Day 12 - Grand'Anse, La Digue

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!!...