One of the
first things that you notice in the Seychelles is that everyone seems to walk
slowly.
It only takes three days for you to realise why!
Firstly,
nothing is very far from anything else, so speed is not necessary, but also
walking any faster than a stroll works up a sweat in this humid atmosphere. The
main island Mahé is thirty kilometres from nose to tail, and only six
kilometres wide.
There are
exceptions to this speed rule: I saw one female jogger who seemed to be a Laura
Croft look-alike complete with pony-tail, armband heart monitor, dumbbells in
hands and thighs that could crack a coconut. But people like this are rare.
The
islanders are a cosmopolitan collection of people who seem to live with great
tolerance of each other. They smile easily, don’t raise their voices and we
have yet to hear an adult ticking off a child, or even to hear a child cry:
sounds that are all too common in European countries. Even the very few dogs we
saw wander the streets wagging their tails.
seychelles contingent at the carnival
carnival, south african team
It is thirty
five years since I was last in the Seychelles and during that time many things
have changed, and some things thankfully have remained the same. There has been
a communist government followed by a government that has tried to realise the
potential of these islands with foreign investment.
As a result
there are some hideous new buildings; islands created out of what were once
shallow coral fringed bays, hotels like the Savoy and Hilton which are not
known for their sympathetic attitude to indigenous needs and worst of all,
eight large windmills designed to capture energy from the wind. This area is an equatorial climate zone which
is known as the doldrums, which has light balmy winds and the odd squall from a
passing thunderstorm.
Windmills
such as these have been an eyesore around the world, and on average produce
less than 25% of the energy that the manufacturers claim of these ugly
machines, in windy areas.
Here they
are an example of politicians bowing to the Global Warming debate without any knowledge
of the false claims made by the “bandwagon riders’ who perpetuate the myth.
Wind Generator doing nothing
I digress
again, however it is interesting that these large International Hotels seem to
have no guests at all, whereas the small locally run establishments appear to
be well supported. There is even an
abandoned hotel on the western coast which is completely deserted and now looks
like a beached Cruise Liner waiting for Nature to reclaim it back, by covering
it with vegetation.
I was
mentally congratulating the Seychelles Government for banning Cruise Ships when
one appeared.
I was
disappointed.
These
grotesque looking vessels slip into harbours all round the world, disgorge
their passengers who wander the streets of the host island donating nothing and
buying little. They leave port within 24 hours, thereby avoiding port fees.
You have
heard the Internet joke about it being better to retire to a Cruise Ship rather
than a retirement home, because the service is better, the rooms are cleaner
and when you die they just slip you overboard at sea? Well judging from the
walking dead that came off this ship in Victoria Harbour, I would imagine that the Captain
knows the burial service off by heart. It was like looking at the scene from
Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, with the ghouls shuffling through town.
I imagine
that these ships are safe from pirates in these waters, because who would pay
to have any of these hostage passengers back?
Mahe, Port Victoria
On the plus
side, buildings that despoil the beauty of the mountains have been kept to a
minimum, so that many of the famous vistas of the Seychelles remain unspoiled. On some islands
there are no buildings at all, and only bicycles are available as transport.
The bays
that have made Seychelles famous as nearly deserted beaches
fringed with shady trees remain as they always were, and for that I salute the
powers that be, because once lost, these icons will never again be recaptured.
Tropical forest down to sea level
We have
been able to drift past the headlands while the island passes by like an
enormous painting of tropical forest punctuated by inlets and bays of
unbelievable beauty. In many places the interference from man is zero so that
the rocks and palm trees must be as they were hundreds of years ago.
We have
anchored in bays in which we have been alone and it is easy to imagine that we
are anywhere in the world where forest meets beach meets surf meets sea.
And to
plunge overboard is to be transported into a world of colour beyond
imagination. Clouds of tropical fish allow us into their world and after a
cursory check, leave us to enjoy their antics as they guard their nests, pursue
their rivals and engage in displays that involve colour changes and posturing.
We have seen turtles being cleaned by wrasse, we have watched rays swim in
close formation and we have watched angelfish chase larger fish in a most
unangelic fashion.
Each time
we swim among these fish in their coral gardens we find a new one that we
haven’t seen before and which isn’t in the “book” so we have the momentary
thought that maybe we have discovered a new species. But how to remember the
colours when you surface? They are too fantastical to explain or document in
normal earthly terms. And so the new discovery remains for someone else to
document and record.
another sunrise
As we sip a
sundowner on deck the sea around us erupts in activity as a school of baby tuna
rip the surface with their thousands of bodies evading a predator. A barracuda leaps through the air like a
javelin back into the sea in pursuit of supper, a ray slaps the surface with
his body and a turtle snorts air, gives us a scaly glance and then slips back
into the depths.
another sunset
In the
morning the sun refracts the colours of schools of fish into impossible emerald
green, which reminds me of the colour sometimes used by French car
manufacturers to detract from the shape of their vehicles. As the sun rises the
colour of the fish changes to cobalt blue.
The
glorious shades of the sunsets are captured by the rain showers which drizzle
the pinks and gold in rain into the variegated tropical greens of the trees and
the sea.
Every day
the spectacle is different and it is easy to become addicted to the exhibition
as it is to the sundower.
Aptly named Silhouette Island
Hard Sailing Condidtions
Marlene feeding fish
