Praslin, Seychelles

January 14^th, 2025

We dropped anchor just off the island of Praslin at about midnight.

No cargo port for us today, we were going to brave the tenders. Actually, the sea was perfectly calm, and it was easy to disembark when we reached the jetty on Praslin, so there really was no challenge at all.

 We had decided to book the ship’s tour to the Vallee de Mai nature reserve. 13 of us climbed into the coaster bus, and off we set.

The tour had been described as strenuous and involving walking over uneven surfaces. I surveyed our fellow travelers, some of whom had had difficulty getting in to the bus. I wondered how this was going to work out.

It was a short drive to the park entrance

The park is known for its variety of palm trees, the most famous of which is the coco de mer. We had seen the trees yesterday on Mahe, but today we had a more in depth experience with them.

The nuts are certainly rather large.

At the entrance there was a display of the nuts in various stages of their development.

Once in the park there were  many female coco de mer trees bearing fruit

And a number of male trees.

The trees are very tall.

You can tell the age of the younger trees by counting the rings on their trunks, but  they live for up to 400 years and the rings disappear over time.

It was a hot and humid day, and the path was certainly uneven with many steps.

Our fellow travelers were beginning to fade. We were progressing at a snail’s pace, things weren’t going well. The tour was described as strenuous, and I would have rated it moderate, but it was clearly more than they could safely manage. Four of the group decided to call it a day and walked back to the bus.

The rest continued, but our progress was slow.

Our guide showed us that various parts of the palm trees could be used

As a broom

Or a brush

And roofing.

There were so many different types of palms.

There were little streams running through the park which will eventually join other streams and become a major part of the water supply for the region.

It was a beautiful park, and we loved every minute of being there. Except for the spiders.

We joined the rest of the group back at the bus, and I thought we were heading towards the beach for a swim.

I was wrong. Everyone on the bus except for us wanted to go back to the ship. They were done for the day. So Brian and I were the only ones who elected to go to the beach.

This was a good choice. When we got there we were treated to roasted coconut and chilled fruit juice. Perfect!

The beach was very pretty. It was a great way to relax and cool down after our walk in the forest.

I was intrigued by an island near the beach – it looked like there may be an exclusive resort there.

I would have been happy to stay on the beach all day, but the water sports platform at the back of the ship was calling us, so we headed back to the ship to make sure we could get a ride on the banana boat.

We got back in time for the last ride of the day.

We were joined on the banana boat by 4 young South Africans. Things went well to begin with and we enjoyed skimming the water at great speed behind one of the ship’s rigid inflatable boats.

I could understand why we were made to wear life vests, but I thought the helmets were a bit excessive.

Then we hit a wake and the front of the banana boat disappeared under the waves, causing all six of us to fly off and hit the water at great speed. When we had established that we were all OK, we were faced with a problem. We were quite far from the ship, so swimming back there wasn’t a good option.

However, climbing back onto the banana boat just wasn’t going to work, and climbing back into the ship’s boat was nearly impossible. Eventually after much pushing and pulling,  we were all able to make it into the boat, and then 5 of us transferred to the banana boat. One of the South Africans elected to stay in the safety of the ship’s boat, but the brave 5 of us rode on.

Luckily there were no more mishaps, and we returned to the ship’s platform without further incident.

One of the features of the Sojourn is the water sports platform at the back of the ship. They provide paddle boards, kayaks, peddle boats, a sofa boat, and the infamous banana boat. You can also potentially water ski. However, they don’t use the platform often, and this may be the only time they will use it during our cruise, which is a great shame. Although if they do use it again, I am going for a peddle boat. No more banana boats for me.

Once the water sports equipment had been put away, and the platform securely returned to its watertight position we sailed off into the sunset.

We went for pre-dinner drinks in the Observation Bar. Unlike on a ship that I know and love, there is an endless supply of potato crisps on the Sojourn to enjoy with your drink. You can just get up and get them yourself without feeling guilty about asking for them, and then being told that the ship has run out of crisps.

There are several things that Seabourn just doesn’t do well, but the endless supply of crisps in the Observation Bar does make up for it.

Tonight’s magician’s claim to fame was that he has performed for King Charles. Be that as it may, there was very little that was new about his act and I thought that King Charles had also probably seen it all before but would have done a good job of laughing on cue, and looking amazed at all of the right places.

The magician certainly was very funny, and although I had seen most of it before, he performed his act in such an engaging way I couldn’t help laughing and looking amazed just when this was the correct thing to do.

As it turned out, tonight’s performance was not the show he did for the king, and he promised he would do that show in a few days’ time. I am looking forward to being amazed.