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Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles |
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From Mauritius, we went almost due north for two days to the Seychelles. At this point we were just over 1/3 of the way around the world from Ft Lauderdale, and at the furthest point east on our trip. The Seychelles, like most of these Indian Ocean Islands, were discovered around 1500 by the Portuguese (the Seychelles, were discovered by Vasco de Gama, no less!!), but it seems like the Portuguese were tired of discovering islands, because it was not until a millennium later that the British set up an outpost on the Seychelles for the traders going back and forth through the Indian Ocean to the East. But the British allowed the French to take over in the mid-1700s (after all, the French already had control of Mauritius and Reunion), but, like Mauritius, the Seychelles were ceded back to Britain in the Treaty of Paris in 1814 and became a Crown Colony. The Seychelles gained independence from Britain in1976. Four years before, after my months' safari in Botswana, I took a week and flew to the Seychelles and un-dusted. Now, I'm not a beach person. I dislike two things almost as much as pain: 1) salt water, and 2) sand. And that's pretty much the beach - except I really love looking at it. And listening to it. So, I thoroughly enjoyed the week there, because I was only about a hundred yards from the water, and the sound of the waves just put me to sleep!. |
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People often ask what my
favorite place, of all the places I've been, is. And of course
there are many, (for many, many different reasons). But there
are some that automatically rank up in the top 5 of everywhere I
have been. And Mahe,
in the Seychelles just might become #5 at some time, along with
Boston, Lugano, San Marino, and the Antarctican Penninsuler.
The ocean and the Islands are scenically, strikingly beautiful,
the flowers and the vegetation are exceptionally lush and
overwhelming, the weather is great (barring the occasional
tsunami), and the people are courteous (to each other and to
everyone else) and CIVILIZED. I like the place. I really do.
So we headed out of Victoria, the capital, with a taxi driver to explore the island. Since the island (which is the largest in the Seychelles) is just a little less than 5 miles wide at its widest and barely 20 miles long in length, you can easily do this in a 9 hours (a cruise ship day in port),
The drive took us inland, on narrow winding roads, up into the
mountains which rise abruptly from the shore. This is the view
looking down at the capital of Victoria. The island of Mahe has
only about 84,000 people - and 30% (!) live in Victoria.
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