Seychelles 2018 Day 5 – Anse Source D’Agent beach and Giant Tortoises

I woke up at 530am, and decided to go for my weekly run. The tiled grounds were straight and in good condition which I thought was a better choice to carry out my routine rather than in Mahe. Changed into my attire, I exited the room quietly and in the dark and started off my running app and my Pokémon Go.

Heading northwards to get around to the east side of the island in order to catch the sunrise, I jogged my normal pace and past through the jetty and onwards. The road started to become undulating with upslopes and downslopes. I ran past a cemetery and some nice luxurious accommodation and found a giant tortoise next to the road. Continuing on, there was just bits and pieces of accommodation both private and for tourists before I noticed the light streaks peeking out of the horizon. I found the next entrance into the beach and went through to get my picture of the sunrise. Cloudy one but it’s fine.

Sunrise pano from La Digue.

Made my way back the same path and saw a few other tourists either jogging or cycling to this part of the beach too, probably for the sunrise. I returned to the apartment with a 7km distance clocked and continued past to the only Pokémon gym on the island to park my Pokémon there. Then back to the room at about 715am to find mommy awoke and K still sleeping. Quickly washed up from the sweat and all and rested a bit before K woke up.

Another beach on the east side, but a rocky one.
Selfie with the free roaming tortoise.
Kirche church

After mommy had started the pressure cooker for K’s lunch and I had got K ready, we proceeded to the free breakfast that the apartment have for us at the ground level. There was another couple already there and we chose a seat closer to the beach to enjoy the slight sea breeze and nice view.

The breakfast was ok with a small fruit platter consisting of avocado, banana and papaya, toast and an egg of our choice. Coffee was instant coffee and there was a fruit juice too. There were only 2 portions but K shared ours which was enough. There was a plate of honeyed sea coconut (I assumed) which I thought was nice but mommy found it too sweet.

Fruit platter.
Tea and juice.
Honeyed sea coconut
Toast
Omelette
Breakfast area
Panorama from the beachfront.

We returned to the apartment for K to catch some TV while mommy prepared the meals so that we could go visit the Anse Source D’Agent beach, proclaimed to be most photographed beach in the world. Once ready and after several negotiations and convincing K, we managed to leave.

Went downstairs to check with the landlord if she had bicycles with a baby seat but she didn’t. Her neighbor which was a bicycle rental shop seemed to have one but the owner wasn’t around. No choice we brought all our barang barang back to La Passe to find a bicycle rental store.

The first one we saw was Tati’s and he said he ran out on the baby seat too, and had one on reservation. He told us to continue northwards somemore. We walked a couple more distance and a man caught our attention with a “bicycle?” And we replied “Baby seat?” He nodded and we followed. A small path from the Main Street not too far away, we came to a Extra Miles bicycle rental opposite the fire station and got 2 bicycles for day rental of 300rupees. I guessed we could have bargained but I wasn’t patient and paid for it anyways. The deal was for us to return by 530pm the same day.

Extra Miles bicycle rental.

Loaded K in, and a lot of our barang barang at our front baskets, we took off southwards after a couple of swaying and getting used to. Stopped a while back at our apartment to bring down the large STC supermarket bag (which was non plastic. They were pretty big on being environmentally friendly) to stash the rest of the barang and we ride to the L’union Estate where we had to pay for the tickets to get to the beach. It costed us 115rupees per adult (K was exempted) and we rode through the estate.

L’Union estate park sign.
Tickets to the park.

The estate offered a few things to see, like a huge area where there were a lot of giant tortoises and a small area of baby tortoises that K was fascinated with. There was a cow that was working a rotating mill but I wasn’t sure what it was grinding (probably vanilla) and there was a vanilla plantation there. We headed to the most interested location of the estate, the Anse Source D Agent beach.

Following the signs to the beach.
Stacked together to sleep.
Baby tortoises in an enclosure.
Tortoise enclosure at L’Union estate.
Vanilla plantation.
Cow working the mill.

We had to park our bicycles outside the beach and walked a few meters to the popular giant boulders beach with a ridiculously turquoise water front. Found a nice shaded area to lay our beach towels and from there, it was trudging into slightly below waist deep warm waters, to look at the sea life. The clear waters showed fishes big and small. It was a nice experience but K didn’t want to get wet so I carried him all the way. From our position in the waters, we could see the beautiful beach. The shallow waters offered a nice soaking position but I didn’t stay too long for fear of sunburn. We had some beach side time as well, playing with sand and mommy walked around to explore too. Less than an hour on the beach and we were on our way out.

Path to the beach.
Pano from the beach
Big fish in shallow waters.
Even dogs enjoyed the dip.
Carrying K as we explored the shallow waters.
Reflection of the clouds above.
People in the far distance enjoying the low water level.
Panorama of the beach from the water.
Tortoise doing it.

We went to STC supermarket where mommy bought some veggies and then we dropped off the items into the fridge, emptied the bags to lessen the load, washed up a bit before we rode northwards. Initially wanted to go to Chez Jules at the other side of the road. But once we hit the first slope, mommy had a change of mind as it was a challenge for her to negotiate the slope and the many others later on. We made a U turn and found a Mi Mum takeaway. We turned into it and mommy was initially going to get takeaway as suggested by the shop name, she returned to inform that there were sitting places for us to have our meals. At this time, the bike fell to the side with k in it! I reacted quickly to prevent the drop to the ground and Although there wasn’t any physical signs of injury, he said his arm hurt. As he was still able to move the arm without pain, I presumed it was just superficial.

Mi Mum takeaway.

Mommy came to bring him to the sitting area while I secure the bicycles. Joined them afterwards and ordered Chow Mein (fried noodles) and sweet chili chicken with rice, all for a cheap 160rupees. Mommy even tabao chips to go at 25 rupees.

Stall inside
Chow Mein
Chicken with rice

After eating, we went to one of the souvenir store and bought K a wood carving of a giant tortoise as he was amused with it. Then we walked over to a artisan kiosk but didn’t get anything from there. Later we made a stop at the post office and wrote ourselves a postcard which we should receive after we returned home, giving K a feel of how the postal services work.

Souvenir store.
La Passe Artisan Kiosk.
Post office.
Shops on La Digue.
Picturesque view at the jetty.

We drove past a fisherman selling huge fish by the street before we finally arrived back at the apartment. Secured the bicycles while mommy went to get some items from the supermarket including ice cream to cool us off, just next to Chez Marston. Washed up K and myself before K caught some TV, drank a packet of milk before taking his afternoon nap. The hot sun drained all our energy and we all took a nap.

Big fish on sale.

While I woke up earlier than the rest, partly due to the noises generated by the next door from hammering works, I spend some time on jotting the travel experiences so far.

At about 520pm, I went downstairs to ride 2 bicycles back to the rental shop. I have seen the locals riding 3 bicycles, one in the center holding one bike each hand, I found it quite a challenge even to ride with one and to hold another one. I missed the street to turn in and was called by the owner while he was at the jetty office. He took one from me while we made our way to the store.

While walking back to the apartments I noticed a group of men playing what looked like palm size metallic balls, but in the styles of kampung marbles, shooting from a distance. And they are so damn accurate that impressed me!

Some huge metal ball game.

Walked further and visited the supermarket next to Chez Marston and saw the shelves full of stuff and a corner selling meat. All was quite warm inside the store, so I left quickly with a soda.

Supermarket.
Inside the supermarket.
Some soda drink.

Back at the apartment, mommy had woken up and started dinner preparations while K was lazing in bed. Changed him out of his clothes for dinner and as the sun began to set (which had a beautiful view) mommy was also ready. We left the apartment walking towards Gala takeaway, with phone lights on.

The little building had places for us to dine in and while mommy lined up to buy dinner, we sat at the back under the aircon, a little cooler than everywhere else in that building. The total costs were 160rupees for a chicken with chips meal (grilled fish was not available for on demand orders) and curry vegetables meal plus one bowl of caramel bananas (recommended by forum), and 2 drinks. The food wasn’t fantastic but the caramel bananas were nice.

Gala takeaway.
Caramel banana and chicken and chips.
Curry vegetables rice.
Inside Gala takeaway.

We walked back the dark street with a clear skies of stars, something that kept K walking the whole distance back. Stopped at one of the only stores still opened selling foodstuff and bought a liter of water before going back to the apartment.

Only shop opened in the dark.

Then it was bath time, TV time and milk time. Both parents were nodding on and off to sleep. It had been quite a tiring day. Nights off at 1030pm.

Seychelles 2018 Day 4 – Ferry to La Digue

The usual weekday alarm sounded but I was soon back to sleep until it was about 630 where mommy woke me up to pack up. There weren’t much to pack as I have done so pretty much the night before and went back to bed, jotting down the memories of the previous day into iPhone note. K woke up soon before 8 and soon we were on the dining table having breakfast of bread and biscuits. By 845 we were all dressed, luggage loaded up and were just waiting for the landlord to arrive. She arrived at about 9am, nothing much mentioned except for some guide on how to get to the terminal and we were on our way.

I took the supposedly easier route of going via Anse Royale but a total of 40mins drive as the uphill and downhill route was much shorter compared to the one we took on the first day on Mahe, thus less dizzy for K. Indeed he survived without puking and soon we were on a much straighter and smoother drive passing the airport on the right and towards the ferry terminal. Although there were some road works along the way, every road stoppage was in our favor all the way till the terminal.

Upon turning into the carpark, the Absolute Cars rental staff whom had earlier arrived was waving to us. We dropped off the car as fast as we picked it up and then proceeded into the departure where one of the nice waiting passengers directed us to the ticketing counter to check in our luggage. Dragging the 2 luggage across the rugged road, we went into the Cat Cocos office. The internal staff directed me next door to exchange my web printout for tickets. Then I returned back to the luggage check in to put in the 2 huge luggages before heading back to the departure to queue.

Ticketing office
Luggage check in counter
Ferry to La Digue
Long queue

While waiting we decided that we should do a euro exchange at Mahe instead of at the islands which could be more expensive. So we went to the Cash Plus office and changed 500euros at a pretty good rate of 16.55 rupees per euro.

Cash Plus office
Wind mills.

The boarding started soon after but it was moving rather slowly. We chose a seat close to the front and the ferry started to move off at about 1035am. Then it wasn’t a good 1hr ride to Praslin.

Leaving Mahe.

K suffered from seasickness and was vomiting a couple of times throughout. Then once we stopped at Praslin, I thought it was over and brought him out to the front of the ferry. Then he felt nauseous again and started vomiting. I quickly brought him close to the side of the ferry so that he could vomit over the side.

Inside Cat Cocos.

I brought him back to the seat to rest and soon it was a 15mins trip to Praslin, with no further issues. Grateful for the number of puke bags available onboard.

We got off the ferry and had to wait for our luggage to disembark. It was quite crowded and messy as everyone was waiting for their luggage. We had to wait a bit before ours appeared and we took them and got on our way. Although there was supposedly no cars on La Digue, there were quite a couple of them while we were pushing our luggage towards our apartment of Marie France apartment, 450m from the jetty. It wasn’t easy to drag the luggage on the tiled road but it wasn’t long before we turned into the entrance of a little double floors apartment.

Arriving in La Digue
Welcome to La Digue.
Marie France beachfront apartments

Mommy brought K to check in first while I wrestled the heavy luggage to the base of the stairs. Overheard a conversation about K wasn’t included in the booking and mommy saying that she had included in the comments. Found that the Seychellois accommodations were very particular in including kids in their booking and would charge pretty hefty amount to include them even though they utilize the same space. This was what happened for a couple of the accommodation booked. They let this slide though.

We were brought up to the second level after given our keys and WiFi password and led into a compact room that came with a balcony with sea view. There was a tiny space for preparing food by microwave but no stove for cooking. The bathroom was small too, without a tub. This was much less luxurious than the one we had in Mahe but in La Digue, the same one would have costed a lot more.

Room with kitchenette.
Swans on beds.
Toilet.
Shower.
Balcony.
Pano view of from the balcony.

We had initially planned to do an island hopping trip with Nevis Ernesta to Felicite/Coco island but looking at how K suffered, we decided against it. We then walked to the supermarket to get some foodstuff so that mommy can prepare K’s meals and followed Google map to STC supermarket at Gregoire’s store. The supermarket looked huge on the outside but didn’t come with fresh meat. Bought frozen chicken thighs, fresh milk, water and eggs and a pair of Havanias slippers with Toy Story printed on it for K.

Car less street.
STC supermarket.
Inside the supermarket.

On our way back, we decided to stop at Chez Marston for lunch. Ordered a curry chicken and some baked fish on a hot plate that had 2 large fish fillets on it. This was a filling and tasty lunch for a price of 495rupees. It was not a bad place to have lunch but mommy was kinda annoyed by the table of guests behind us that had someone wearing strong perfume.

Chez Marston restaurant.
Inside Chez Marston restaurant.
Curry chicken rice.
Fish fillet.

After lunch, we returned back to the apartment for K’s afternoon nap. The place didn’t have thick curtains or sound insulated walls and thus it wasn’t easy to fall asleep. The noise from the people outside made it worse but thankfully K at least slept for a good 2hrs and his parents got some rest as well.

Mommy was up making dinner and K woke shortly. He was watching some TV which thankfully had Jim Jam channel that was specifically for kids. Characters like Bob the builder, Pingu, Lowly worm and Barney made frequent appearances and of course My Little Ponies. We decided to check out the beach just outside the apartment downstairs and got ourselves 2 beach towels from the landlord.

It was a cloudy sunset but beautiful nonetheless. I brought K into the shallow waters but he didn’t like to go into the waters, unless it was gushing into him like the waves in Anse Intendance. Anyhow, I carried him and walked towards the ocean pointing out sea cucumbers and fishes as we spotted them. Underneath the seaweed were sometimes hard and sharp stuff so I threaded carefully, being barefooted and carrying K. Water was not cold and it was really nice.

Sea cucumbers can be seen in clear shallow waters.
Crab under water.
Crabs on the beach.

Back at the beach K played a little bit of sand but as it was getting dark quickly since the sunset, we all returned to the apartment for a quick wash down before heading out for dinner ( a shower was available near the entrance to the beach for the initial washing off of sand).

Sunset on La Digue.
Pralin island.
Twilight.

Earlier on we passed through a rather posh Le Repaire hotel. After going in the direction of the jetty and finding most of the places dark (except for some restaurant that mommy wasn’t fond of visiting due to poor reviews), we went back to this Italian restaurant. As we arrived, there was another group waiting to be seated. The area looked pretty full, must be a restaurant that served good food.

La Digue at night.
Le Repaire restaurant.

We waited a while (K was entertained by a kitten and the nice furniture setting of the accommodation) and was shown a table. Ordered a Penne Amatricana and a Tagliatelle with pork and a Le Repaire tea for 680rupees. The food I thought was pretty tasty except for the Penne that had a little strong cheese flavour that we weren’t used to. The ice tea was pretty nice too, but the quiet atmosphere and the friendly staff made the dining experience one of the better ones in Seychelles.

Inside Le Repaire restaurant.
Cheesy Penne.
Tagliatelle
Le Repaire tea.

After using the restroom (K went in quick succession, could be too full), we paid the bill and returned back to the apartment. The night was then about bathing and cleaning up the utensils and mommy knocked out early. I went through the same routine of watching tv, K drinking milk and reading stories of planets and astronauts before turning off the lights, with the background of waves accompanying us through the night.