We had initially preferred to have spent two nights on La Digue then two nights on Praslin, but trying to string together a floatplane, a commercial flight, a domestic flight, and arrange a transfer to the other side of Praslin to catch a ferry all before 4pm on one day without anything going wrong seemed a bit dubious. Thusly, we decided to make a La Digue sandwich with Praslin as the bread. Our ferry time was scheduled for 2pm, and our hotel was very accommodating with a late checkout at no extra charge. Before we went to the Maldives, we received an email from the Conrad containing all the hotel policies including a line that said, “Late checkout is no problem, we simply charge you another night’s rate.” No problem! Just a modest $1200+ to stay in your room for a couple hours. Our hotel on Praslin is certainly a lot different than the Conrad, and for 1/10 the price it’s not 1/10 the quality.
Without feeling the need to smuggle breakfast items from the Acajou hotel, we relaxed in our room for a while before going on the search for the Coco de Mer nut. It is a rare double-coconut that only truly exists on the island of Praslin. Because of its rarity, it’s now a protected species of nut. We first went to a palm forest in an area called Fond Ferdinand, but you can only visit if you hire a guide and then they wanted to wait for at least eight people to be in the group to drag around for 2 and a half hours to talk about nuts. We didn’t think this sounded like a lot of fun, especially since we had a ferry to catch. We went instead to the Vallée de Mai, which is a UNESCO site to protect the Coco de Mer. They also allowed self-guided tours despite some rather pushy guides trying to intercept us at the entrance. The shape of aforementioned nut is a rather bottom-like. It’s become a sort of symbol of the country, and the Seychelles stamp in our passports is also in the shape of a butt.
After looking at the nuts, we returned to the hotel, got organized, and headed off to the ferry dock. It’s only a fifteen minute boat ride from Praslin to La Digue, but the ferry companies do go all the way from Mahé as well. It is not uncommon for people to take the ferry the whole way, as it is cheaper than the domestic flight, but Nicole found numerous TripAdvisor reviews stating that people took the boat from Mahé and found the seas to be so rough that they ended up booking a plane back to Mahé rather than get on the boat again. Even for the fifteen minute crossing, we lurched a few times as we bobbed and dipped clumsily through the waves. We were greeted at the dock by a rep from our guesthouse who drove us a short way to the Cocotier de Rocher. Our host gave us a thorough explanation of where things are and about how long it would take to reach things by bike. It’s not a big island, so most things are 15-20 minutes. We asked for bikes and they were at our door within minutes.
Then we went around the corner to a market to buy some drinks and snacks. She only accepted cash and we only had card. She told us that we could take our food items and come back later when we had cash. As it turned out, she also accepted US dollars, so off we went. We saw some giant Aldabra Tortoises just inside an area called L’union Estate. They were sort of in an enclosure, but had a decent range of area to roam in considering they are not the most spry of creatures. We got excited when some of them took a few steps.
L’Union Estate contains numerous different places of interest like a vanilla plantation, but we were passing through to reach the Anse Source d’Argent. It’s perhaps the most famous beach in all the Seychelles. The coastline of La Digue is full of these large granite boulders making it rather unique compared to other tropical islands. It has a very exotic look that has graced many a tropical beach calendar throughout the years.
Being that it is a rather famous beach, there were many people present, but we did our best to either wait them out or creatively crop them from our photos. We hadn’t done the best planning for a visit to a beach. We ended up taking our socks and shoes off to walk closer to the water’s edge and ended up getting soaked regardless. Next time we shall pack bathing suits and flip flops.
There are only so many photos one can take of the same beach, so after an hour or so we retreated back to our bicycles. We wound our way back up a small hill to a place called Rey & Josh Cafe Takeaway. It’s the #2 restaurant on La Digue and it is extremely unassuming. Nicole ordered a cheese sandwich and I got some creole chicken with rice. They also only took cash, but offered to let me come back when I had money. In the end, they also took U.S. dollars. Talk about the honor system on this island, though! When we were biking back to the Cocotier, I saw the lady in the market where we had purchased some items earlier, and we waved to each other. It’s hard to hide from anyone on an island this small. If I still owed her a debt, I’m sure she wouldn’t have much trouble finding me.
We ate outside back at our place. A stray cat and some mosquitoes paid us a visit while some roosters crowed in the background. I think they are confused. So far we are enjoying the laid-back vibe of La Digue. It doesn’t have all the frills and fuss as some other places, but it’s more our speed. We look forward to exploring more tomorrow, but now we sleep.
passports & pepto bismol 