Today was going to be the day, why most tourists come to Seychelles. i.e to enjoy the pristine waters and colorful sea life by Snorkeling in the beautiful corals and to meet the Giant Aldabra Tortoises. This atoll, where we find the giant Tortoises is also declared as the World Heritage Site.
When it comes to island hopping tours in Seychelles Islands, the two most offered and recommended are:
1. Coco,Felicite & Curieuse Island Tours
2. Cousin, Curieuse & St. Pierre Island Tours
These tours are provided by both Mason’s travel and Creole Travel Services. The same tours are also provided by other small tour operators at reduced prices, but its recommended to make use of excellent services by covering it through either of the two mentioned above. Tour days are dependent upon Island Off days, so both these travel agencies run it on specific days of the week.
We opted for the 2nd Tour. However, there is not much difference between the two, as both cover the Tortoise Island, i.e Curieuse, and rest are only snorkeling points.
So our tour covers 3 islands, Cousin, Curieuse & St. Pierre Island.
I had booked my tour with Mason’s Travels and it costed us about 120 Euros/ person inclusive of Meals, water pickup and drop etc. The pickup time was 8:30 AM from the resort.
Mason’s Travel agent came right on time and picked us in their bus, which had other tourists as well. We stopped on our way to jetty to pick a few others. On arriving at Baie St Anne Jetty, the Praslin Jetty, we saw our yacht. It was a nice and new looking yacht with a capacity of about 30-45 people on board with all modern facilities. We began our sea voyage with the Captain introducing his crew and plans for the day.
As the journey began, we were only 10 mins away from the jetty when few of the on-board assistants shouted out to show us some dolphins. I was seeing dolphins for the first time, and they were in a group so there were like 10-15 of them. The Captain stopped the engines and allowed the yacht to calm down so that we can enjoy seeing them play. However, by that time we had made enough noise and yacht had also drifted ahead, so they went away. Thus, it was only a brief encounter, but their sights made for a good start for the day.
La-Digue Island as seen from yacht
Our first stop on the way was Cousin Islands. They moored the boat on arriving, near the island and provided us the Snorkeling gear to explore the beautiful corals. This side of corals had mostly silver fishes, however when you go towards the island or towards the large boulder, you see very colorful corals and a lot of parrot fishes and other varieties. I saw a couple of people doing underwater photography, and trust me by the sight of these corals; one definitely misses having an underwater camera. Mason’s travel agents called it as the “Indian Ocean Barrier Reef”.
Snorkeling at Cousin Island
Next stop was St. Pierre Islands. This was also a corals watching stop. Corals here were more beautiful and richer variety. As you go closer towards the islands, coral grew richer in vegetation and fish variety. Both the coral stops were great. In case someone doesn’t know swimming, Mason’s also had motor boats to drop people near islands so that they can also share the same experience.
Buffet getting ready while we are snorkeling at St Pierre Islands
It began raining once; we got on board our yacht after snorkeling. Therefore, it was decided that instead of having buffet by the beach side on Curieuse Island, we’ll have it on board. It was a typical creolean’ buffet with grilled fish, creole’ gravy, rice and some 2-3 different types of salad. Everyone was in very much need of a meal, after spending 2-3 hours snorkeling at the two spots.
Mason's crew members were also doing some fishing, while we were snorkeling, and while we were on board, we had the catch of the day.
Catch of the day
Our last and final spot of the day was Curieuse Island or the Turtle Island. It is closer to the north coast of the island of Praslin. It was a wet landing here at Curieuse Island as motor boats will drop you till the shallow waters of the beach and not upto the land. Curieuse Island is a protected reserve and has a very high landing fee per visitor – About 800 Seychelles Rupees/ Person. The area is declared as Curieuse Marine National Park to protect the turtles and sea life. The island has mostly rocky beaches and serves as a nesting ground for Aldabra Giant Tortoises.
Tortoises roaming freely at the Ranger's station
We landed at the Ranger's Station, which as per the caretaker, is home to about 250 Aldabra Giant Tortoises. They also rear the young ones under protected environment. We saw a lot of tortoises roaming freely around the park. There is a small beachside restaurant also, and one can find some tortoises lazying around there too. It was a great afternoon spent playing with those lazy beautiful creatures. The park has a trail which leads you to the Doctor’s house and its beach ie at Anse St. Joseph. Along the trail we saw some Coco- de –Mer trees- and giant takamaka trees as well.
As we reached the Doctor’s House, we read about the history of Curieuse Island. It was first used as a leper colony, and functioned in this capacity until 1965. Today, only the ruins of the leprosarium remain, and the Doctor’s House (now an educational center and museum). We spent a lot of time at the beach, it was raining and the ocean water was warm, so it made for a nice swim in the ocean.
We returned to our yacht, after 1-2 hours on the beach and moving around the area. They served us some snacks and juices to drink and it turned out to be a really nice and eventful day. We return to the jetty by 5 PM and had all the evening to explore. Good thing, they also dropped us back to our hotel. Thus, we got to rest and change to try some new place for the night.
Tonight we decided to visit the other side of the Hotel, i.e the right lane, some of the other tourists we met at the beach recommended the restaurant closest to our Hotel beach, "Café-des -arts". It was indeed a nice colorful restaurant run by a lady, which also has a boutique cum souvenir shop. You can read more about it here.
Tonight we decided to visit the other side of the Hotel, i.e the right lane, some of the other tourists we met at the beach recommended the restaurant closest to our Hotel beach, "Café-des -arts". It was indeed a nice colorful restaurant run by a lady, which also has a boutique cum souvenir shop. You can read more about it here.
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