I checked out soon after breakfast and walked to the ferry for the 20 min ride to Praslin where I continued to the Beach Villa Guesthouse by taxi. True to its name, is beachfront but not on the best beach (as it receives a bit of seaweed).
Time to explore options for spending my remaining days in Seychelles. Diving was reasonably cheap at EUR55 per dive with all equipment and hotel pickup. That’s half the price of an all-day snorkelling trip, or about the same as the rather rare half-day option that forgot me yesterday.
My hotel phone was broken (says the cleaner but I suspect the boss doesn’t allow outgoing calls). I wandered around the neighbourhood to find all public phones out of order. A shop kindly allowed me to use their phone so I managed to make a booking for tomorrow.
Having done that, I bused to Vallee de Mai, a nature reserve that is home to the largest collection of the iconic Sea Coconuts (those palm trees that bear big butt-like nuts). I did the longer walk through the gorgeous forest in 45 min at a leisurely pace, when it was marked as a 2h walk.
The leaves of the Sea Coconut palm is like a big thick fan; it catches the wind and rustles very loudly as if there is passing traffic in the forest. Even though it was a beautiful walk, it was rather expensive at EUR20!!! It is the most expensive scenic walk I’ve ever done. It is free for locals though, which is fair enough as it is national icon.
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- Vallee de Mai is home to the largest collection of Sea Coconut palms.
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- Vallee de Mai is home to the largest collection of Sea Coconut palms.
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- Sea coconuts with their husks on the palms.
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- Sea coconuts with their husks on the palms.
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- The fruit on the female tree supposedly looks erotic; the lower part of the picture also shows a male flower.
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- The fruit on the female tree supposedly looks erotic; the upper part of the picture also shows a male flower
