Post 156. She Sells Seychelles

Thanks to all of you who replied to my last Post. It wasn’t meant to be depressing, but it’s difficult to talk about such things. If one of you has similar problems in future then you’ll know you’re not alone. As they say, worse things happen at sea. Although, thankfully, not in this Blog Post. Today is much more fun. Or at least, it has a lot more photos.

In Autumn 2022, JD booked us the holiday of a lifetime (not to be confused with The Race of Your Life, TM Clipper). He did think he was booking for February 2023 so we’ve had rather a long wait. Most of the photos are courtesy of JD as he did the exploring. I’ll spare you many of them, especially the ones of turtles and fish swimming (which are pretty much of beautiful blue sea with dark blobs). I’ve also spared you the crabs, eels and centipedes in case you have a phobia. Anyone is welcome to come and visit us and see all 800 photos of our trip!

At the beginning of February, we flew out to Dar es Salaam. Ignoring Egypt and South Africa, this was my first trip to Africa. Only passing through, but we still needed Tanzanian visas. Very exciting. We were picked up by a bus and taken to our ship (not sure of the strict difference between a boat and a ship but it’s bigger than CV31 so I’ll call it a ship and the Clipper fleet, boats). The road we travelled on from the airport to the harbour was in the process of being upgraded, which we were told has been going on for some years and no-one knows when it will end. We might just as well have stayed in the UK.

The Hebridean Sky, run by Noble Caledonia, was a welcome sight. We embarked and were met with a glass of fizz and Marvin playing the piano. Wonderful. I had brought my music to practice while everyone else was off exploring and he said I could borrow either of the two on board. (Not that I improved much, but one of the other passengers recognised what I was playing, or at least he claimed to, so I felt good).

Before anything else we had the obligatory safety drill. I must be getting blasé about this as I didn’t take a picture of us togged up in our lifejackets. We left Dar es Salaam and sailed to Zanzibar for a day, waking up to a rather familiar sight (did I ever tell you I used to work on the Southampton Docks for Overseas Containers Ltd?). The following day was Kilwa Kisiwani, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of ruins and walks. I don’t think the ruins can have been that impressive as there are no photos from JD.

One of Zanzibar’s claims to fame is being the birthplace of Farrokh Bulsara. Never heard of him? He played a major part in the rock band Queen and was better known as Freddie Mercury. Ah, now you know who I mean. We didn’t have time to see the museum so no photos. Ooh, I’ve just read that September 5th every year is ‘Freddie for a Day’, where you dress as him and raise money for charity. There’s a challenge.

http://www.freddiemercury.com/en/biography

Back on the ship, having dinner while we leave Africa and set sail for The Seychelles. A whole day at sea before we arrived.

One day it rained all day we were given a number of lectures to keep us occupied, including an exciting (or worrying) one on piracy. We heard of one cruise (which our expedition leader had been on) where the passengers picked up and threw overboard the furniture to repel boarders! It worked, but those chairs and side tables are so heavy it must have taken two or three people per item. This is not a pirate, you can spot them by the ladders and AK-47s they carry.

I’m not sure I’d call it a holiday, most mornings we were woken by the loudspeakers in our rooms telling us the Zodiac would be setting off on a sunrise trip and breakfast was being served. Anyone else spend their childhood holidays in Butlins with ‘Good Morning Campers’ as their alarm call?

There are two types of Islands there, coralline and granitic. The next two photos contrast them for you. We started with the typical coral island, apparently beautiful and white, all due to the parrot fish that nibble away at the coral and excrete it. Still want to go and sit on the beach?

To get on and off the ship (other than at the start and finish) we had to get into (and out of) Zodiacs, with most of the trips ending in ‘wet disembarkations’, that is getting your feet wet going onto a beach. This is where I chickened out as I’m none too steady at the best of times. Piano practice, reading books and supping tea while fitting a few jigsaw pieces in place, what more could I ask for?

We had ten enthusiastic Expedition guides / Zodiac drivers who were amazingly knowledgeable. A fair number of our fellow passengers were there to see the birds. Neither of us are particularly familiar with different birds (robin, blackbird, LBJ or little brown job is about my limit), but JD recorded 32 different birds. Quite a few are migrants that we have in the UK at different times of the year (heron, dunlin, egret, whimbrel, feral pigeon) so we could have stayed in Norfolk.

Not really, the ones I show here are not likely to be spotted at home (crab plover was the great excitement amongst those who know, but frigate birds, noddys, fodys, various terns, tropic birds etc were good to see). I think my favourite were the fairy terns (now renamed white terns, how boring). The one below that, I think, is a tropic bird. Enough of you know enough to correct me if I’m wrong.

The frigate birds in the tree below reminded me of the vultures in Disney’s Jungle Book (the animated version of 1967, not the more recent one). Anyone remember them? Very close resemblance to The Beatles.

Once we arrived at the islands, we had to undergo biosecurity checks, having all clothes, bags, shoes etc checked inside and out for anything that could contaminate the islands. The first we visited was Aldabra, home to the famous giant tortoises. If you’re in the UK you might have seen on the news that more than half a dozen were found dead in woods in Devon. Bizarre, especially when you look at the size of them.

I could tell you about the history of the Islands, their exploitation and near destruction for guano (used in fertilizers and explosives) but I think I’ll stop for today and let you enjoy the few photos. Oh, I almost forgot. We did enjoy the odd cocktail in the bar after dinner: we were known to the bar staff as Margarita (JD) and Yellow Bird (me). By Day Three we didn’t even need to order, they just started making them as we walked in!