Réunion to Mahé and Praslin, Seychelles, 8 - 13 May 2008

Lazing on Lazio

We had good weather the whole way with good HF contact with Tana information in Madagascar. There was a slight headwind, though, which lengthened our flight by about half an hour. We flew over the tiny French island of Tromelin, which is just large enough for a short airstrip.
The approach to runway 13 in Seychelles International is stunning. The health authorities were ready with their insecticide spray upon arrival, and were happy to see that we had done the disinsection spraying ‘blocks off’ prior to departure. Arrival formalities went smoothly and in less than an hour we were on our way for the short VFR hop to the island of Praslin, where we took a taxi to our chambre d’hôte Villa Flamboyant. On the plus side, the house is set in a beautiful garden by the beach with tall Flamboyant trees (sadly not in flower at this time of year) and the price is reasonable for the expensive Seychelles. On the minus side, and there were a few minuses, we had no view from our room and we had to keep the curtains drawn for privacy as it was on the ground floor and everyone walked right beside it to access their room or the beach. The food was also a disappointment so we only dined there on the first night. The beach itself is pretty but the water is opaque with algae.

9 May. Praslin. We drove to Anse La Blague on the east coast, but the tide was too low for swimming. In the afternoon, we went diving and snorkelling at Ave Maria (north of the neighbouring island La Digue), where we saw a huge parrot fish with a bump on its head, scorpion fish, lion fish and several turtles. Delicious dinner at Café des Arts on Cote d’Or, also known as Anse Volbert, on the east coast.

10 May. Praslin. We spent all day lazing off the north coast at the superb Anse Lazio beach – probably one of the top ten beaches in the world. Before lazing, though, we phoned the Oman Civil Aviation authorities and they didn’t appear to have received our request for clearance. They gave us a different fax number and email address.
Flemming went snorkelling and missed the biggest excitement of the day: two crabs fighting over a green lizard, right next to where I was lying. One of them eventually beat the other one off and disappeared down a hole in the sand with its unfortunate prey.
Good lunch at Bon Bon Plume by the beach and another great dinner, this time at Le Café du Monde, not far from Villa Flamboyant on the west coast.