The Seychelles - Cruise 2008
Home from the Seychelles Zen cruise

We’re back from the Seychelles. They really do look like the Garden of Eden... On land, everything grows with unmatched speed and productivity...

Two-hundred-year-old turtles and giant bats (luckily they’re fruit-eaters!) move about and stretch and birds of paradise fly through extravagant amounts of luxurious vegetation and real arboretums protected by national parks. Under the emerald sea, we sometimes swam in a truly gigantic aquarium surrounded by beautiful beaches of sand as white and fine as flour!

The island of Mahé will remind you of Rio de Janeiro (with huge, black, granite-like rocks and the combined look of the Antilles and the Hawaiian islands). We also visited Silhouette, completely wild, Praslin, La Digue, Curieuse, Grande Soeur, Petite Soeur, Coco Island and Félicité.

As far as language is concerned, residents speak French and English. The Seychelles locals are smiling and friendly, willing to help and to give information to tourists. This is quite different from the Antilles where there is a great deal of aggressiveness which is totally absent from the Seychelles! One feels at ease here and life is enjoyable. The famous journalist and explorer Stanley already mentioned these features a century ago. On his way back to Europe via the Indian Ocean, he stopped for an entire year in Mahé after having fulfilled his mission for King Leopold II and having met with Livingstone on Lake Tanganyika! The house where he lived has become a gastronomic restaurant … Another surprising fact: food is particularly delicious in the Seychelles!

In reality, since the 18th century, all sorts of navigators (Arab, French, British, and Portuguese) have commented on this paradise on earth. It is a wonderful place to rest and recover strength and health. Nature is very generous on these nearly perfect islands: there are lots of fish in the sea, hardly any mosquitoes, no snakes, and no dangerous animals (there were some crocodiles, but they were exterminated). Even the spiders don’t bite! The temperature ranges from 24 to 31°C all year long and the sea is 25 to 28°C.

Why with a catamaran?

A catamaran is definitely the best way to discover the islands for several reasons: it’s a particularly comfortable floating hotel (compared to single hulls) that goes where you want. It is also a very inexpensive means of transportation.

Indeed, even if you stay in a very expensive, or exorbitantly expensive hotel, you still have to add many expenses such as taxi fares and transportation to the other islands… Furthermore, preparing meals on board is another way to cut expenses drastically.

In conclusion, traveling by catamaran is really a great way to visit the islands in great comfort and at a moderate price. Remember that the islands are reputed to be among the most expensive places on earth (with Polynesia).

Yoga et zen

The beaches in the Seychelles are often flat and perfect for a yoga or Zen meditation session at dusk. It has to be at 5:15 at the latest because at 4° below the equator, night comes at 6 pm. Vital energy is at its highest here, at the meeting point of vegetation, earth and sea, and the session takes place in an ideal setting...

Witnesses

Dear Stéphane, Once again a very warm “Thank you” for this dream cruise. I still haven’t been able to decide which is my ideal anchoring place: sundown on the deck, meditation under the coconut trees, the discovery of beautiful La Digue by bicycle, the primitive forest of Praslin, or the tea-trees of Mahé. Everything was superb and perfect! Kind regards. Josiane.