors opened this time. There was chanting and music coming from the inside, so it attracted many tourists who decided to enter the building. But first, they had to remove their shoes. No way Jose for us. One time we had to leave our shoes at a door of a temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka, but we had a difficult time getting them back. First they could not find them, then when they did, they wanted money to get them back. Who knew these stupid things can happen. We did not, but we sure took our shoes back by ourselves, as did the rest of our group. What are they going to do…..arrest us for stealing our own shoes? Anyway, the best photos of these types of temples is all on the outside.
Back at the market, we watched the local fishermen displaying their catch which included tuna, jackfish, barracuda, red snapper, and a variety of smaller fish. We also saw three small egrets on a counter behind some of the vendors. At first we thought the birds were pecking at the fish filets, but then we realized they were aiming at flies which landed on the fish. It was remarkable how fast these birds were at catching these flies. So they must be tolerated for that reason alone. If they left droppings, we did not stick around long enough to see it. The collateral damage from the birds could be washed away before the customers bought the fish. The produce section revealed healthy and fresh-looking fruits and veggies. At a closer look, we noticed that many of the boxes of fruit were imported from South Africa. That is one good reason why everything costs more here, such as the meat products and things that cannot be grown here like berries, apples, and oranges for instance.
From the marketplace, we made our way uphill to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. It sits high on a hill overlooking downtown. It was also opened to the public with a group praying in the choir loft. We sat for a nano-second due to the extreme heat and lack of breeze. It had started raining lightly at this point, so we used our umbrellas and sat under the huge frangipani trees across form the rectory. Then out of the blue, one red cardinal fodies landed close to our feet. Just for us we said jokingly. We slowly moved the camera to get some shots before a couple of folks wandered up the driveway and scared it off. We read later that they are rarely seen here in Victoria. We got lucky to see two of them.
From here, we made our way back down to the 1903 Victoria Clocktower modeled after Little Ben in London. It is Victoria's iconic landmark, although rather strange-looking in our humble opinion. But the highlight of the day was right on this very same corner where we found a great place for lunch on previous stops here. But there would require a hike up 24 stairs to access Coco Blue Bar and Restaurant on the second level. But it's worth it for the ice cold Seybrew beers and a very tasty Hawaiian pizza. No bat curry for us today.
We were seated at a balcony table in the open- air restaurant watching the street traffic below. This is sure a busy place with locals shopping and kids getting out of school . They all appeared to be wearing uniforms. The service was leisurely, but we appreciated it since the all aboard time was 10:30pm and we were in no hurry to leave this breezy patio. We ended our meal with a dessert of chocolate cake and a side of vanilla ice cream. Glad we shared it, since it was a healthy portion. By the way, they accepted all credit cards including Am Ex as well as US dollars and Euros we heard.
On the way back, we took Rue Pierre de Possession Road where we passed several large banks, dinner-type restaurants, and a casino. There is a row of typical souvenir shacks along this stretch, but they were so crammed with stuff, we saw nothing we needed. One of us is aways on the search for visors, but all they offered were baseball caps for the fellows. At the end of this road is the Unity Monument and the first roundabout we encountered. We had gone full circle covering most of the downtown area.
Passing the International Conference Center and the Fire and Rescue Services Agency, we ended up back at the entrance to the pier. Taxi drivers were still there trying get customers. Checking the few tents of island treasures, we saw nothing that appealed to us, so we went back treasure-less once again.
Back in our cool room, we enjoyed several sodas on ice, and worked on the dozens of photos for the day. Sitting on the veranda was nice for the view of the guests coming and going, but the aroma of fish was still strong in the air. Yuck.
Dinnertime arrived and we did notice there was a "Dining Under the Stars" event held in the Lido Poolside from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Now that is funny, because the rain had begun in the late afternoon, and there were so many clouds, not one star could be seen. Oh well, they try to create nice and varied dining experiences, but it is hit and miss at times. More than likely this venue was provided for those guests that went on the 7 to 8 hour tours and did not feel like changing into nicer dinner garb. A day spent in this heat and humidity takes a toll on everyone – guests and crew alike.
Anyway, our dinner included our usual starters with shrimp cocktails and Caesar salads. Mains were a very good short rib plate and one rigatoni with chicken meatballs with marinara sauce, which made one of us happy. Desserts were a Dutch apple pie-like tart (no sugar added) and a scoop of strawberry sorbet. There was no live show this evening, but the movie Wicked was shown instead.
The rain continued and was accompanied by thunder and lightning into the late evening. The Zuiderdam left the pier around 11pm and we were off for two days at sea now.
Bill & Mary Ann
