SEYCHELLES Mahe Nov 18-20, 2021
Get in. I flew on Emirates from Cairo via Dubai, leaving at 19:20 on an Airbus 380, a huge plane, and the only time I have been on such a big plane for 12 years. Emirates service is impeccable – meals, drinks, pillows and blanket, a very accommodating staff, a 1000 movies to watch, electrical plugs and good leg room.
Dubai Airport must be one of the best run airports in the world, easy to navigate and monstrous with long walk times. The second flight was on a large B-777. I had no one in the adjoining two seats and was able to lie down and sleep. I arrived at 06:50. The airport is south of Victoria in about the middle of Mahe.
Travel Pass for the Seychelles. This is easily the most onerous travel pass to complete with downloads of passport, a photo, Covid vaccine, PCR, arriving and departing flights, confirmed accommodation (for every night in the country) submitted online at support@govtas.com. Cost 10E. It takes up to 9 hours to get your travel pass so plan ahead as you cannot board your flight without it. Mine arrived in about 2 hours but was initially declined as my PCR didn’t have a time. I whined a bit stating that my flight arrived at 06:50, the lab was open only during the day, and it must have been done within the 72-hour limit. It was approved within a half hour. I had not planned well and the final approval was received just 3 hours before my flight. Egyptian PCRs are very expensive at 1230 LE or CAD$96.
It appears that the Seychelles only want to cater to rich tourists and discourage the “backpacking” crowd. Scooters can’t be rented.
Get around. The road that encircles the island is a narrow 2-lane with no shoulders and a steep drop off. It follows very close to the beach with the terrain riseing steeply to the interior mountains. Cars drive on the left with right hand steering. Speeds are very slow on the winding road.
Buses. The locals rely heavily on the local buses that ply the only road.
Accommodation. I had not planned on booking accommodation, instead going cheap, renting a car and sleeping in it or on beaches.
Accommodation in the Seychelles is expensive topping out at over $6,000/night (The Four Seasons where Prince Willian and Kate spent their honeymoon). Many others are high-end resorts for over $1,000 per night. Booked at the last minute to fulfil the confirmed accommodation requirement, I was able to get a room at Papaya Guesthouse, about 5 km from Victoria, the capital, for 50E/night, about as cheap as it gets on the Seychelles.
I had also tried to book a car. Sixt (one of the worst rental agencies in the world) was the only one that I could find for 86E/day but they require an inconvenient 2-day wait for confirmation. Luckily, I didn’t have to pre-pay, ignored them and got a car from Thrifty’s for 50E/day at the airport. I also elected to not get a SIM card (15E for 2 megabytes) and simply relied on offline Google Maps to navigate and used the wi-fi at my guesthouse at night.
Restaurants are very expensive and not of great quality. It is best to eat at “take aways and fast food places. There is a Burger King at the airport.
People. Everyone is black and have an impoverished look. It would seem there is huge disparity between the locals and the resort life that draws tourists to the Seychelles. Shop owners were mostly Indian all with a bidi.
The lady who owns the guesthouse I stayed at complains that the locals are lazy and don’t like to work. They can grow anything (she has banana and papaya trees and a big garden) but most locals simply don’t. The government has been paying support for a long time. The Indians, Filipinos and Chinese do most of the work.
Terrain. Mahe is a lush green tropical island with bananas, papaya breadfruit and coconut palms. Most of the mountains are low and completely forested but the high peaks on Mahe are great granite walls and towers.
Beaches on the east are narrow with shallow water extending out to a breaking reef 100-200 m off shore. There is no reef on the west creating much deeper beaches.
Buy. 1 E = 15.42 Seychells rupees.
Lining the road are frequent small markets and stands selling fruit and fish.
As per usual, I had downloaded the offline maps and entered all the Nomad Mania sites. I drove south to Anse Intendance, a deeper beach just around the south tip facing west. It is situated between two large headlands and is busy.
Return to the main road and turn down a very narrow land to get to another beach with a hotel/restaurant at the south end. The beach is a few hundred metres of tan sand with few sun tanners. There is a small hotel at the south end and I stopped and sat writing this. It is a very slow-paced place. Beside where I parked was a pen enclosed with a steep bar fence and 11 giant tortoises. It appeared to be a cruel existence.
Ros Sodyer Rock Pools. This is much more about the walk than the underwhelming pools. It takes about 35 minutes to get to the pools if one doesn’t take wrong trails which I did three times. White arrows painted on the rocks are just frequent enough to guide you the right way. The trail is full of rocks and roots until you get to an area of large boulders that require some scrambling. Climb a ladder up one steep section. Don’t go past the chair and table under a palapa following a frequented wrong route, but turn right to access the large smooth rock above the water. An arrow points down at the pools, which I passed as they look so insignificant. I kept going along to get good views of Anse Intendance, but then saw another arrow just above the pools – three tiny, shallow, stagnant pools on the rock shelf just above the water.
Drive about 2/3rds of the length of the island and turn right on one of the two roads that
cross the island towards Victoria.
Venn’s Town – Mission Lodge. Tentative WHS. The Anglican church established this mission in 1875 for the children of liberated slaves. It is basically on top of a mountain. 37 children (20 boys and 17 girls) were housed here, educated and trained. There were dorms, a mission house and several out buildings. They grew bananas, breadfruit and other crops to support the mission. It was closed in 1889 and the children moved to other schools.
Virtually nothing remains except for half the stone walls of one building and a rock floor of a small out building. A large covered viewing platform has been built on the south edge to get great views of most of the west side of Mahe. Queen Elizabeth II visited Mahe in 1972 to open the airport and visit Venn’s Town. 100 SR
Copolia Trail. See the native vegetation growing on the sparse granitic landscape on this 1.5km nature trail that has 455m elevation change (one hour). Arrive at a viewpoint down to St Anne NP.
I drove down to the south edge of Victoria and drove out to the airport to eat at a Burger King, then bought groceries on my way to Papaya Guest House on the other road that bisects the island. It is owned by a very pleasant elderly black woman who had lived in Calais France for 48 years before retiring back on the Seychelles. Basically, it is a room in her house (50E/night), possibly the cheapest accommodation on the entire island of Mahe. I use her kitchen. She gave me a lovely large piece of papaya from her garden.
Day 2
The ring road doesn’t go completely around Mahe as the NW corner is roadless. I drove through Victoria to the north side of the island with a French woman staying at my guest house. She has a YouTube channel – a most irritating habit as they spend their entire time talking into their phone and taking videos and photos.
Anse Major Trail. This is a lovely 1.75 km trail that goes from the end of the road along the coast. It is beautifully constructed but with a water line beside it the whole way. The beach is nice but there are many rocks in the water and swimming not so good. Humidity is high here and at 27 degrees, it was a hot sweaty hike. Take off your shirt for comfort.
Beau Vallon Beach. Probably the most popular public beach in the Seychelles, it is a huge crescent of sand. We stopped here for a swim after the Anse Major hike. There are still rocks in the water at the west end. I saw two rays when I walked out.
I then drove around the north east peninsula of the island passing the Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and several beaches returning to Victoria.
VICTORIA
Church of the Immaculate Conception. This Roman Catholic church has magnificent carved wood doors and lots of stained glass.
St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Also downtown, this church was built in 1859 and is plain white all over. The clear louvered windows have stained glass scenes of the Seychelles.
Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market. In the centre of downtown, it has fruit, vegetables and fruit with a cafeteria and souvenir shops upstairs
St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Plain white inside the clear louvered windows had crescent stained-glass windows of Seychelles scenes.
Victoria Clock Tower. Sitting in the middle of a small roundabout, this bright silver clocktower is made of stamped metal with clock faces on all four sides and a crown on top.
Natural History Museum. More the national museum, it has galleries on the French occupation, Slavery and the British occupation, Creole Nation (1903-1976). “Our Nation” )politics and development), and Nationhood since independence in 1976. Upstairs is Creole Culture and the state art gallery. 150 SR.
Liberty Monument. South of Victoria, this bronze man and woman are holding a flag above their heads. It sits surrounded by a large brick wall.
I spent a lot of time working on my book, almost completing it. It is lovely to have good wi-fi access.
On the morning of Nov 20, I was up early, showered, and arrived at the airport before 8 to return my rental car. As my flight didn’t leave till 11:30 pm, I had a pleasant day writing, sleeping, and relaxing. The side of the airport is all open air.
I needed a PCR for my flight to Mauritius and decided to wait till this day as they advertised a 2-hour turnaround. But that cost 485E. There were many plans – 8-hours – 275 and the 12 and 24-hour plans were 135. All give a 10 discount for booking online. I arrived at 08:30, filled the online reservation application, had an immediate test, and received the result in about 15 minutes. What a rip-off. I had to wait 12 hours to get a paper copy.
Flight to Mauritius. There are virtually no direct flights (Air Seychelles has one about every 10 days for 330E. There wasn’t one till the 24th. Most other flights were via Africa and over CAD$1350. I ended up booking a flight on Condor Airlines via Frankfurt, Germany. This converted a 3+-hour direct flight into a 10’ 20” flight to Frankfurt, a 9’ 20” layover (need a PCR to land in Germany), and a 11’ 30” return flight to St Louis, Mauritius – over 30 hours. Other options via Africa were all over 20 hours with much less pleasant airports to layover. Oh well.