La Digue, Seychelles

From La Digue 02

And there they were...from the sky in the frame of a plane window and the wing. The first island of the archipelago stars showing up way before the landing, but you still don't imagine how vast the territory is. Only at the end of the holiday Kiran will tell us that the most far island is Alhambra and it 600 nautic miles away from Mahe the capital (big ships have big pirates problems down there)


Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa
At the airport the CatCoco CatCoco bus is waiting for you to take you to the Jetty...how nice these guys!!! A free bus picking you up!!! Then you find out the one way ticket is 42 euros x person. A 40 minutes ride to take you to the Praslin jetty.
Ah, don't forget to bring cash euros, since lots of places will charge you that
Cat Rose is waiting for you to finally lead you to La Digue island.
A pearl in the blue sea. Elvis is the man!
His funny face shows up in the middle of a crowd with it big white smile.
Bikes rented and a ride to Pension Fidele, a sweet self catering at the end of a dirt road and deepen in tropical garden with fruit trees all over and a half barrel BBQ looking for us.
60 euros per room, with a whole kitchen available including a powerful fridge, a toaster and a microwave oven.

Josette is the sincere teacher running the place (with the help of sweet Babette for the cleaning), and she welcomes us with a bottle of just made passion fruit juice...she has a tree there.
Everything looks just perfect, so we throw our clothes into the drawers and we run to Grand Anse...actually we ride.


Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa
3.5 Kms on a lush little street taking you to what you were looking for. A quiet straight soft beach with blue crystal water and a cloudy sky dotted with celestials cyan spots. Huge waves hit the shore, surfers stoked to see all this, and the two of us stretching our tired bones floating in the warm waters.
HOW SWETT!
Don't forget to have lunch at the restaurant right on the beach!!! The atmosphere is chilled out, it's in the shade (very important on this beach since there's none).
For 20 euros you get a great buffet made of grilled fish, all sorts of vegetables, different kind of rice and few creol delicious meals. And don't miss the dessert!
Grand Anse is only one of the three enchanting beaches on the southeast coast. Petit Anse (no shade at all unless you bild up some kind of hut on your own) and the astonishing Anse Coco are the other two.



To reach Anse Coco you need a little effort to climb up a couple of steep slopes in the middle of a jungle (we actually got lost once risking to spend the night with giant crabs and scary spiders), but what you see once you get there you'll wonna walk everyday for 40 minutes. You're gonna be mostly everyday maximum 6 people on the beach and there's good trees you can hide under when the sun starts hitting too bad.
Beside the infinite colorful fishes, I spotted in this bay many eagle rays, a little white shark and an enurmous yellow manta at least as big as me...so be prepared to see amazin stuff down there!!!




Leaving the jetty and going left, you join the road leading you the north west coast. This is probably the wildest and non developped side of the island, and if you follow it till the road stops you'll run into some nice spots. The mighty reef out there doesn't allow to swim since the water is to shallow, but still you get a nice pool to relax in and refresh a bit from the arsh sun. The northern tip is the only worth place to really stop and lay on a nice tiny beach right below the Patatran hotel and the colors of the deep ocean are just bright enough to wear sunglasses. Just before the paved street ends there's a small house owned by Jules...you'll notice it for sure since it's the only place selling drinks and coconuts. If you book in advance he will fix a special creol dinner for you with tables facing the shore and lulled by the sound of the waves.

One day we also had a trip to the small islands around there. Coco island and Felicitè are just awesome for the snorkling (we saw 3 smal black tip sharks and two sea turtles), whereas Sister island is good for a bbq and some relax on the private beach of the island (be ready to pay a lot of money to do this kind of excursions).

Last but not least, we have the unbelievable Anse Maron. I suggest you not to risk and go with a guide for the first time, since the path to get there might be tricky and too much depending on the tides. The walk starts from the only wonderful park of the island (10 euros ticket per person), and before you get to Anse Surce d'Argent you might need a 5 minutes ride on your bike. Once at a small restaurant next to the shore, you leave your bike and you start the real trip, going through postcards beaches and colors you can't believe are real. Sometimes you'll have to walk in the water some other in the middle of the jungle and others...in the middle of huge granite rocks. Don't get scared...if you're a bit overweight to pass through you might be able to climb them!
But let's talk about the aiming point. Good chance you'll be the only person on Anse Maron, and even if you might be a bit tired you won't regret what you've done and how much you swet your ass off...this is something will never, ever gonna happen to you again! The pictures following are gonna talk instead of me and maybe you'll get an idea of what I'm trying to say.



Concerning places to eat, I totally raccomend chataux Sant Claud (fare price for good food and cozy enviroment), and Zerof (at dinner they have a fixed menu, but cheap and tipical). Don't ever go to Chez Marston...they rip you off for a dinner is not even special and you wait for hrs even if the restaurant is half empty.
But if you're staying over a self catering forget about all this, just enter one of the many little supermarket and you'll find almost everything you need. A bag of fresh fish for 75 Rupees (16 rupees equals 1 euro) is available around the jetty when the fishermans come back from their hard day of work...you'll see a lot of people riding their bikes with fishes hanging from their handlebars.
For fresh, juicy and tasty fruit there's a hand made shop on the way to Grand Anse where we use to buy mangos and local delicatessen for our fruit salads in the morning.Speciality of the house...fruit shakes made in front of you!
Well, enjoy this unbelievable island and don't forget to train a bit before reaching it...you'll have to ride or walk a lot anyway (but it's pleasant).

Untitled from flamingshoe on Vimeo.

P.S.
I wonna spend few lines about Pralin and Mahe.
The gratest attraction reguarding Pralin is the Val de Mai park, where the world known Coco de Mer grows and where is totally worth spending the 25 euros for the entrance (get a guide so you won't just be looking at plants and assuming you're understanding what you're seeing). Anse Lazio is the other "big" thing of the island...it is nice, but if you've been to La Digue already it won't be enough for your satisfaction. Great snorkeling next to the rocks and big shady trees on the beach.
We spend just one day on Mahe, and we rented a car to do a round trip of it to get a general idea. It is a big island and it has a lot to offer actually, but not speaking of nice beaches. The only amazing place (I'm saying amazin!!!) is Anse Intendance, where you can also enter (and have lunch at a reasonable price) one of the most beautiful (and expensive) resorts I've ever seen in my life...the Banyan Tree Resort