Seychelles Part 2 – The following day we’d arranged a private day tour via the resort with Philippe. We first went to Victoria and stopped at the market. Downstairs is fish, produce and spices with souvenirs and a restaurant upstairs. Reminded me of the market in Papeete only smaller. Acually, the Seychelles kind of reminded me of French Polynesia in general. Next to the market is a shop called Sunstroke which sells paintings and embossed copper by a local artist, George Camille, and beautiful painted silk items. I bought a large silk pareo with geckos on a leaf background. They had smaller size ones too which could be framed along with various items such as pillow covers.

Next we stopped at the craft village which consists of several small buildings housing different vendors. Some of it was the usual tourist trinket stuff but a few were more original and sold artwork, pottery, soap, model boats and bark hats made on site. There’s also an example of an old Seychellois house and a restaurant on the grounds. Afterwards, we stopped at Anse Intendance where the Banyan Tree resort is located, but the water was a little too rough for swimming. Boy, does the Banyan Tree provide a nice public changing/shower/bathroom facility though!

As we were getting a bit peckish, we asked Philippe to recommend a lunch spot with an ocean view. He took us to Anse Soleil café where we had a yummy lunch of octopus curry, fried squid, papaya salad with rice and creole sauce by the beach (again the water was rough) for 300 rupees. The road down to Anse Soleil is basically a dirt path but you can drive all the way down to the café carpark. We passed by one couple who didn’t know and had parked on the road. They turned around and went back to get their car when they saw us drive down. Philippe called the road “rough” but it was nothing compared to Kenya.

Not far from Anse Soleil, we passed by the Four Seasons under construction. Our last beach stop was Port Launay, finally a beautiful, sheltered cove with nice, calm water. Some resort is also going up here but I don’t remember the name. We took Chemin Sans Souci, a road that cuts across the island, back toward Victoria. We had basically traveled all along the coast starting down the eastern side of the island and up the western side, then cut across to return. The Hilton is located on the northwestern end of the island. On the way, we tried to stop at the tea factory but it was closed. The road climbs through Morne Seychellois National Park and being in the dense vegetation at altitude actually started to feel chilly. We stopped at the Capucin Misson ruins where there’s not much ruins left but has a beautiful viewpoint which looks across the island with white-tailed tropicbirds soaring. They have such beautiful, long tails. One swooped down really close so I got a good view.

Back at the Hilton, we went for another swim and a nap by the pool. Neither of us was very hungry so we just got a quick bite at the bar for dinner. They have a light menu served all day with reasonable prices and actually better food than the buffet restaurant. From the bar, we could see the outlines of North and Silhouette islands.

Our last full day in the Seychelles! We decided we wouldn’t do anything but veg today, alternating between the pool and the beach. The hotel beach is pretty shallow and only exists at low tide but was nice and calm today so it was perfect. We’d talked about maybe taking a day trip to Praslin during our trip, but we were only here for 4 nights and once we got here, didn’t feel like putting that much effort into anything.

On arrival, we’d received a letter detailing our HHonors bennies, one of which was hats to take home. As we never received those, we decided to ask for them at reception, thinking they’d be logo’d baseball caps or something. Imagine our surprised when we found two giant straw hats sitting on our bed when we returned to our villa! We were kind of sorry we asked for them now, but they made for a funny photo op.

From our balcony, we watched the bats come out at dusk again and had another excellent dinner at Les Cocotiers tonight. Prior to our trip, we had read about the high prices of food and drinks at Seychelles resorts, but we didn’t find it to be too bad. Perhaps we were just prepared for it, but we found dining costs to be comparable to resort areas elsewhere with drinks being only somewhat more expensive, at least that’s the case at the Hilton. Aside from the buffet dinner, we also felt the quality of the food at the resort was very good so didn’t have issues with the cost. And outside of the resort, you can have very inexpensive casual meals (there are some nicer restaurants too but we didn’t try any of them).

Seychelles Part 3 and Journey Home – Our last morning before our 36 hour journey home :(( This is the first time we’ve done a beach stay in conjunction with a safari, and we’d debated whether to add the Seychelles to the beginning or end of our trip. I have to say we were very glad to have this nice, relaxing ending and we actually wish we’d stayed a week instead of only 4 nights.

We had our last ocean view breakfast, settled our bill, showered, packed and headed off for the airport at 11:00am. When I called to reconfirm our flights, I was told check-in closed at 1:00pm for our 2:20pm flight and this being a weekday, we wanted to give ourselves enough time. As it turned out, even though there was some traffic, it only took us marginally longer to get to the airport and we were checked in, through passport control and security in only 15 minutes with nothing to do but sit around for the next 2.5 hours.

We found the lounge upstairs but were turned away. I guess KQ’s too cheap to pay for their passengers to use the lounge :( We went back downstairs and nothing in the departures area was open yet (hmmm… no wonder all those people were sitting at the café outside the terminal) but at least it’s air conditioned. I was really thirsty by now and went back into the lounge to ask if they could sell or give us a bottle of water but they refused saying that the bar downstairs opens 3 hours prior to departure. I tried to point out that it was already 2 hours prior departure and the bar still wasn’t open to no avail.

Finally, the bar and shops opened and we were able to get something to drink. As we’d missed the tea factory, I picked up some citronelle tea at the duty free store (no rupees accepted here either). We were getting kind of hungry and bought one of the mystery sandwiches at the bar. It consisted of stale bread with one paper thin slice of ham and some shredded carrot. I’ve never had a sandwich that tasted quite like, well, nothing! We put our remaining rupees except a few coins in the SPCA donation bin and were very happy when our flight arrived early and we left the airport.

On arrival in NBO, we headed for the lounge where we were informed of the cancellation of our flight to Paris. We just said “yeah, we figured”. They told us we’d been protected on this evening’s flight to AMS, then AMS-CDG and our original CDG-LAX flight, and they’d print us new boarding passes and re-tag our bags. We handed over our eticket receipts and passports while they went to work on our re-accommodation.

We had 6+ hours to kill until the 11:10pm flight to AMS but had met a couple at SEZ who were returning home via London, chatted with them the whole time and the time flew by. They were on a month long vacation and had done a safari in northern Tanzania with Roy (which they only had good things to say about), spent time with friends in Dar, and finally 8 days in the Seychelles on a bareboat charter. Midway through our layover, a different agent came by and asked if we wanted to be put on the nonstop AMS-LAX flight. We answered yes before we actually really thought about it but decided against it when I checked the schedule and realized we’d have an 8 hour layover in AMS and get home later than our double connection through AMS and CDG. The agent didn’t look too happy when I asked to be put back on our originally rescheduled flights.

At 9:00pm, they were still working on our flights. By 10:30pm, we received our boarding passes, a FIM for our NBO-AMS-CDG segments and were still waiting for another FIM for the CDG-LAX portion plus our new bag tags. At 11:00pm, I asked if the flight’s delayed. To which the agent replies “no, they’re waiting for you” and finally writes out our last FIM and tells us we keep our original bag tags. I thought she was waiting for someone to bring this stuff to her. What the heck was she doing this whole time? I think she was just getting back at us for making her change our flights again ;)

We made it to our gate just as they’re paging us, went through gate security and boarded as a bunch of crew members stood at the end of the jetway looking at their watches. Wasn’t our fault! One of the FAs found two empty seats together for us and we pulled away from the terminal before I even got my seat belt on. I passed out and slept until an hour before arrival in AMS. The rest of our flights were uneventful and we were able to get another passenger on the CDG-LAX flight to swap seats so we could sit together.

On arrival in LAX, there was no line at immigration and I only got questioned briefly about the passport I lost in 1993 (usually I get more grilling, I swear, loose a passport and it haunts you forever). Just as we got to the baggage carousel, we heard Mark’s name paged and figured none of our bags made it. They had the paperwork all filled out already and we walked out of the terminal before the first bag even came down the carousel. At least, they didn’t make us wait! Our bags were delivered the next day.

The end.

I nearly missed my project! Finding the hirola sounds like a good one - although Tsavo East is pretty big. Maybe the rangers will tell me where they are.

Hirola … Kimburu should look for the coastal topi! It’s been sighted by Jan Goss, so it’s not mission impossible.

Another great report and pictures! Thanks Patty!
Aloha!

Thanks, everybody!

Paul,
From my understanding, the Satao area is where they've been spotted, so you have no excuse ;)

I read an extensive article in one of last year's Swara magazines while I was there. I believe it was the 2nd quarter issue.

Patty, thanks for another great report! You definitely gave me some ideas for a future (fantasy) trip to Kenya. Loved seeing your pictures, too. You do such a great job of capturing the essence of your travels and providing useful details for other people planning trips. :)

Patty, what a wonderful trip report! I loved the photo of the bushbaby and the baby cheetah - now that's a baby. Also the earlier cheetah is nice and impressionistic.

Great details in your report... I feel like I did it with you. Wonderful photos. I'm so happy that good samaritan turned in your camera bag!

Thanks again, everyone, for the nice comments and allowing me to relive my trip :)

Thanks again, Patty. What a nice trip. I am not a "beach person" at all, but I agree that one appreciates breeze, cool blue water and a lack of dust after safari. Looks like you got all that and more.

Near Satao?! Coastal Topi it is then!

Patty, I enjoyed reading the report. I am glad you got to experience Swara Plains. Yes, they do accept day visitors as I was one last August. A pretty nice place to visit...