Top o' Mahe, Ma!
Why travel during a pandemic, when borders are shutting and people are being forced into quarantines? A very good question, that. In my case, there were several reasons for going to the Seychelles as planned during my daughter's spring break vacation. For one, I'd been looking forward to this trip for a very long time, and to cancel at the last minute would've been devastating, both emotionally and financially - the Seychelles are far from being a budget-priced, backpacker's destination, and quite a large chunk of invested cash would've been lost. And for another, at the time of our departure, there was only a small number of COVID-19 cases that had been detected in Ethiopia, and none at all in the Seychelles. We would soon learn that two Seychellois, in fact, had returned from Italy to their homeland carrying the virus with them, but that was three days before our arrival there. I felt pretty confident that we weren't transmitting anything potentially fatal, or bringing anything such back with us to Addis Ababa.
But the main reason for going ahead with our trip was a very personal one on my part - having just recently returned from the U.S., the purpose of which was to bury my father, I needed to get away from it all, and to do so in a place of quiet beauty. And for that I thank the country and the people of the Seychelles.
The Republic of the Seychelles is a former British colony that has been independent since 1976. The country consists of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, with its capital Victoria lying 1500 kilometers east of mainland Africa (fewer than four hours by plane from Bole International Airport in Addis). The population of 97,000 has the highest nominal per capita GDP of any African nation, and the culture is a fascinating mix of African, British and French influences. The official languages are English, French and Seychellois Creole, the latter having been derived from French. Most importantly, at least to me, the country boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and it was these that drew us to the main island of Mahe last Saturday, as our Ethiopian Airlines flight landed in the mid-afternoon and a taxi drove us to our first accommodation, The Palms Seychelles, located close to Beau Vallon beach on the northwest coast of Mahe.
Relaxing on the balcony of our apartment soon after checking in. After unpacking, Amber and I headed for the beach - not to the well-known Beau Vallon, a fifteen-minute walk from the Palms, but a smaller beach just five minutes away on foot. It felt great to be in the sea again, but the sight of a deadly lionfish in the water near us suggested there were serpents in our Garden of Eden:
The Seychelles would prove themselves to be the closest to Paradise I've yet experienced, but Heaven ain't cheap. Eating out is a very pricey proposition, as we discovered when we went out that evening for our first dinner in-country. True, we'd chosen to eat at Trader Vic's, but a bill equating to nearly $230 was somewhat dear for a party of just three. But it was there that I enjoyed my first taste of SeyBrew, the local lager, and I would be hooked:
It's no wonder so many lodging establishments on the islands advertise themselves as "self-catering", and fortunately there are numerous reasonably-priced grocery stores to ease the impact on the pocketbook.
We booked a car for the remainder of our stay on Mahe, and it was waiting for us in the parking lot on Sunday morning:
Looking up at our apartment from the parking lot. Sunday (like every other day during our stay) would be hot, humid and sunny, much to my wife's discomfort:
For our first excursion, we drove into the surprisingly steep interior of Mahe to reach the Copolia trailhead, five kilometers from Victoria:
42 of the archipelago's islands are granitic, including Mahe. This means that portions of the trail involve scrambling over granite boulders:
The trail is only a kilometer or so in length, but by the time we reached the granite platform of Copolia I was a sweaty, out of breath (and out of shape) mess - my daughter, of course, was fine. The views from 497 meters (1631 feet) made all that effort worthwhile:
Amber strikes a pose, with Eden Island in the background (see below):
Returning to the parked car (where Shu-E sensibly waited for us in the shade), we continued on into the interior, making a stop at the Mission Lodge. The name is derived from a school that had been built by the London Missionary Society in the 19th century to educate children of slaves who had been left on the island after the abolition of slavery:
The real reason for stopping off at the Lodge, however, is to take in the same views that Queen Elizabeth did when she visited the spot in 1972:
From the Mission Lodge we drove down to Grande Anse, a lovely beach on Mahe's west coast. According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, strong currents make the beach unsuitable for swimming (though this website says otherwise), but Amber and I had no problem enjoying the water. My goal was to go for a swim at a different beach each day, and except for our last day in the country, I succeeded:
As it was getting late in the afternoon, we drove back to the eastern side of the island, in search of a place to have dinner. We eventually settled on Eden Island, an artificial isle of waterfront villas (it's the only place in the Seychelles where foreigners are permitted to buy land) and a luxury marina. It's also home to the Eden Plaza shopping center, where we dined on hamburgers and such at Chatterbox, and where the bill came to around $80. We had yet to still grasp the self-catering/takeaway concept!:
Capping the night with a Kenyan brew...
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