It was the sixth day of our journey and the third of our cruise around the islands of the Indian Ocean. At about 8 am our ship docked at the port for its first stop. We arrived in the Seychelles and stood in the bay of the main island Mae. From the balcony of the cabin I observed the beauty of the landscape that opened before my eyes.
Bay, not high mountains, azure water and huge the anticipation of something incredible excitedly raised the already beautiful mood. Seychelles! How much I heard about them, how far they were from me just some 2-3 years ago.
Mahe Island
And here we are standing in the port of one of the most wonderful corners of our planet. Two magical days ahead on the island of Mahe.
Having contacted a local Russian-speaking guide in advance, we agreed to meet at the exit from the seaport. We are a friendly group of 7 people. We had a sightseeing tour of the island.
We took photos in front of our Costa Mediterranea liner; those who wished to purchase local SIM cards for the Internet. Tariffs are different, for example 250 MB costs $15. We set off to the agreed meeting place with our guide.
We decided to leave an hour before the appointed time to the cruise port terminal. The fact is that someone whispered to me on the ship, and there were about 45 Russian speakers in total, that there supposedly was free Wi-Fi there. It turned out to be just a fantasy.
Sightseeing tour of Mahe Island.
The guide Marina turned out to be a very friendly person, an experienced guide who has worked in this field for more than 20 years. We got into the minibus, discussed and adjusted the route, and set off.
Seychelles, capital city Victoria.
After 2-3 km, first stop in the capital of the Seychelles city of Victoria. A tiny town with low-rise buildings is comfortably located among picturesque mountains.
The capital of Seychelles is Victoria
At the entrance to Victoria, at one of the intersections there is a monument, in the form of London’s Big Ben in miniature. So, Queen Victoria in her time gave the city a name and thereby wanted to perpetuate it.
We visited several souvenir shops and the local market.
Local market
The food market is a very colorful place. A decent part of it is occupied by stalls with fish sellers. Which one is not here. I love fish, which is probably why I focused so much attention on this.
There are a lot of fruits that are exotic for us and familiar to them. Bananas, pineapples, mangoes and much more. There is also a small shop with souvenirs.
Buddhist temple
We also took pictures near him. Further our path lay along the road along the coast of Mahe, around the entire island.
Sea Coconut
A special attraction in the city of Victoria is the Buddhist temple.
On the advice of the guide, we bought at the market at a good price, the symbol of the Seychelles, a sea coconut — coco de merv.
This name was given to the nut because it reached Africa, the Maldives and a number of other Indian Ocean islands. But only already in in a damaged state it has buoyancy, this explains its growth in one place.
In general, this is a separate topic that is worth talking about in more detail. Only here, in the Seychelles, on the island of Praslin, does the Lodoitsa coconut palm grow with giant nuts of an unusual shape. You won’t find this anywhere else in the world!
The fact is that the nut is very similar to the hip part female figure. And both behind and in front. This is the fruit of the female tree, male inflorescences have the shape of a penis.
In a word, erotic nuts. In addition, they have gigantic weight and size. Some reach a meter in length and 40 kg. weight.
You can buy this miracle and take it out of the country. It is not cheap and you need a special certificate-permit. We limited ourselves to a wooden souvenir.
Then there were many more beaches, but it started to rain. In some places it was very strong, and we could not even get out of the minibus. It’s sad, but this did not darken the overall mood and impression.
The next stop was in the town of Beau Vallon with the beach of the same name. I’ll write about it below; we spent the whole next day there.
We practically drove around the island of Mahe along the entire coast. And only twice did our car climb up the mountains. We missed the first observation deck; it was raining heavily. We were more lucky with the second one; there was an old tea factory there.
Tea Factory
We drove past the island where they film the TV show Madhouse-2 House-2. It is located a few tens of meters from the shore. You can easily swim there.
We stopped by the village of artisans. The old planter’s house was preserved and converted into a tourist spot with souvenir shops. The area where the village is located is very beautiful, watch the video below.
Eden Island
At the end of the sightseeing tour of Mahe Island, we visited artificial island Eden. It is artificial, similar to the artificial islands in the UAE. Real estate here is very expensive for foreigners. Everything is done very beautifully, villas, yacht port, streets with boutiques.
Beau Vallon Beach
The second day of stay in Seychelles passed without excursions. The weather was sunny in the morning, and we, a friendly company of 7 people, decided to spend the day on the beach Beau Vallon. It was located near the port. 30 minutes by bus and only 0.5 euros. Taxi drivers charge 10 euros per person for the same trip.
Very beautiful place with a wide coastline and shallow sand pleasant to the touch. The only minus of the beach is that here big waves. It’s not so easy to swim away. But can you stop me?
We settled down on snow-white, fine sand and between While swimming we enjoyed the views of this beautiful bay. Standing on the Beau Vallon beach several hotels. Dear ones, I looked at it on booking.
There is an alley along the beach with stalls selling souvenirs, fruits, and drinks.
We took pictures, shot videos, swam, in general, rested as we pleased.
You can also buy fish fried in front of you, which is what we did. I just really wanted to try it, and I was not mistaken. The fish turned out to be tender and very tasty.
Recharged with impressions, we returned to the liner on a high emotional high.
We are already used to it from past voyages, but for some, a cruise with a big discount or even at the expense of the company is still a novelty.
Back then I was still a partner of the club and the conditions were great, not like now …
Author’s note
And in the evening we hit the road again. Ahead, a day of sailing at sea.
“The next stop awaited us in Nosy Be, Republic of Madagascar.”
Blog author Sergey Buslaev
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