The Seychelles, Africa

Welcome back!

As you may already know, due to world events in the Middle East, our itinerary changed. Rather than traversing The Red Sea, we will sail to Europe around Africa. While we will miss the Pyramids and Petra, we will have a ~45 day immersive Africa adventures. 

Because of this change of plan, about half of the other guest got off the ship (because they were not world travelers, and  their Middle East reservations were cancelled) and about a quarter of remaining guests took a large rebate, got off the ship until the end of June (when we pick back up in Europe with the original itinerary.) so, there will only be a few hundred of us onboard for the next month-and-a-half. For a couple of country-bumpkins (like us) this is really nice!

Today was our first African port of call. This morning, we arrived in Africa, by way of The Seychelles (pronounced say·shelz) a country made up of an archipelago of 115 lush islands off of the East coast of the African continent. 

The Seychelles are unbelievably beautiful, and have the distinction of being the world’s only granite islands. Hundreds of millions of years ago, they were joined, and made up their own continent. Now however, they are just a huge collection of beachy islands with jungle canopied mountain peaks. 

In the 15-1700s, the islands provided a hideout to pirates. These nautical outlaws are rumored to have abandoned hidden treasures on the various islands, which has lead to many recent highly publicized (televised) expeditions. Additionally, many of the islands are said to be haunted by the pirates that are still guarding their booty! (Although, if it is a ghost pirate, it may be pronounced “boo” ty, I am not sure…)

The islands are very well off, as their high-end resorts tend to cater to wealthy clientele.  (Not us. We’re just passing for the day…)

We visited the island of Mahé.  While Karen opted to spend the day exploring Victoria, the small town where the ship docked, I joined a half-a-dozen folks, and took a ferry to an Silhouette Island a few miles away, for a day of hiking. 

Arriving at Silhouette Island, we found ourselves at a small pier with a handful of cute houses from the early 1900’s. While the island is home to some 160 residents, all but a handful of these folks lives a half-mile up the road, near the resort. After exploring the nearest home (which had been turned into a bit of a self-guided museum) we made our way past a handful of seaside cottages leading up to the hiking trail. 

Our two local guides were super nice fellas, and were naturalist that provided us keen insight regarding critters and vegetation as we made our way along the trail. As we made our way past a lake and up a river, we enjoyed refreshing coconuts that we found along the way. 

We also stumbled across some miniature frogs (about the size of a pencil’s eraser) and a translucent lizard-like fish. Both of these are amphibious, and able to breathe both on land and under water. The fish was especially cool, because it would swim to the edge of the little pond, jump out and run on little invisible legs for several feet to get to the next little pond. 

In addition to cool giant spiders , we stumbled across a hermit crab, who, after a bit of coaxing, came out of his shell to check us out. 

We also learned about several coconuts that are only found on a handful of island, including the Orange coconuts  (which is red) and the Blue Coconut (which is, of course, green…). Of special interest was the Lodoicea (male-female) coconut, which apparently only grows in the Seychelles. In addition to their erotic shape, at 29 lbs. they produce the largest seed in the world.  Very strange. 

lastly, we found some Red Lucky Seeds. If you carry there in your pocket, they bring you good luck! 

After hiking up over the mountain top, the trail ran down the other side to a secluded beach. Beautiful!

On the way back, I got pretty far ahead of my colleagues, and stopped at one of the little houses that were near the bottom of the trail. I had seen on my way up that it was a tavern. The lucky seeds worked. They were open!

I stopped by for a quick beer before making my way to the resort for lunch. 

The resort was awesome. I had seen it on The Today Show a year or so ago. All of the buildings and rooms are big thatched roof indoor/outdoor structures along the beach. After enjoying (a fabulous catered) lunch, a game of foosball and pool, and a swim in the ocean, we took golf carts back to the pier.  While returning to the ship, we were treated to a tour of the small town of Mahé before returning to the ship. 

Our itinerary had us visiting another island in The Seychelles before heading to Madagascar (where I was super excited to “move-it, move-it” with Marty and Melman). 

But, as luck would have it, a cyclone (which is what a hurricane is called in the Southern Hemisphere) was headed towards islands. Our itinerary was modified to outrun the storm. 

So instead of having two more jungle adventures (and an African baobab tree photo op.) we now have four days at sea.  Afterwards, we will have four days at Port Louis, Mauritius. But, as the saying goes, that my friends, is a different story. 

Hope you enjoyed catching up on our adventures. Thanks. 

– Mike

“When I was volunteering in Tanzania, I told my coworker that I was looking forward to walking to town that evening to buy a sweater. “But you already have a sweater…” she replied.” – Ann H. (Fellow Ultimate World Cruise passenger)

Thank you for visiting. 

– Mike

“When I was working in Tanzania, I told one of the other volunteers that I was looking forward to walking to town that evening to buy a sweater. “But you already have a sweater…” she replied. – Ann H. (A dear friend/fellow Ultimate World Cruiser)