Honeymoon in the Seychelles

Finally, after the tiredness of the preparations for our wedding, I (Annalisa) and Ro (Roberto) are ready to set off on our honeymoon! Destination the Seychelles and more precisely Praslin. We start the journey from Bologna, our city, with a stopover in Paris where we take Air Seychelles, which takes us to Mahé, the main island, from where a very small plane carries us in 20 minutes to Praslin; but it's not over, because on our arrival a minibus awaits us that after 20 minutes reaches the port (called jetty) where a motorboat awaits us heading finally to our hotel: the New Emerald Cove. As you'll have understood, the hotel can only be reached by boat, 10 minutes from Baie Ste Anne. The hotel is at Anse La Farine, in the eastern part of Praslin, and it's a wonderful place, like being on a private island accessible only to the hotel's guests. The bungalows are spacious and set in greenery.

They are square bungalows housing about 4 units. There is a restaurant, with a particular construction, offering French and typical cuisine based on fish and meat. The food is very good and the staff kind. The owner is Italian and so for those who don't speak French, there are no language problems here. The hotel's beaches are indescribable, with incredible colours, and among all those seen on Praslin they are for me the most beautiful. There's also a pool, which we didn't really use because with a sea like that it didn't seem right......we'll go to the pool when we're back in Bologna, right Ro?! PRASLIN Second island of the Seychelles (11 km by 4) after Mahé. It lies 36 km from Mahé and 6 km from La Digue. The island's main attraction is the Vallée de Mai, the only place in the world where the coco de mer grows wild. The forest is in the south-east and is open every day.

You can choose various walking routes. The paths are well kept and the enormous coco de mer palms provide a barrier against the sun's rays. The particularity of the fruits of these plants is that they reproduce the male and female form....just try to imagine! Crazy! A legend tells that the Coco de Mer palms meet on stormy nights and humans are forbidden to witness these love encounters! The beaches to see are countless and all very beautiful. I recommend Cote d'Or in the west, which has a very white beach and is ideal for swimming. Very famous is the beach of Anse Lazio, ideal for snorkelling, to be visited from October to June because in the remaining months the trade winds push seaweed onto the shore. To tour the island you can hire a car; there are several car rental places, but we preferred to use the bus to feel an integral part of this marvel of an island.

You need to arm yourself with a bit of patience and not be in a hurry, because the buses don't run to a timetable as at home; the driver comes along when he's finished having a chat at the bar!!!! But it's a fun experience!! Pretty is the beach of Anse Volbert, where the Hotel Paradise Sun stands, where we spent a relaxing afternoon making use of the hotel's beach bar, open to everyone. Another interesting visit is to the island of Curieuse. It's a beautiful, lush island with these enormous Takamaka trees lining the beaches. The island is inhabited only by the warden's family. The particularity of Curieuse is the marine national park in which hundreds of turtles are bred and protected by the warden. You'll be able to see some just born and others a hundred years old. They're beautiful and let themselves be stroked.

I recommend a walk around the island and seeing the rocks on the sea shaped like a fish, a turtle and a face. Very fascinating. Clearly you can't miss a good swim in the clear waters of Curieuse. Another excursion we took part in is to the island of Syster. Enchanting island with 2 very beautiful beaches. The first, the one where the boat drops you off, is ideal for snorkelling because it has the coral reef very close and you can see very beautiful fish. To get to the second beach you pass through a very green garden of incredible beauty, walking barefoot in total freedom on the soft grass. The palms and granite boulders in this park frame the setting and then give way to a beautiful, wild beach on which several scenes of the most famous films were shot.

The sea is quite rough because it isn't protected by the reef, but swimming among these waves will be great fun and you'll become children again for a few hours, just like us!!! On the way back we saw the island of Coco, which can only be reached by swimming because, so as not to damage the coral, boats aren't allowed to moor there. The view of this island will stay imprinted in your mind for a long time. It's a concentration of rocks and tufts of palms, all surrounded by the extraordinary crystal-coloured waters of the Indian Ocean. The reef around the islet is of extraordinary beauty and the colours of the fish incredible.

LA DIGUE A beautiful memory of La Digue....Fourth island of the Seychelles by size. We visited it as a day trip from Praslin. We went to the port and took a boat that in about 30 minutes took us to La Digue. Already on arrival we understood that this was a magical place. Calm reigns absolute and it really seems that time here stopped hundreds of years ago. No cars circulate on the island (apart from some, they say, used for freight, but we didn't see any) and local transport is either bicycles, rented at the port, or the classic ox-drawn cart. We opted for the bikes and sweated buckets because it was much more muggy than on Praslin. It was nonetheless very relaxing and natural, and we could decide when and if to stop. We saw the splendid Anse Source d'Argent, which is characterised by immense granite blocks balancing against one another and looking as if they've exploded onto the beach.

The most beautiful place I've ever seen. I spent quite some time between a little swim and a bit of relaxing on the beach, taking an infinite number of photographs, but although they're beautiful, not one captures the magnificence of this paradise. We visited at l'Union an old colonial house where they grow vanilla and produce copra, and the old cemetery at Pointe Cap Barbi where the tombs of the first conquerors are found. It may seem gloomy, but it's still distinctive. Other very beautiful beaches are Grand Anse, Petit Anse, Anse la Reunion, Anse Coco. All wonderful.

The tour of the island by bike can be done in about an hour (without stopping much); we took a whole day! We went in search of something to eat, and if you don't go to the restaurants or the hotel, the choices are limited.....as always, to play the contrarians, we opted for a little shop selling tuna and egg sandwiches yellowed by the sun and visited by a few flies, but which, to our great amazement, were good and gave us no trouble! We had to try this too!! We did a bit of shopping in the little shops of La Digue and found nice things at affordable prices, especially in the little shop near the port that sold fantastic wooden turtles. We couldn't resist and bought one, which now has a place of honour on our home wall, and every time we glance at our turtle, we remember this magnificent day spent on La Digue and the unforgettable honeymoon we were lucky enough to live.