Mahe, Seychelles

January 13^th, 2025

How can this be day 45 of a 90-day cruise? How can we be halfway through? Things are just going way too fast.

This may be day 45 of the cruise, but it is also day 2 on Mahe, and we arranged for our driver to pick us up at 10:00 and take us on a tour of the island.

There were many people disembarking today, and at 9:30 Nick announced that there were 14 passengers who had still not disembarked, and they needed to do so now. I felt their pain, when we return to Barcelona we will need to disembark on time as we have a plane to catch, but if there isn’t a rush, I would be quite happy to spend an extra few minutes on board.

We walked to the car park close to the dock, and our driver was there and ready for the 6 of us. Off we set for our day out on Mahe.

Our first stop was at the Hindu Temple in downtown Victoria, the Arul Mihu Navasakthi Vinayagar Temple to be precise.

I love how beautiful Hindu temples are on the inside, and this one didn’t disappoint.

Although there were oranges in the fruit offering basket,

there were plenty of bananas available it seemed.

I especially loved the doors.

Close to the temple is the market which was closed yesterday but today is Monday and it was  open.

Our first stop was at the fish stall, where the birds were having a field day.

We next went to the fruit and vegetable stalls, where there seemed to be an abundance of green produce.

There were also loads of spices to buy.

Upstairs in the market there were souvenir stalls, but nothing really appealed.

Having explored the market, we then drove along the beautiful coastline, admiring the beaches

And huge granite boulders.

We stopped at a beach where legend has it there is buried treasure from the days of pirates on the island, but no one has found it as yet.

We passed by the old Bel Air cemetery, where the early French settlers are buried.

And then went up into the hills

Stopping to take a photo of our ship in the distance.

Mahe is a very beautiful, lush, green island. The drive through the hills was lovely.

Our next stop was at the Tea Factory. We didn’t actually stop and have some tea unfortunately, but we did admire the view and buy some tea to take home.

Then we headed back to the coast, passing by some mangrove swamps.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant close to the beach. The hamburgers were not good, but the fish and chips were fine, and the owner, Lena was totally delightful, and we really had a good time.

Finally it was time to swim at Port Launay Beach

The beach was a classic palm fringed stretch of white sand, and the water was calm and warm. My kind of beach. I could have stayed there all day.

However, Darel, our driver had other ideas, and we were whisked away to a rum distillery, which just happened to be closed.

No worries, we then headed for our final stop on the tour, the Jardin du Roi Spice Garden and Creperie.

Alas, the creperie was closed. We have been served with amazing food for the past 6 weeks, but a nice French crepe would have gone down really well, but it was not to be.

Still the spice garden was amazing and well worth the visit.

I had been reading about the coco de mer palm trees, which are only found in the Seychelles, and we got to see them up close and personal.

The nut is the largest seed in the plant kingdom.

There are male and female trees. Male trees have long phallic-looking catkins which can grow longer than 1m in length. Because of these unusual, erotic shapes, some people believed that the trees make passionate love on stormy nights. The legend has it that whoever sees the trees mating will die or go blind.

Fortunately, we were only there during the day.

The gardens were very lush

And there was a distant view of the ocean.

I loved the avocado tree.

There were so many trees and flowers, I have no idea what all of their names were,

But my favorites were the cala lilies and ginger plants.

However, the best part were the tortoises. Unlike lions who tend to sleep all the time, the tortoises were awake and inquisitive. To think that they are hundreds of years old! It is quite amazing.

The garden was a really magical place, but time was fleeting, and all too soon we had to get back in the van and make it back to the ship in time for the sail away.

Our 2 days on Mahe had been fun, but it was time to move on to our next island paradise.