After much deliberation and disagreements on where we would spend our Summer vacation mum finally called up the travel agent and said, “okay, you choose.” We’ve done a few island holidays before so when they said we would be off to the Seychelles, we thought we had some idea of what to expect. A little sunshine, some blue water and a decent internet connection. That was all I needed, really. But the Seychelles turned out to be so much more than that.
After a short four hour flight from South Africa, we landed on the beautiful island of Mahe, one of the many islands making up the Seychelles cluster. Imagine a tiny island open plan airport, complete with a thatch roof and a beautiful sunny skyline in the distance. Nothing screams island getaway more than this.
The hot island air hit us the minute we got off the plane.
Mahé is one of the biggest of the islands in the archipelago. Lying east of Mombasa, Kenya and north east of Madagascar, it is home to majority of the Seychellois population. One of its most distinctive features unlike Mauritius, Bali and even Coral Island in Indonesia is that a great deal of the natural beauty has been preserved and untouched. It’s like stepping out into a jungle. Raw lush tropical flora and fauna everywhere.
Crystal clear blue waters and soft white sands.
Instead of booking into a hotel, we decided to try something different and rented out a villa on the luxurious Eden Island Marina.
Located just a few hundred meters of the coast of Mahe, the marina is accessible by both car and boat.
Eden Island is a residential marina where the super fancy folk look to buy holiday homes. Each apartment, villa or maison (French for home) opens directly onto the ocean. This is great if you’re planning a day trip out on the water because you can easily be fetched by yacht directly from your back door.
You can read more about the Eden Island Marina here. If you’re thinking of purchasing or renting an apartment, villa or maison, click here. The maisons were my favorite. Four story houses with double garages and their own private driveways. So pretty.
Each apartment, villa and maison has their own personal golf cart for speeding around the development. A little supermarket, gym, bar and other basic facilities are also available for guests.
The marina itself has three private beaches where you can relax with a good book or your thoughts, undisturbed and for hours.
Being an island, you can expect extremely hot temperatures pretty much all year round. November, December and January are best known as the monsoon and cyclone seasons which are often characterized by many unpredictable downpours.
At first, the sun is shining.
Then it starts getting a little cloudy.
You see the storm clouds rolling in from the distance.
As it gets gloomier, you see the rainfall approaching and before long; you feel the first few droplets as the winds carry it across the island.
Then the storm hits. All this, in a matter of minutes.
Beautiful, right? I guess you’ve got to learn to dance in the rain some time. More on exploring Eden Island tomorrow!
3 thoughts on “The Seychelles Archipelago”