Karen's Seychelles blog

The beautiful fish we saw off Félicité Island - les beaux poissons qu'on a vus aux abords de Félicité Island

Striped Surgeon - Chirurgien clown (Acanthurus lineatus) & Convict Tang - Chirurgien bagnard (Acanthurus triostegus)

Powderblue Surgeonfish - Chirurgien à dos jaune (Acanthurus leucosternon)

Powderblue Surgeonfish - Chirurgien à dos jaune (Acanthurus leucosternon)

Powderblue Surgeonfish - Chirurgien à dos jaune (Acanthurus leucosternon) & I'm not sure about the other fish, but looked like he could be of the parrotfish family, only less vividly coloured

Moorish Idol - Idole des Maures (Zanclus cornutus)

Yellow-tail blue damsels - Demoiselles bleues et jaunes (Chrysiptera parasema)

Convict Tang(s) by the dozen - Chirurgien bagnard (Acanthurus triostegus)

two Powderblue Surgeonfish and a Parrotfish (Scarus family - no wonder I found it difficult to find a picture that looked exactly like the ones I saw, their colour patterns can change during the day!)

a beautiful yellow fish, should anybody recognise it, they're welcome to help me identify it! & to its left, a Sergeant- Major - Poisson bagnard (Abudefduf vaigiensis)

Threadfin Butterflyfish - Papillon cocher (Chaetodon auriga) & a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse - Labre nettoyeur (Labroides dimidiatus)

Picassofish - Baliste Picasso (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), you probably won't see it very well on this picture, even if you make it bigger, but it looks like the one in the smaller picture (source). A well-deserved name!

and these strange fish, who can help us identify them??

A snorkelling trip to Félicité Island to try and spot a few turtles!

En avant pour Félicité Island, bien décidés à apercevoir quelques tortues marines...

arriving at Félicité Island

an A-frame chalet, the whole private island (property of the La Digue Lodge owner) is in the process of being re-vamped to attract even more loaded tourists (betw. 1000-1500€ a night)

the beach off which we went snorkelling

We could never actually see a turtle in its natural environment, but our guide caught one to show us, before setting it free again.

We found a nice bar on La Digue, at La Digue Island Lodge... and not just that, a great restaurant too! and inexpensive at that! (worth mentioning given that the hotel is a four-star hotel with room prices in accordance).
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Notre petit bar sympa sur La Digue: celui du Island Lodge, le restaurant aussi vaut le détour, le tout à des prix plus que raisonnables, ce qui vaut bien une mention spéciale, car l'hôtel est quatre étoiles et ses chambres ont des prix "quatre étoiles" aussi (compter entre 450€ et 500€ en moyenne la nuit).

the La Digue "Green Island" cocktail

chillin'

Loutier Coco Cafeteria, worth coming over to Grand Anse just for its buffet, nice atmosphere and lush food, and vastly enjoyed too after my recent experience with the local currents.
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Loutier Coco Cafeteria, tout un poème ce restaurant, un délicieux buffet, très complet, dans une atmosphère chaleureuse et un décor splendide! Vaut le détour! Et un repas bien mérité et d'autant plus apprécié après mes récentes (més)aventures dans la mer...

phew, that was a close shave! - how cool is this idea to hang hundreds of fresh red hibiscus flowers from the restaurant's ceiling!!? What an enchanting decor!

after a well-deserved meal of grilled fish, grilled lobster, papaya chutney, lentils puree and rice followed by a creole flan... we're starting off for Anse Cocos... --- nous voici donc partis pour Anse Cocos après un excellent repas de poisson grillé, langouste au barbecue, purée de lentilles, riz et flan à la créole... (comment ça il nous faut bien un peu d'exercice!?? )

...hiking our way through the forest: of course, what had to happen happened, we got lost, and what was meant to take us twenty minutes took the best part of two hours, including a helluva fright following a spooky encounter with a runaway cow and her calf (yeah, but you've got to see it from our perspective, we were in a strange forest, lost, and we first heard her mooing, then heavy breathing and strange tramping sounds... we thought it was a mammoth or something... :-(), and almost lost a flip-flop to a marshy length of path...
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... nous voilà donc à crapahuter dans les rochers de la forêt, à suivre un hypothétique sentier, et ce qui devait arriver arriva: on s'est perdus. Ca devait nous prendre 20mn, ça nous à pris près de deux heures, sans compter quelques rencontres effrayantes avec les créatures de la forêt (une vache et son veau), bon, d'accord, ce ne sont pas des créatures effrayantes, mais il faut se remettre en situation, nous, petits touristes perdus dans une jungle inconnue, à l'affût du moindre indice que nous sommes sur la bonne voie, presque sur le point de rebrousser chemin quand retentit un beuglement sinistre (genre Blair Witch, voyez), puis le son de pas trèèès lourds et le bruissement massif de feuillage sous le poids d'une énorme créature donc, aaaargh, c'est quoi, un mammouth? un dinosaure (ben, c'est un peu préhistorique comme décor...), bon, c'était une vache et son veau (mais elle était peut-être enragée, après tout, on sait pas! )...

... a glimpse of Petite Anse... - un aperçu de Petite Anse...

...and at last, the holy grail... - enfin, on y est!...

...Anse Cocos, every bit as gorgeous as it was meant to be, but as violent as Grand Anse!!  --- magnifique plage, comme promis, mais à peu près aussi fatale que Grand Anse, donc on s'est contentés de regarder depuis le bord... :-(

THE SIGN I UNDERSTOOD TOO LATE!!! --- LE PANNEAU QUE J'AI COMPRIS TROP TARD

Today we cycled to Grand'Anse, which the Lonely Planet described as 'stunning'... this surely deserves a bit of effort (good job La Digue is nowhere near as hilly as Mahé or Praslin though!)
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A bicyclette sur les chemins de La Digue, direction Grand'Anse, qualifiée de 'sensationnelle' par le Lonely Planet... ça mérite bien un peu de sport!

so, did it have the "Wow!" factor? yeah, definitely - but there was another factor we'd overlooked...

...when you reach Grand'Anse there's a sign by the beach that says "Warning: strong offshore currents" - I think they made a slight mistake, "strong" is not the appropriate word here (these were "bl**dy f***g strong" currents!).

Unaware at first, I went for a dip, stood there for 5 seconds before the first wave slapped right in my face, almost knocked me out, certainly sent me rolling on the ground, then I lost my sunglasses and nearly drowned a dozen times looking for them (you don't know me, I don't do "let go"): every single wave was so strong it threw me under, dragged me twenty feet, every time I came out spitting sand and water through my nose and mouth trying desperately to pull my bikini bottoms back up from anywhere between my knees and ankles (almost lost them for good at some point, that's how "strong" the current was) to at least sort of look decent for one split-second while I breathed in some air before going down again with the next tsunami wave! Good news, I found my sunglasses - and then ran for my life! Something to put down to experience I suppose...

...makes you wonder how something can look so good and be soooo nasty! No wonder then - but I only realised it afterwards (of course) - that there were so few people actually IN the water!

Me, running for my life, while a certain somebody, totally unphased by the whole tragedy happening under his very eyes, thought the situation was kind of funny and took pictures!!...

Anse Source d'Argent, the most photographed beach in the world. Quite amazing indeed.

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Anse Source d'Argent, la plage la plus celebre du monde - du moins en photos... ouais, pas mal... ;-)

Laidback La Digue - Paisible La Digue

Finding the right superlatives is getting harder and harder at this stage of our trip, so I'll just post a few "poscards" instead...
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A chaque étape, ça devient de plus en plus difficile de trouver les qualificatifs adéquats pour décrire les mille et une merveilles que l'on découvre au détour du regard, alors à la place, quelques "cartes postales" qui se passent de commentaires...

L'Union Estate Plantation

leading to Anse Source d'Argent

our arrival (erm, landing) on La Digue

Our new mode of transport... Very stylish I think... :-)  --- Notre nouveau moyen de transport... assez claaasse non? :-)

visions from the sky:

taking off - Praslin from the sky - the lagoon

"How does it feel like, to sail on the breeze...?"

We flew with Helicopter Seychelles.

One last morning swim at Anse Lazio before flying off to La Digue island...

This is Saint-Pierre Islet, off Anse Volbert, Praslin. These crystal-clear waters harbour thousands of beautiful fish that swim with you when you go snorkelling. An amazing experience!!

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L'Ilot Saint-Pierre, en face d'Anse Volbert (Praslin). On peut y aller nager au milieu des poissons multicolores et pas farouches, lieu et experience incroyables!!

A bientot pour de nouvelles aventures!!

K