Another good day in the Seychelles. Luckily the weather was better today.
We started the day with breakfast at the hotel. We had a long chat with the owner about things to do and places to go with the car we rented for today. The car was being delivered to the hotel at 10AM, so while we were waiting for the car I walked downtown to mail a couple of postcards. The postoffice is right at the clock tower which is an exact replica of the clock tower that was in place at Victoria Station in London in 1892 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. The Seychelles version was installed in 1903. It is in center of Victoria (the capital of the Seychelles) and the central traffic jam location!
Francesco, from Sixt Car Rental, dropped off the car and we asked if we could have it for an extra day, as rain is predicted on Saturday and we didn’t want to be trapped in the hotel. We had initially asked about this possibility yesterday and been told it was not available. We tried again and to our delight it was available. After we completed the paperwork Francesco he was going to wait for his colleague to pick him up, but we offered to drop him off at the airport if he drove there and stopped at a gas station so we could fill up the tank. It was a win, win and off we went.
After dropping him off we headed south along the Mahe eastern coast. Our first stop was the Takamaka Rum factory, where I jumped in on the last half of a tour and learned a bit about rum making. I also walked around the property and, of course had a stop and say hi to Taka and Maka, the aldabra tortoises on the factory grounds.
Interesting side story on tortoises. They have tortoises at our favorite restaurant by the hotel. In 2004 when the tsumani hit the Seychelles there was a tremor and the wall of the tortoise enclosure here collapsed and fell on some of the tortoises. Of their 13 tortoises, five have significant damage to their shells. One was cracked, another had a hole in the top of the shell and a third had a big dent.. Obviously, in capitivity they are fine with damaged shells, but I suspect if they were in the wild they wouldn’t have made it.
Back to today and the rum factory, here are some pictures:
A word or two about the roads… The main road is pretty good ,although there are ditches on either side for water runoff and there is no shoulder between the road and the ditch. The ditches are quite deep, typically about a foot or more. If you veer off the road and one or both of your wheels end up in the ditch your car is totalled. The main road is wide enough for two cars but that’s it. The side roads are very, very narrow. Often a little wider than one lane and if you meet another car, you need to squeeze by each other without falling in the ditch. And if that’s not enough the side roads are steep and twisty. We tried to go to a spice garden but one look at the road and Rick vetoed it.
By this time we were starting to get hungry for lunch. We stopped at one highly raated outdoor restaurant, but there was serius, noisy construction on the other side of the road, so we decided it was not tthe best option. We tried another restaurant, but a taxi driver who was guarding his car on the very narrow road while his clients snorkeled told us that the restaurant was only ok and directed us to another restaurant. So off we went. The other restaurant was very good and very different. Rick ordered fish and shrimp and I ordered mixed meats. They brought flaming sterno canisters, placed them between some granite bricks, placed a hot lava stone atop the bricks, all on our table, and we cooked our own food in garlic butter and saffron butter. It was very good, like really very good! The meat/fish was served with white rice and salad. Simple, tasty, just perfect!
After lunch we continued on the main road that rings the island, stopping a couple of times at beautiful beaches for pictures. Mahe has mountains in the center of the island and beaches along the edge. In order to get back to our hotel we had to go up and over a mountain. It was quite steep and curvy, but luckily Rick has lots of practice from driving in Switzerland. Here is our route and pictures from our drive.
Once we arrived in Victoria we went back to George Camille’s gallery to measure the paintings we are thinking about buying. After much debate we have decided to wait until we get home to make a decision. The painting or paintings are for the kitchen which is currently being remodeled, so we feel like we need a little more detail about perspetive to see if it/they “fit.”
We had a our normal picnic in the room for dinner. Tomorrow we are off for more island touring!