Seychelles 2018 Day 7 – Valle de Mai and the Coco de Mer

Everyone slept in late and only woke up after 8am. Mommy woke up to prepare lunch for K while I stayed in bed with K who woke up 8 plus. I sent a message via FB messenger to ask about the boat schedule to Curieuse Island, to plan for the activity for the day. After we washed up, I went to the reception to ask about breakfast and they mentioned that breakfast will be served at the apartment itself. So I agreed to that at a cost of 15Euros per adult.

Soon one of the staff brought a tray of fruits and bread and a jar of fruit juice and tea. She also made used of our kitchen to cooked 4 sunny-side-up. K had a bowl of cereals. The birds here were very fast, and while we didn’t realized, I found them already on the table about to dig in before I quickly shoo them away.

Breakfast on the table.
Using the kitchen to prepare our eggs.
Sunny-side-up.

I realized the accommodation also offered boat trips to Curieuse at 50euros per pax inclusive of island fees. This was about 10Euros more than what Sagittarius boat taxis were offering but they hadn’t reply. Starfish boat charter have 2 timings of 9am and the other at 130pm.

We decided to visit the Valle de Mai today instead, and before driving out, I got the message reply saying that we could come in anytime. We would check them out the next day and drove our way to the UNESCO forest of Valle de Mai.

Before reaching, we stopped by ISPC supermarket to see if we could get any mosquito spray but it wasn’t sold there. Then another 10mins drive up the curvy road before we turned into the carpark of entrance.

ISPC supermarket

We met one of the guides that mentioned that she would be taking people into the forest for 150rupees per adult and so we agreed to follow her. Mommy went to purchase the tickets for 700rupees and a mosquito spray from the shop there. After using the restroom and applying the repellent, we walked with the guide into the forest.

Valle de Mai entrance.
Ticketing counter.
Tickets.
UNESCO heritage.
Entrance to the forest.

The 1hr guided walk was pretty informative and we definitely learnt a lot more from her information of the many different species within the forest, the Coco de mer plant and how it germinate, how to determine their age. At a certain point in the forest trail, she left us to complete the remaining 15mins back to the exit ( there was a much longer one but as it was repetitive and K was getting fussy, we took the shorter one). The repellent seemed to work against the mosquitoes. Everything seemed well until K became fussy and wanted to go home. He became uncooperative even with my handphone. I quickly stole a shot with the famous coco de mer seed before we exited the forest. It must have been the humid weather and him being bored. Bought a souvenir from the shop there, and a tee for K and visited the small museum opposite the stall that had some exhibits before we took the car and returned back to the apartment.

Male tree.
Female one.
What’s left of the tree after death.
Lizard carrying the pollens.
Nice walkpath in the forest.
Different parts of the tree.
Museum display.
The only black parrot we saw.

On the way back we stopped by a meat store Rosebelle store that sold meat and some other things like vegetables and drinks. We bought some pork and drinks and carrots and got back on the road.

Rosebelle store
Meat on sale
Shelves of other foodstuff

After we parked at our apartment, I entered the cleaned up apartment to place the stuff we bought in the kitchen while mommy brought K to the next door for lunch, at La Goulue.

Mommy ordered a prawns with chips and I had curry fish. The food was overall decent but the flies flying around trying to sneak a landing on the food were quite annoying. We ended the lunch in the hot weather with a nice scoop of vanilla icecream, for 545rupees.

La Goulue restaurant
Prawns and chips
Rice
Curry chicken
Vanilla icecream

Back at the apartment, we took a short shower and changed into something comfortable to take an afternoon nap. It was already 3pm plus coming to 4 when we all fell asleep.

About 2 hours later, the night routine started with mommy and her meal preparations while I entertained K with his toys before we got out to the Cote D’Or beach before the sunset.

It was low ride and we played around in the calm waters and small waves. I carried K walking towards the sea trying to find fishes to see. There were really tiny ones and no sea cucumber which he wanted to see. Suddenly from our backs, two boys were saying something like “No shark”? That got me startled a little but as the water was clear, we didn’t see any sharks. As they got closer in the waters they started to throw lines with a attached bait and I asked if they were fishing for sharks. They replied affirmatively but I wasn’t sure if they understood what I meant.

Cote D’or beach pano.
Kids that were fishing for sharks.
After sunset.
After sunset at the beach.

After a couple more water plays and photos of the beach at sundown, we went back to take a nice shower and dressed up for dinner. Took a quick look on TripAdvisor and there was a Cafe des Arts nearby that was high in position and so we drove there. It was a small street that seemed to led into village rather than the beach but on reaching the end of the road, there was a parking space.

A security guard stood nearby and asked if we had reservations but we didn’t. He told us to park the car first and as we got off, he said that there was a dress code and took us to walk through the beach entrance instead of through the resort itself. From a distance to the dining area, he signaled to a lady staff who came over and I asked if we could have dinner here. She said that the restaurant didn’t cater for kids and pointed us to Pirogue Restaurant & Bar lodge instead. Too bad.

Cafe Des Arts
Cafe des Arts restaurant

The guard led us back the same route and explained that the restaurant could be reached via walking but for a car, we needed to make a turn back on to the main road and a left into Cote D’or esplanade road, the same street where we had our lunch on first day, closed to our apartment.

Drove there in less than 5mins and parked just opposite the restaurant, that also belonged to Pirogue Restaurant . The restaurant was pretty packed but we managed to get a table.

While we waited for our meals of chicken and mushroom spaghetti and sweet and sour pork noodles, plus tomato soup, a cooler drink and a banana milkshake, K ate his pasta with the boiled pork mommy bought at the meat shop in the afternoon. The pork was tough though.

The chilled tomato soup was something different as we were expecting a warm one but it was nice, cool and slightly spicy. Then the large plate of spaghetti and noodles came and we already knew that we would be well fed this meal. The mains were ok but mommy thought that her pork was more sweet than sour, typical of the foodstuff here and very tough meat too. K was well behaved throughout, focused on completing his dinner so as to return to the apartment to watch his new favorite cartoon called Messy goes to Okido.

Pirogue restaurant
Path to the restaurant
Basket of bread.
Chilled tomato soup.
Spaghetti.
Noodles with pork.
Juice.
Milkshake.
Inside the restaurant.

We paid the bill of 759rupees and drove back to the apartment. While we all prepared for the night, washing and cleaning, K stayed in front of the Telly for Little Ponies, Messy goes to Okido and Jarmies before we go sleep with a storybook and a bottle of milk.