We were lucky today and the weather was much better than forecast. Instead of rain all day, it was partially sunny most of the day!
Funny thing happened at breakfast this morning. We heard a woman speaking Swiss German so Rick started talking to her. She mentioned that they usually travel to south east Asia instead of the Seychelles so Rick started talking about his cousin Bruno Manser who created a foundation in Borneo whose mission is to campaign “for the conservation of the threatened tropical rainforests with their biodiversity and strive for the respect of the rights of the rainforest dwellers.” It turned out the woman’s husband worked for the Bruno Manser Foundation in 2012. It’s a small world! Of course a longer conservation ensued and he was telling us about trips around Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, and Sumatra.
Rolf and Carmen, Rolf worked for Bruno Manser Foundation
After breakfast we headed out. We still have the car so we planned to explore the northern portion of the island. We stopped a couple of times for pictures but otherwise went directly to Beau Vallon.
I think I said yesterday they drive on the left here. A couple of times I have to remind Rick that he was on the wrong side of the road. Also the controls on the car are opposite so everytime he wanted to turn on the turn signal, he turned on the windshield wipers instead. Ooops! They have quite a good bus service which goes all the way around the island, but we didn’t partake in that. Yesterday I mentioned the drainage ditches. Here’s a picture of one of the ditches and a picture of our car.
Beau Vallon was the one bay we could have anchored in if we had come by boat. It is one of the more touristy areas of Mahe. We parked the car and walked a path along the beach. A lot of people selling boat day trips were positioned there as well as souvenir stalls and small restaurants.
We ended up at a hotel and sat at their restaurant, had a juice, and watched the scene.
We returned to the car and continued on to the end of the road. The road does not go all the way around the island. There is a walking trail that connects the two ends of the road. There are quite a few walking trails in the center mountainous area of the island. But it is quite hot to go hiking, so it’s something we opted not to do. We turned around and came back to Beau Vallon because there is an Indian restaurant that we wanted to go to. We ordered enough food for lunch and dinner and really enjoyed it. We brought the leftovers back to the apartment.
We returned to Victoria and went to Eden Island, which is the main marina for the island. Sunsail, Dream Yacht Charters main competitor (we chartered with Dream Yacht), is located on Eden Island. Eden Island is a man made island which I believe was created using the same technology that was used in Dubai to create islands there, probably financed by them too. We drove around looking for Sunsail but couldn’t find it in the maze of streets. There’s is quite a dichotomy between Eden Island and downtown Victoria. Downtown Victoria is somewhat rundown while Eden Island is quite swank. It made me feel bad to see the contrast.
On the way back to the hotel we ran into people celebrating. The current president won his office two years ago. but they couldn’t celebrate it due to Covid. Today was the day to celebrate his win. There were a lot of people driving around in caravans waving the party flag with lots of honking. Here are some pictures.
The president’s house is next to our hotel. Here’s a picture
That evening we had our leftover indian food for dinner and got packed up because we have to be at the airport by 10am. Tomorrow is a travel day going from the Seychelles to Madagascar.
Here’s today’s route.
