Buzzing Around The World With Fellette & Doug

Seychelles...The island of Mahe, the city of Victoria

Fellette and I have been here twice before and we wanted a quiet day off-ship, so we went to the beach. We spent the day together, and alone, on this lovely little Island 990 miles east of Africa, slightly, [6 degrees] below the equator. It reminds me of some of the remoter parts of some of the Hawaiian Islands. The town of Victoria is a neat little place to stroll around. It is clean, tidy and organised. The residents speak, English, French and Creole, it is part of the Commonwealth but has a French history, obviously. We found the locals very polite but somewhat reserved, possibly that French influence again. The temperature was around 90 at the beach, the water about 80?

I am happy to report that we had a very lazy time here, nothing spectacular happened. Zippo. We took a cab to a beach at the north end of the island and plunked ourselves under the trees on fine white sand and dipped into the water when the urge took us in. We were entertained by a group of five young trainee lifeguards going through their morning exercises on the beach under the watchful eye of two senior lifeguards. Sit-ups, push-ups, every conceivable type of stretching and muscle training thing that is possible. I had to bury my head in the towel to avoid getting over tired watching them.

We eventually wandered down the beach to a beach front hotel complex and enjoyed a very nice overpriced lunch and drink. Mostly Europeans come to this area so services are priced appropriately. We were back in the cabin in time for a cold shower and clean up before sailing for Cochin, India.

Speaking of Europeans, it is absolutely amazing how the bathing suit preferences vary between Europe and North America. I will not comment further for fear of getting carried away on this subject and having my censor eliminate all the good stuff. Strolling down the beach to the hotel we came to the conclusion that tops are optional here.

The most exciting thing that happened today was the mooring of the US Guided Missile Destroyer Roosevelt that moored in front of us this morning. Security was high at the port, with armed sailors on the dock, ship and in a Zodiac that cruises up and down alongside the ship all the time during it's three days in Port. I had a nice little chat with three young sailors as we returned to the "ms Air-conditioning". My goodness the sailors are young these days! Did I tell you how hot it was?

One little bit of information that I thought interesting came from our cab driver. Apparently two people died from the Tsunami last year. The driver was in his cab when he got a phone call from his daughter telling him "something was happening with the ocean" and to drive up high, which he did. The water rose about seven feet, enough to reach the foot of the Clock Tower that sits in the middle of the main street in town. Any world travellers reading this will know the tower in question. The part that I found fascinating was that the Tsunami warning was phoned in from another Island in the Seychelles group, Praslin, some 90 [?] miles out to sea. My don't we take our advanced technology for granted at home.

Photos:

A shot of our growing collection of bits and pieces in our cabin [not all are on display]


Shark jaws for sale on the beach


Shells and cocoa de mer [40 # double-coconut]


The Clocktower in Victoria


We cross the equator heading north late today, then we will be in the northern hemisphere the rest of the trip. Three days to India.

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 7:27 PM