I wrote about my Flag Counter over a year ago when I started this blog, and it is thrilling for me to see the countries that have found their way here since then. Today I noticed that someone from the Seychelles had visited documama, and I got all excited because I have been to the Seychelles, and it is one of my favorite places on this earth! It was the end of six months traveling overland through Africa from Morocco down to Botswana, and I had heard of the stunning beauty of the Seychelles, so a couple of friends and I decided to check it out before heading home. We were three backpackers, looking pretty scruffy,with little money to our names, but we jumped on a boat from Kenya, and made our way to Mahe, the main island.
On our boat ride over
We decided to stay on one of the smaller islands of the archipelago called La Digue. . There was only one (pricey) hotel on the island but we were unfazed, and unrolled our sleeping bags out on the beach to camp out. We found what we thought would be a nice safe cove tucked away on an empty beach, (here I need to interject that all of the beaches were empty and the epitome of paradise with white powder sand and warm aquamarine water.) In the middle of the night we woke up to waves lapping at our feet, soaking our sleeping bags as we realized we could have easily been washed away! When we awoke again in the morning, after adjusting our spot, a local young man, eager to practice his English, had sweetly brought us coffee, and breakfast after observing us setting up camp the day before in a what he may have recognized as not such a great spot. He showed us a better place where we slept safe and dry the next night.
Waking up on the beach
There were no cars on the island, only carts pulled by oxen, so we rented bikes and rode our way to the one hotel to lounge by the pool, and have some drinks at the pool bar. (Clearly we had our priorities!) Everyone assumed we belonged to one of the yachts docked offshore, because apparently they did not get too many back-packers in the area. Despite our protests they would not believe that we were sleeping on the beach. One day we took a day trip to Praslin island which was thought to be the original Garden of Eden by explorer Charles Gordon in the late 1800’s. With its exquisite and verdant tropical forest it certainly could have been. The day we went out on a fishing boat our friend Glen caught a huge Marlin within 10 minutes! It was crazy!
Island transportation
We enjoyed eating grilled fish on the beach with our toes in the sand, idyllic days on the beach or at the hotel pool. The Seychelles seemed to us to be paradise found. So I want to say thank you to my visitor who stopped by documama today, for the hospitality of your people all those years ago, and for bringing those treasured memories back to me this evening. My father in law travels the world and blogs at http://www.bulentatalay.com , and also has the Flag Counter on his site; whenever we travel we look up each other’s sites to give each other another flag. This week I may see new flags from Qatar and Dubai from him, but I’m pretty sure he’s not in the Seychelles right now.
The Flag of The Republic of Seychelles
My Flag Counter now
My Flag Counter then
With the catch of the day!
You took me back in time …
Ian and I visited the Seychelles Islands many years ago. One of the highlights of the trip was when we spent four days on a private island that you could only fly into only twice a week, the airstrip was the length of the island, Dennis Island. We also did an incredible little boat journey to a beach picnic on Praslin, and our ‘skipper’ yanked a fish from the water and sliced it before our eyes for instant snack 😉 sigh, so long ago ..
I love that we share the Seychelles! My trip was so long ago as well, but the memories are so vivid of that incredible place!