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

Lazing on Lazio

11 May. La Digue. We took the ferry from Praslin to La Passe, La Digue Island and checked into L’Océan Hotel in the north with superb sea views. There was good snorkelling a 5-minute walk from the hotel. Only drawback: there was no internet access from the hotel and we wasted time cycling into La Passe to visit an internet café only to find everything closed as it’s Sunday. Eventually we were driven to the manager’s house where we could get internet access and Flemming resent the clearance request to the Oman Civil Aviation authorities.

12 May. La Digue. We went snorkelling from Anse Sévère near our hotel before breakfast and saw an octopus eating a crab and a brightly coloured fish with tiger stripes on its body and leopard spots on its gills and tail, later identified as an ‘oriental sweetlips’.
We accessed our emails by sat phone and we’d received a message from the Oman Civil Aviation authorities saying they’d already tried to send us the clearance number on 4 May. So now we have the clearance but we still have the problem of getting the Middle East aeronautical charts which didn’t arrive in Réunion before we left.
We hired a couple of bikes and toured the island, visiting some spectacular beaches: Anse Source d’Argent, Grande Anse and Petite Anse. Angela didn’t have much luck with her bike, though. First she got a slow puncture and, after finding a kind soul with a pump, had to cycle into La Passe to change the bike. Then the second bike had lousy gears. Just as well the island is small so we didn’t have to cycle great distances.