Day 31 – Mahe, The Seychelles

The Republic of the Seychelles is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, Northeast of Madagascar. It consists of 115 islands and the capital Victoria is on the island of Mahe. It is the smallest country in Africa with an estimated population of 100,000. The total land area is 176 square miles.

The islands were not settled until the 18th century and were uninhabited prior to this time, although they were recorded by European sailors some 200 years earlier. The climate is hot and humid and is classified as tropical rainforest. The Seychelles is one of the world’s leading countries for conservation, allocating 42% of its territory to the protection of threatened species. The giant tortoise is protected and approximately 150,000 of them live on the atoll of Aldabra. 🐢 ☺️The mountainous interior of the island appears to be dense, lush rainforest sweeping down to stunning white beaches with crystal clear, warm waters.

Today we were tendered ashore at 9 am and then transferred by bus to Sunset Beach on the North West coast where we spent a relaxing morning, reading our books and swimming in the stunning, turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean.

At lunchtime we returned to Victoria for a mooch around the town. To be honest there isn’t much going on in Mahe. It feels underdeveloped, even a bit shabby, and does not appear to be the world-class sophisticated tourist destination we were expecting. The shops are very basic and there is no 4G and most of the cafés, shops and the restaurant we spent money at were unable to take electronic payments because their card machines weren’t working.

After a late lunch we headed back to the port where we had to queue for an hour to get on the tender back to the ship. Everyone took it in good spirits however and the Cunard shore staff kept up a never-ending supply of cold water for everybody, as well as cold flannels and umbrellas to provide shade (it was 34 degrees today and about 80% humidity ) 🥵

All in all we had a nice day, but was it the unblemished slice of perfect paradise its reputation implies? Very resoundingly not.