Location: Praslin and Mahé, Seychelles

After a relaxing day at the Maldives, we crossed the Indian Ocean to the Seychelles; we first stopped at Praslin and then Port Victoria on Mahé.

Praslin

Praslin is the scenic, undeveloped island group of the Seychelles – so I signed up for a snorkeling trip at the nearby CoCo Island. One of the problems being on a world cruise is you get a little jaded about things. The snorkeling at CoCo was fine, but not as good as earlier places we had visited.

However, the Seychelles are different from the volcano-based islands we visited in January. Seems these are simply left-over mountain tops from previous continents. So, they are shaped differently.

I don’t have an underwater camera (something I need to fix: many guests recommend the Olympus Tough), but below one of our guides were feeding the fish when one came half out of the water and the guide pet its fins. It was like a cat getting its back scratched. I’ve never seen a fish do that.

On the way back there were giant bats flying to CoCo Island, like 4-foot wing spans. I did not get any good pictures, but a fellow guest did; I hope to have that up soon. I did get a good shot of the Silver Whisper. Note the life raft being used as a tender at the middle of the ship.

Mahé

Praslin was fun, but to me Mahé competes with Moorea as most beautiful island. Once you get out of the industrial part of the port it is amazing.

Many of us jumped on a catamaran for even more snorkeling. But first we took turns riding in a semi-submerged “submarine”. There are glass windows below the surface of the water. This is like the one I rode in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but I now have better pictures.

The silver benches are stored up so people can move to/from the stairs, but fold down for folks to sit.

I still don’t have an underwater camera, and the water was a little murky. But some pictures came out.

After lunch we visited a local beach that also had tortoises. Many tortoises, some almost 100 years old.

They also had a cage of baby tortoises. I find it amazing that something so small can grow so large only eating leaves.

Next: Tanzania!